Xbox is finally conceding to the new pricing of modern AAA games, a whopping $70 USD for a single game at launch. It’s not ideal, but neither is inflation slow consuming the economy and edging so many of us out of survivability – ph, what fun! While some of our readers out in regions like Australia are sadly quite accustomed to overpriced game releases, the recent hike in global costs has many troubled.

Sony went so far as to stop offering free upgrades for cross-gen games, as players were finding they could exploit this to get modern releases for cheaper. The contrast to Sony’s own offerings reaching this new price point, though, is that Xbox already solved this with Game Pass.

It’s worth considering that with this increased price for individual releases, nothing has changed for Xbox exclusives on Game Pass. You’re still getting them on launch day, or even earlier, often with extra DLC bundled in. If anything, it’s fascinating that Microsoft has prioritized the added cost onto an entirely separate avenue of gaming without raising the subscription price.

It would’ve been incredibly easy to slap another five dollars on the price tag for Game Pass Ultimate. That way, every subscriber pays up – by contrast, moving the cost onto physical and individual releases means those who are more financially able or inclined to pay the premium are fronting the cost.

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