Microsoft has increased the price of its Xbox consoles worldwide, citing rising memory and storage chip costs. The premium Series X console with a disc drive will now cost £670, up from £500. The baseline Xbox Series S console has seen a roughly 43% increase, from £300 to £430.
This move follows similar price hikes by rival Sony, which increased PlayStation 5 prices by £90 in March. Microsoft had hoped to avoid another price increase but blamed the rising cost of console storage and memory for the need to raise prices on consumers.
The price increases have been met with criticism from consumers, with some calling the new prices 'absolutely disgusting' and 'highway robbery' for a console released six years ago. The rising costs of hardware components, partly driven by demand from AI firms, have led to increased prices for graphics cards and other key components.
'This ain't even the ceiling,' said Windows Central editor Jez Corden, suggesting that console prices could go even higher.
Amazon's gaming boss has suggested that increasing hardware costs may lead more people to ditch consoles and stream games instead. Xbox has seen its own struggles, with owner Microsoft recently revealing revenues had dipped across its gaming division.