And there we are again-wake another day, raise a different gaming controversy. Presently, the rage is about Outer Worlds 2 and its somewhat quaint price of 80 dollars. The Internet has been split right down the middle, first with one half defending this point with the retrograde “just get Game Pass” argument while the other half feels that this is a slippery slope where you’ll never technically own another game again. Let’s wrench our hands into this mess, shall we?
To begin with, yes, Outer Worlds 2 arrives on Xbox Game Pass day one. This naturally sounds great for subbers. But then the really interesting question posed by the tweet that sparked this debate is: Is this conditioning players to never pay for games? Like, why would you pay $80 for it when you could shell out a couple of dollars for a month of Game Pass and play it “for free”? It is a fair question considering all the discussions Xbox has had about game preservation. But if the message is “don’t buy, just subscribe,” what happens when Game Pass prices inevitably go up? Because, let’s be honest, every subscription service does it sooner or later.
The strange mix of replies gave way to flooding! Some gamers will not let an $80 price-tag for Outer Worlds 2 pass, putting it at best at a $40 game. Then there is one camp that says: Nintendo started the $80 thing; yes, we’re looking at you, Mario Kart World-and why is anyone else getting the flack then? Then there are those who appreciate that games are no longer theirs anymore and that nowadays physical copies are just licenses that could disappear at any time. Good old days.
Now, the interesting stuff starts coming in. Some of these players argue: We don’t have an option; $80 is just unaffordable for a single game. Somebody responded that they were forced to operate with an outdated laptop and a Series S: Game Pass is actually their only hope to enter gaming. That has to be taken seriously. Not everybody lives in that world that choice is abundant, and in such cases, Game Pass may be their last single ray of light.
Then there are those gamers that go against the tide, yearning for those days when buying a game on day one truly felt free. Today, it’s a gamble on whether an 80-dollar title is even finished at launch. Then there are the ones that got stung by the suggestion of Game Pass price increases and feel there probably will never be anything to muster from their lost trust.
And, of course, there’s a little something to say about the conspiracy theorists in the comments. A user went all in—”Social conditioning to own nothing and be happy about it,” dragging the World Economic Forum into it as though this were a dystopian novel. Elsewhere, others were celebrating: “GP FTW.” The gamut of human emotions has been displayed here.
Yet at the end of the day, the talk does set up a background for something far beyond Outer Worlds 2; it is about what the gaming industry is about. Can we stand the thought of subscriptions being here to stay? Is the price of $80 going this now has to be for all AAA games? Would streaming eat ownership? These questions don’t have easy answers, but one thing I can safely say is that gamers will not remain silent about this. What will actually come out of it is another story, though.
