On Thursday, Microsoft announced surprising news: the current Xbox consoles, the Series S and Series X, will receive price hikes. As of now, the Series S costs $380 (up from $300), while the digital-only Series X will start at $550 (up from $450). The disc drive Series X now starts at $600, up from $500. Meanwhile, the price of some first party games is also increasing to $80; some accessories are also seeing a price hike.
What’s surprising about this is it’s a price hike on aging consoles dating back to 2020. For that matter, I can’t think of any instance of a US price hike on electronics after their introduction. Normally, any electronics price hikes come with new hardware models—see the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, which starts at $450 (up from the original Switch’s base price of $300).
The reason for this price hike? Microsoft only says it’s due to “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” The more likely reasons involve Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have thrown international trade into turmoil.
That said, as Engadget noted, this won’t exactly help the Xbox’s current sales. If anything, the current console model’s likely finished outside of existing Xbox fans. Microsoft’s been spending more time lately marketing Game Pass as a cross-platform option. Many of Xbox’s one-time exclusives, such as “Forza Horizon 5,” have also found their way to other platforms. Also, the new Switch 2 is coming out next month; even with the price hike on the Switch 2 and its games/accessories, it’s still clearly a more anticipated console than the Xbox.
There’s also sales figures for the consoles. The original Switch has sold (as of the end of 2024) 150 million units, compared to 75 million for the PlayStation 5 (as of February 2025) and a mere 28 million Xbox Series S/X units sold as of June 2024. While I expect similar price hikes in the US for the PlayStation (Sony recently raised the PlayStation 5’s price in some international markets), I doubt its sales will plummet to Xbox levels.
I assume the Xbox console will see a new generation at some point; Microsoft needs to make the most of all those game developers they’ve bought over the years. However, unless something major changes, the main console choices for the average person at this point are between the PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch.
Photo by Billy Freeman on Unsplash
