Microsoft hikes Xbox Series X price, again, to $649 — second price increase of 2025 comes as shifting tariffs continue to plague tech prices

(Image credit: Microsoft)

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.

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Revised Xbox Series U.S. pricing
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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Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.

40 Comments Comment from the forums

Alvar "Miles" Udell

"Let's raise prices now so when it goes "on sale" for Black Friday we will still make money!"
Reply
JamesJones44

Seems like the only console generation that gets more expensive with age.
Reply
txfeinbergs

That thing is barely worth half that.
Reply
atomicWAR

This was a bad if not predictable move by MS. I get there are reasons to raise prices with tariffs and what not but MS is in a less than ideal spot in the console space now IMO.

Their console market share is low regardless of how well they claim Game Pass is doing. The last thing they need to do is increase the cost of entry to their ecosystem. I am guessing if rumors are true that the next gen console may be more of a licensed hardware approach through OEMs like Asus similar to the upcoming release of their handheld, than a more tradition 'closed' box where prices are subsidized. Which will make their next gen prices even higher IF they adopt multiple store fronts as rumored. Which we are seeing on the PC side of things already with the Xbox app adding Steam games to their interface. So everything points to these rumors being somewhat if not completely true.

I believe MS would have been better off eating the loss for now. Then when the next gen stuff drops, the series consoles should be profitable. They could keep them...or at least the Series X... as the new entry point. Making the the whole new product stack and pricing scheme much more digestible. Better that than alienating consumers now and hoping they come back with the Xbox next/PC (or what ever they call it). MS is eroding what little goodwill they have left, just to save a few bucks in the short term. IDK it just seems like a foolish way to move forward unless they are truly ready to cede the entire 'console' market to Sony and Nintendo which may well be the case. I guess we'll know soon enough.
Reply
russell_john

Let's see the price of Xbox systems have increased 33%. The Tariff Tax on China is 35%. I just can't figure out why the price increased and Microsoft just didn't take a 35% loss instead of just a 2% loss ......
Reply
Giroro

txfeinbergs said:
That thing is barely worth half that.
I spent half that, and I still regret it
Reply
hotaru251

MS: "so GPUs are costly and ppl are going to come to consoles as cheaper....we raising price becasue what are they gonna do? buy a pc gpu thats even more than the new console price?"
Reply
Air2004

A new console is most likely and this is just away to get people used to what will be the new standard price.... but in Xbox fashion, I'm sure they'll be a refresh of some sort with slight better specs in the next year or so.
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InnatelyAcidic89

This is just greed, pure and simple. Microsoft willingly sold consoles at a loss for over a decade. I hope they don't sell a single console. Even if they want out of the market, having to sit on old stock might still hurt a little bit(albeit the equivalent of a pinch for them) I think it's time to sell my series x. It's not that old, and I just want what I paid for it
Reply
TerryLaze

atomicWAR said:
Their console market share is low regardless of how well they claim Game Pass is doing. The last thing they need to do is increase the cost of entry to their ecosystem. I am guessing if rumors are true that the next gen console may be more of a licensed hardware approach through OEMs like Asus similar to the upcoming release of their handheld, than a more tradition 'closed' box where prices are subsidized. Which will make their next gen prices even higher IF they adopt multiple store fronts as rumored. Which we are seeing on the PC side of things already with the Xbox app adding Steam games to their interface. So everything points to these rumors being somewhat if not completely true.
???
Their next xbox is going to be an OS, like steam already has, the cost of the next gen xbox console will be zero if you already have a PC.
They increase console hardware prices because they want to keep people from buying them so that they can stop producing them altogether.
Reply

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