Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to cost £55

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will cost £54.99 GBP on all platforms when it is released this autumn - and that's just for the standard edition, not the super-special-OMG-comes-with-nightvision-goggles-edition.

Activision claims that the weak performance of the pound, combined with record development costs, have forced the cost of the game to be raised to £54.99 on all platforms.

There are now murmurings of other publishers following suit and raising prices too, according to MCV. Electronic Arts is apparently looking to raise the price of Need for Speed: Shift, while Nintendo upped the price of the Wii by £20 not to long ago as well.

"You can't continue to trade as normal when the biggest territory in Europe has seen cost of goods increase by 30 per cent due to the strengthening of the Euro. Publishers somehow need to offset this drastic increase in costs," said THQ's publishing boss Ian Curran.

As many critics of the price hike have pointed out though, Activision and Co. are unlikely to lower the price once the pound strengthens again, meaning that we can expect to be paying a lot more for games in the future.

What are your reactions? Personally, we're not totally against the idea of paying a bit more for games that give a bit more in terms of length and replayability, such as most epic RPGs. Games that only offer a handful of hours and then a compensatory multiplayer offering though? £55 is unarguably steep, in our opinion - especially when you consider what else you could do with £55.

Are you happy to pay more for your games, or do you think that publishers should look at lowering costs before raising prices? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.