The average gamer may scoff at this news. You wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that Microsoft’s move is financially motivated, and that’s because it is. After all, Microsoft is a business first and foremost, so as much as it’s committed to being a de facto home for the gamers, the primary goal is to make money.
The reality is that games are more expensive to make. New visual and audible technologies means these massive worlds and memorable characters have become costlier to produce, partly due to both extended development time and increased costs to acquire the talent levels needed to meet today’s Hollywood movie-like quality standards.
For what it’s worth, Sony has been selling its first-party, made-for-PS5 games for $70 since their release. Microsoft’s saving grace is that it continues to offer first-party titles on day one through its subscription-based Xbox Game Pass service. As such, Xbox players may not feel the sting of this change quite as heavily, especially considering they get access to hundreds of other games in addition to all of Microsoft’s latest for just $15 monthly.
