Xbox Raises Prices

Xbox continued its long-time business model of announcing that its revenue was up and then following that announcement with something that would give the impression that the company is somehow failing. Usually, that something comes in the form of layoffs, but today, Xbox decided to go after the consumer. That’s right, if you haven’t heard, prices are going up. This is from Tom Warren at The Verge.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series S (512GB) model is moving from $299.99 to $379.99, a price hike of $80. The Xbox Series S 1TB model is moving to $429.99, and the Xbox Series X digital edition will now be priced at $549.99, with the 2TB galaxy black special edition model now an eye-watering $729.99. Xbox wireless controllers and headsets are also having their recommended retail pricing adjusted in the US, with the base controller moving to $64.99 and the Xbox wireless headset now at $119.99.

Tom also reported that some Xbox first-party games will be going up in price from $69.99 to $79.00 this holiday season.

As of right now, PlayStation has not announced a price increase in the United States, but earlier this year, we did see price increases in other countries. As for PlayStation games, while anything could change, for now, you can preorder Ghost of Yotei for $69.99.

Let’s be honest, this is awful. Yes, everything going on with tariffs is stupid, but let’s not pretend like these companies plan to lower the prices once the tariffs change. $80 for a video game is an absolute joke. These are billion-dollar companies, and in the case of Microsoft, trillions, yet the consumers are expected to deal with the increased cost of manufacturing… something that doesn’t affect digital games, by the way.

In just the last month, you could go and buy Game of the Year contenders Blue Prince and Clair Obscur for the COMBINED price of $80. I don’t care how good The Outer Worlds 2 might be; that price is unjustifiable. I guess if games become so outrageously priced, it doesn’t matter how much they raise the price of Game Pass, it’ll still be the “best value in gaming.” What a joke.

GTA 6 Gets Delayed

And as if things couldn’t get worse, the biggest piece of entertainment in the history of mankind was delayed until May 26, 2026. I never expected this to come out this year, but what worries me about the delay is that so many different businesses in the industry, whether it be websites that cover games or the different console manufacturers, were all expecting a huge flow of cash to come in because of GTA 6. Expect more layoffs and expect prices to continue to go up. If you thought you were buying GTA for $69.99, you are badly mistaken. I think, at this point, it’s safe to say GTA is going to launch at $100. Fun.

Borderlands 4’s PlayStation State of Play

Despite everything appearing to be on fire, there is one team out there trying to have fun. This week saw Gearbox unveil an extensive look at gameplay for Borderlands 4 and… that’s it. Honestly, I don’t have much to say. I haven’t played a Borderlands game since 2012. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun, but 13 years later, this just looks like more Borderlands, and for the people who hear that and get excited, fantastic. I’m genuinely happy for you.

Elden Ring Nightreign Breakdown Trailer

Another company that seems to understand what it’s doing is From Software. When they’re not announcing brand new exclusive games for Nintendo, they’re releasing confusing, but cool-looking multiplayer games like Nightreign. Thankfully, before the May 30 release, From Software released a trailer that better explained what the game was. I have to be honest, this looks great. Sadly, though, it’s one of those online games that only offers solo or trios, and in this economy, who can afford to have three friends? With that said, I think this game looks a lot more interesting than I originally thought, and I’m excited to see what the community gets up to when it comes out later this month.

Thunderbolts and the Box Office

Marvel’s Thunderbolts finally released this weekend and brought in $162 million worldwide. While this is definitely a more than solid opening for a movie featuring characters most casual Marvel fans aren’t familiar with, it is less than what Captain America: Brave New World made in its opening weekend at just under $200 million. While I’m not someone who thought Brave New World was the disastrous movie some claim, Thunderbolts is admittedly infinitely better. So what happened? I think this is pretty easy. Minecraft and, more importantly, Sinners are two movies that just won’t quit. For example, Sinners made $48 million domestically in its opening weekend and now in its third weekend, made another $33 million. For those who don’t follow the box office, that’s insane. That type of small drop-off isn’t just rare; it never happens. On top of the theaters having such a strong lineup of movies to watch, it can’t be ignored that Marvel has been getting in its own way lately. We saw something very similar with Guardians of the Galaxy 3, where people expected a much bigger opening weekend than what it had, but were ultimately hurt by how disappointing movies like Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania were. Because of the quality of the movie, though, word of mouth ended up resulting in Guardians 3 being a massive hit at the box office and while I’m not sure Thunderbolts will reach the heights of Guardians, I do believe Thunderbolts, if allowed by Disney, should have a solid run at the theaters, especially since it won’t have any real competition until the end of the month when both Lilo & Stich and Mission Impossible release on May 23.

Kevin Feige’s Super Hero Fatigue

Have you seen the news? Marvel is finally doing some damage control about what’s been going on at the company for the last few years. Granted, I’m someone who, with the exception of everything but Secret Invasion, has mostly enjoyed everything Marvel has put out since Endgame, but I recognize that not everyone shares that opinion. So what happened? Well, as it turns out, Kevin Feige was burnt out. He lost that loving feeling he once had for Marvel. With the launch of Disney Plus, Feige reportedly wanted to play nice with the higher-ups at Disney and provide as much content as possible for the streaming platform. This, unfortunately, resulted in Feige being stretched then and getting burnt out. From the Wall Street Journal article, there were times when production teams wouldn’t hear from Feige for weeks and even months, and by the time the producer was able to get back with notes, it was already too late to implement.

The good news is that it seems like everyone at Marvel has finally recognized what was hurting the quality of their projects and has readjusted the structure of the way things are. We got a glimpse of this last year as Marvel announced their TV shows moving forward would be higher showrunners, rather than running the shows by committee. I’m not as familiar with the structure of TV shows as I am with movies, but one thing I do know is that every show, at least every good show, has a showrunner, and the fact that the early Marvel shows didn’t have one explains a lot. The article also explains that Thunderbolts is the first film since this restructuring, and if this is true and not just a corporate spin job, the proof is evident. Though Captain America: Brave New World was fun (at one point he surfed a missile!!!), the amount of reshoots the film went through was evident in nearly every scene of the movie. Thunderbolts, however, is a well-crafted movie that feels tight and like every scene was intended to be there… you know, like a real movie. While I’m someone who gets frustrated by the question of “is Marvel finally back?” I do think the upcoming Fantastic Four movie will be the key to answering that question. If that movie delivers that classic MCU feeling, then I think it’s safe to say that Marvel is back… whatever that means. Oh, and Kevin Feige said he has a 10-year plan for X-Men. Goodbye.