Microsoft has raised the price of Halo and Activision Blizzard games in several regions on Valve’s digital distribution platform, Steam.
As seen on SteamDB, Microsoft has increased the price of Halo as well as Activision Blizzard titles on Steam without any prior warning. The reason behind this sudden price hike is unknown, though it appears that the decision to raise the price of Activision Blizzard titles came after the publisher’s acquisition by Microsoft came to a close.
In the Turkish region, Halo: The Master Chief Collection had previously been sold for as low as ₺24,40. However, after the price hike, the game costs ₺1199,00. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the game had previously been sold for as low as ARS$ 799,60. However, after the price hike, it costs ARS$ 15999,00. This will come as a huge disappointment to Steam users from such regions with relatively lower average incomes.
Just recently, Microsoft Gaming CEO, Phil Spencer, stated during the official Xbox podcast that he wants the Call of Duty community to feel supported across all platforms, including PC. Raising the price of Activision Blizzard titles across several Steam regions isn’t quite the way achieve this. The price hike is likely a way to make the availability of the publisher’s titles on Game Pass more appealing in the future.
Regarding concerns over parity, Spencer stated that he wants Call of Duty players on PlayStation, and in the future on Nintendo consoles, to feel 100% part of the community. He said that he doesn’t want players of any platform to feel like there’s content they’ll miss out on, including content like character skins. He reaffirmed that this is not Microsoft’s goal post-acquisition. Rather, the goal is 100% parity across all platforms. Though, he did clarify that when he says parity, he’s referring to content and launch timing. He said that some platforms have resolution and frame rate differences just based on available performance.
