Just four months after the last time it did it, Xbox is raising the prices of the Series X/S consoles in the United States to a number I don’t think any of us could have fathomed in 2019 when Microsoft announced the system at the Game Awards.
Microsoft announced this on the Xbox support website, saying that the price changes will go into effect on October 3, and are “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment.”
The new prices are as follows:
We can probably infer that the “macroeconomic environment” Microsoft gestures at is related to the Trump administration’s tariffs that are affecting a lot of video game companies, not just Xbox. PlayStation 5s also saw a similar price increase just last month. That said, Xbox raising the price of the Xbox Series X/S not once, but twice in just one year is absolutely bonkers. Remember when consoles used to get cheaper as a generation went on? Usually, by now, five years into a console’s lifetime, it would have probably seen at least one price drop. Now games are becoming more expensive and more unaffordable for a lot of people. We live in backwards times.
If you were planning on getting an Xbox Series X or S, you’ve got a couple of weeks left before the price change takes effect. Though I’d also understand if this made you not want to buy one at all.
