Activision games just got a lot more expensive on Steam. Since the Microsoft acquisition was finalised last week almost every Activision-owned IP on the platform has seen a price hike. Some games have increased by R100 while others have skyrocketed by R300.
Most of these price hikes range from anywhere between 10% – 20%. The Call of Duty series has especially been hit by these price increases. Call of Duty Black Ops III, for example, has been listed at R799 since its launch back in 2015. However, since the acquisition, this has surpassed R1000 and the game now retails for R1075.
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Users online assume that these price hikes are intentional to get users to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. Keep in mind that at the moment, the majority of these games aren’t available on the service in the first place. Microsoft also confirmed that no Activision games will be added to Xbox Game Pass until sometime in 2024.
Others assume Microsoft has simply mandated the price hike as the company looks at more ways to make money in order to capture costs from the acquisition. Of course, this is all speculation. There’s definitely something going on considering these prices have only just been increased right after the acquisition. However, some games have gone down in price too. Black Ops Cold War, for example, has dropped from R1199 down to R1075. So it seems the price adjustments could simply be aligning them with current exchange rates.
Here are some examples of the hikes.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III – R1075 / was R799
- Spyro: Reignited Trilogy – R717 / was R559
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – R1075 / was R799
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time – R719 / was R717
- Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy – R717 / was R559
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare – R1075 / was R999
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – R1075 / was R1199
