Xbox announced a series of price hikes for its consoles, controllers, and new games. Although they don’t appear to have taken effect everywhere, they will soon be adjusted worldwide. It’s not great news if you’re in the Xbox ecosystem or planning to pick up a console soon.
The prices are different per region, but the Xbox Series S (512GB) will now cost $379.99 (€349.99 and £299.99), while the 1TB version increases to $429.99 (€399.99 and £349.99). The Xbox Series X Digital Edition will sell for $549.99 (€549.99 and £449.99), and the standard Xbox Series X will be priced at $599.99 (€599.99 and £499.99). The Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition will cost USD 729.99 (€699.99 and £589.99).
Controller prices have also gone up. The standard Xbox Wireless Controller is seeing a price increase, though exact pricing varies. Here is a list of the changes:
Headset prices are changing only in the U.S. and Canada. Detailed PDFs have been released by Microsoft for Australia, Europe, the UK, and the United States to detail what changes have been made.
Some new first-party games will launch at $79.99 this holiday season. This higher price applies to both physical and digital versions.Importantly, this change only affects certain new games, not existing titles in the Xbox catalog.
The company noted that digitally purchased games will still support the Xbox Play Anywhere program, meaning players can access the game on both their Xbox console and Windows 10 or 11 PC without paying extra. A single purchase gives access across both platforms.
Microsoft explained that market conditions and rising development costs are the main reasons for these price increases. This may also be tariff-influenced, but it seems like Microsoft is following a pattern that was set up before the tariffs. Pricing for Game Pass went up last year as the base Xbox Live tier was reorganized into Game Pass Core.
Yes, costs are rising, but supply and demand matter the most in any market. Nintendo has raised its game prices, and its player base has mostly supported it, so now everyone else will follow suit. We saw the same thing happen when Take-Two first raised the NBA 2K prices to $69.99, and we’ll see it again during the next price increase.
This is okay because games need to rise in price over time; that’s how inflation works. What is questionable is the rise in prices for five-year-old consoles like the Xbox Series X and S. It’s not something we’d expect a price rise, and should have stayed the same since older consoles should be cheaper over time.
If you want an Xbox for Game Pass or cloud gaming, the best thing to do is to get an Amazon 4K stick from Amazon. It only costs $29.99 and is way cheaper than getting a console. If you pair it with a good gaming controller and a subscription, you’ll have everything you need to play the hundreds of games on Game Pass for less than $100. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with the rising prices of an older console.
Source: Microsoft
