Confirmed: The new Call of Duty will cost $70 on next-gen consoles

The new Call of Duty game will retail for $70 on next-gen consoles, Activision has confirmed.

On Wednesday the publisher held a full reveal of Black Ops Cold War and detailed three versions of the game which are available to pre-purchase.

On Xbox Series X, the physical Standard Edition of the game will retail for $69.99 / £64.99 and also include an Xbox One copy of the game, it confirmed.

Digitally, this version is known as the ‘Cross-Gen Edition’ and includes both Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions of the game through a dual-license tied to players’ Xbox accounts.

On PlayStation 5, the equivalent Cross-Gen Edition of Black Ops Cold War – which includes both PS4 and PS5 versions – also retails for $69.99 / £64.99. The PS5 edition will not include a PS4 version of the game.

The Standard Edition of Cold War will retail for $59.99 / £59.99 on current-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Players who purchase this digitally will be able to upgrade to the Cross-Gen Edition for $10. However, players will not have the ability to upgrade the physical editions of the game.

Activision is the second publisher to price a next-gen title at $70, following 2K’s NBA 2K21, which priced its next-gen version at $70 / £65 and cross-gen bundle at $99.99/£84.99.

Industry research firm IDG Consulting recently said it believed that more major games publishers would explore raising the prices of their games on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as development costs are expected to increase.

Publisher such as Capcom and Electronic Arts have said they will monitor industry trends in regards to next-gen game pricing.

Ubisoft has said that its first wave of next-gen games will not cost more than the current-gen versions, but didn’t rule out PS5 and Xbox Series X releases post-Christmas 2020 coming at a premium price.

Meanwhile, Xbox head Phil Spencer reportedly wouldn’t comment on how much Microsoft’s Xbox Series X first-party titles would cost when asked by The Washington Post.

Update 26/08/20:

Watch again: Warzone live event unveils Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

New premium game will release on November 13

Game pricing has remained flat since 2005, research firm IDG recently told GamesIndustry.biz, whereas TV and movie pricing has increased significantly.

CEO Yoshio Osaki noted that even at $10, the increase wasn’t in line with inflation seen in the pricing of other forms of entertainment.

“IDG works with all major game publishers, and our channel checks indicate that other publishers are also exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises,” he said.

“Not every game should garner the $69.99 price point on next-gen, but flagship AAAs such as NBA 2K merit this pricing more than others.”