The Outer Worlds 2 is part of Xbox’s push for $80 games

Microsoft confirmed earlier in the year that it would be pricing some of its newest titles at $80 moving forward. Now, it turns out that The Outer Worlds 2 will be leading that charge as the first $80 Xbox game. 

At the Xbox Games Showcase this week, we got a new trailer for The Outer Worlds 2, as well as a lengthy gameplay deep dive that showcased some of the exciting new weapons and abilities available in the sequel. Fans can also expect improved worldbuilding, including an in-universe propaganda system that will tell stories of your travels with various forms of editorial spin on them depending on the corp behind the radio station.

While the game is looking good, we have been told in the past that The Outer Worlds 2 will have a similar scope to the first game, making it a smaller, focused RPG with a shorter development cycle to AAA. The Outer Worlds 1 was a poster child for the types of games that can be made on a smaller budget. Now years later, Microsoft has decided to make The Outer Worlds 2 the poster child for $80 games.

There is one saving grace on the Xbox and PC side, and that is Game Pass. Few people are going to be able to spend $80 on each brand new release, but many more people will be able to afford a month or two of Game Pass Ultimate, thus granting them access to these more expensive games at a lower price.

KitGuru Says: I'm really not sure that smaller studios like Obsidian, Compulsion and Ninja Theory should be part of this $80 push, but Microsoft has spent a lot of money growing Xbox over the past seven years, and they do need to start recouping that money at a faster rate.