The new Call of Duty game will retail for $70 on next-gen consoles, Activision has confirmed.
On Wednesday the publisher helda full reveal of Black Ops Cold Warand detailed three versions of the game which are available to pre-purchase.
OnXbox Series X, the physical Standard Edition of the game will retail for $69.99 / £64.99 and also include anXbox Onecopy of the game, it confirmed.
Digitally, this version is known as the ‘Cross-Gen Edition’ and includes both Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions of the game through a dual-license tied to players’Xboxaccounts.
OnPlayStation 5, the equivalent Cross-Gen Edition ofBlack Ops Cold War– which includes bothPS4and PS5 versions – also retails for $69.99 / £64.99. The PS5 edition will not include a PS4 version of the game.
The Standard Edition of Cold War will retail for $59.99 / £59.99 on current-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Players who purchase this digitally will be able to upgrade to the Cross-Gen Edition for $10. However, players will not have the ability to upgrade the physical editions of the game.
Activisionis the second publisher to price a next-gen title at $70, following2K’sNBA 2K21, whichpriced its next-gen version at $70 / £65and cross-gen bundle at $99.99/£84.99.
Industry research firm IDG Consulting recently said it believed thatmore major games publishers would explore raising the prices of their gameson PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as development costs are expected to increase.
Publisher such asCapcomandElectronic Artshave said they will monitor industry trends in regards to next-gen game pricing.
Ubisofthas said that its first wave ofnext-gen games will not cost more than the current-gen versions, but didn’t rule out PS5 and Xbox Series X releases post-Christmas 2020 coming at a premium price.
Meanwhile, Xbox headPhil Spencerreportedly wouldn’t comment on how muchMicrosoft’s Xbox Series X first-party titles would cost when asked byThe Washington Post.
Update 26/08/20:
Game pricing has remained flat since 2005, research firm IDG recently toldGamesIndustry.biz, whereas TV and movie pricing has increased significantly.
CEO Yoshio Osaki noted that even at $10, the increase wasn’t in line with inflation seen in the pricing of other forms of entertainment.
“IDG works with all major game publishers, and our channel checks indicate that other publishers are also exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises,” he said.
“Not every game should garner the $69.99 price point on next-gen, but flagship AAAs such as NBA 2K merit this pricing more than others.”
