Danny Chadwick
The cost of nearly everything is going up these days. So, it’s unsurprising that Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console will soon see a price hike. However, the software giant is delaying that pain a bit to give customers a chance to get an Xbox at the current price before Christmas.
Update, 1/31/23: As reported by TechRadar, Xbox Series X/S prices are set to increase on February 17th in Japan. The price hike is equivalent to about $40 in U.S. dollars. We expect a similar price hike to reach North America and Europe later this year, though Microsoft hasn’t officially announced anything to that effect.
The news of the potential price hike comes from a live Wall Street Journal interview (via The Verge) with Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer. The long-form discussion touched on how profitable the company’s gaming business is, with Spencer mentioning that Game Pass is already profitable and represents 10-15% of Xbox content and service revenue. And although the company is seeing a healthy return, prices can’t stay where they are forever.
“We’ve held price on our console, we’ve held price on games and our subscription. I don’t think we’ll be able to do that forever,” Spencer said, then added, “I do think at some point we’ll have to raise some prices on certain things, but going into this holiday, we thought it was really important that we maintain the prices that we have.”
The current price of the Xbox consoles in the United States starts at $299 for a Series S and $499 for a Series X. So if you’ve been waiting to get the latest generation of Microsoft’s console, the time to act is now.
Price increases in tech are coming from all directions. In recent days, companies like Sony, Samsung, Nothing, LEGO, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and more have announced raised prices due to worldwide inflationary pressure.
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