It seems console gamers aren’t the only ones that will have to squeeze their wallets a little harder when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 releases in November – PC gamers will also bear the brunt of the Modern Warfare 2 price hike, with retailers (Amazon, Best Buy and Gamestop in particular) listing the PC version as high as $60, as compared to a regular $50 PC game.

Not only that, but the fully featured Prestige Edition (which comes bundled with functional night vision goggles, amongst other doodads) will not be available for PC gamers.

Speaking to Eurogamer, games market analyst Michael Pachter laid bare Activision Blizzard’s thinking behind the price hike, commenting:

“Activision knows it has a ‘hot’ game, knows that the market will pay an additional 10 percent, and has decided to increase price accordingly.

“My guess is that this is a one-time test for Activision,” continued Pachter, “and that they will re-think the strategy after seeing if it angers consumers. If there is no consumer backlash, I think we may see higher pricing on other games, regardless of the GBP/USD translation rate.

“The repercussions could be significant and lasting,” said Pachter. “If Activision is successful, we may see increases for other ‘hot’ games in the future. We see tiered pricing to the downside for more casual games, so why not tiered pricing to the upside for hot games?”

Not a good sign.