The era of $80 Xbox games has officially arrived, there's no hiding from it now

Amid all the spectacle of the Xbox Games Showcase and the upcoming goodies, we've officially reached a day nobody is excited for.

The $80 Xbox games have arrived. Insert sad face emoji here.

As soon as Nintendo decided to go down this route, we knew it would be inevitable. Xbox has also increased prices recently and made no secret that it wouldn't just be hardware.

The Outer Worlds 2 has the unfortunate honor of being the first Xbox developed game to launch at this apparent new benchmark for emptying our wallets.

The information is out there for all to see, whether you look at the Xbox store or on Steam. There, clear as day, is its price, $79.99. In the UK, it's at least not just a change of currency symbol, because that would have been really bad. Here, it'll be £69.99.

There's no other way to put it, it's a lot of money. I'm a little surprised that The Outer Worlds 2 is the first to go this way as well. I think it's a pretty bold call.

It's almost nailed on that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be an $80 game, but that's a game that will sell an insane number of copies regardless.

It's one of the biggest yearly releases every single year, and no matter how much the players complain about the game, they keep going back, wallets in hand.

Obsidian deserves to get paid well for their hard work, and games are getting increasingly expensive to make. But the more cynical part of my brain also thinks this is another play to help drive Game Pass subscriptions. And Game Pass certainly looks even more important.

The Outer Worlds was a good game and well received, but as a franchise, it doesn't have the pull that some of Xbox's other first-party brands has. Call of Duty, Forza, Elder Scrolls, all franchises with new releases in the pipeline that have wider market appeal.

Time will tell seeing what the reaction is, I guess.

By contrast, though, Obsidian's other new release coming this year has an almost ridiculously low price tag. When Grounded 2 hits early access, it will come with a $29.99 price tag. That's a no-brainer at that price, it really is.

The day we knew was coming has arrived, though, and we don't have to like it. But it's not going away, and you can expect future big releases from Xbox to follow suit. I can't help but feel this was the wrong game to go first, though.