UK regulatorsapproved the Microsoft Activision Blizzard Kingdeal last week, which means that the historical $68.7 billion acquisition is finally happening. However, only four days after this news broke, Activision games across the board have seen price hikes in Brazil, Turkey, and Argentina.
As reported byCromossomo Nerdand Idle Sloth, these are some of the major games to see price hikes:
While many were quick to blame Microsoft due to the Activision deal finally being approved, it’s likely unrelated. We’ve seen several developers over the past couple of years issue similar price hikes, which could be down to Steam’s updated recommended regional prices. As reported byGame World Observerlast year, Valve pledged to refresh its price suggestions more regularly. The recommended prices for $60 games then increased by 450 percent in countries such as Turkey and Argentina.
Sword of Jade developerMichael Kidderclaims that “Valve has been sending emails to Steam developers, asking them to raise their prices in the regions.” They attached screenshots of what Valve allegedly wants them to raise their own game prices too, with warnings appearing such as, “The entered price is much less than recommended” and “Price must be at least 11,00 TL.”
India has also seen price hikes for Activision games on Steam, as highlighted by Hemang Chauhan on Twitter. To name a few, Modern Warfare (2019), Sekiro, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War have risen from ₹3,999 to ₹4,997.
For the time being, you’re best waiting for these games to come to Xbox Game Pass, rather than paying the higher prices. Microsoft said earlier this month thatit will start adding Activision Blizzard titles to the service next year.
