Microsoft has announced a new price increase for its Xbox Series X and S consoles coming on October 3, a scant five months after the previous hike in May. The already-pricey Xbox Series X now commands $649.99, the Series S goes for $399.99 (with 512 GB of storage), and the capacious Series X 2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition has a price tag as long as its name, at $799.99.
However, this time around, things are a little different. The sting is pointed only at U.S. customers, and mercifully covers only the consoles. This is in contrast to the May increase, when Microsoft raised prices on its console wares across the board, including accessories and games, and applied them worldwide.
Model | New price | Old price | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Xbox Series X | $649.99 | $599.99 | $50 |
Xbox Series X Digital | $599.99 | $549.99 | $50 |
Xbox Series S 1 TB | $449.99 | $429.99 | $20 |
Xbox Series S 512 GB | $399.99 | $379.99 | $20 |
Xbox Series X 2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition | $799.99 | $729.99 | $70 |
Predictably, Microsoft pins the blame for the increase on "changes in the macroeconomics environment", corporate-speak that likely means tariffs. While that might be a decent justification in of itself, some would argue that it's a lack of forethought and/or poor optics to have price increases twice in the same year for similar reasons.
Microsoft might be simply following the market on the heels of Sony, which raised prices for its PlayStation 5 lineup by $50 roughly a month ago. As it stands, the standard PlayStation 5 currently sits at $549.99, undercutting the Xbox Series X by a solid $100. That's quite the bitter pill for prospective Halo gamers to swallow, and just like Microsoft's Q4 revenue, it's more than a little rich in light of PlayStation having a lion's share of the market.
If that wasn't enough, the time is ripe for affordable PCs, and some napkin math puts a machine equal or better to the Xbox Series X at around the $600 mark, give or take, as pricing winds allow. Given how hard Microsoft is pushing its cross-platform Xbox Game Pass, it's become harder still to justify the price of a Series X.
Back in August, Sony reported that it had sold 80.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles. There are no sales figures for the Xbox Series consoles, but if Take-Two's financial report from May is to be believed, a total of around 107 million ninth-generation consoles have been sold. Simple math would put the Xbox Series offerings at over 27 million.
Considering the elapsed time since then and assuming a very generous 30 million, that works out to 62.6% versus 37.3% for Sony. Good thing Microsoft's services are raking in cash hand over fist.
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