Xbox announces price increase globally, citing “market conditions”

In all regions, the cost of Xbox consoles and controllers has risen instantly, whereas only the cost of headsets has climbed up in the United States and Canada specifically.

The Xbox Series X will now cost £499.99 / €599.99 in the UK and EU, and $599.99 in the US.

For European customers, the cost will rise by £50 or €50, while American users can expect to see a significant jump of $100.

In this version, I have tried to use simpler and more colloquial language, as well as varying the sentence structure slightly for readability.

Additionally, it’s been verified that there will be a rise in game prices, parallel to the increase in hardware costs.

This holiday season, we plan to increase the prices for certain newly released games directly from us to $79.99.

Given the negative response Nintendo received when they announced that popular games such as Mario Kart World will retail for $80, it’s likely that Xbox also raising prices in a similar manner will meet resistance from numerous consumers.

The business might anticipate that increased game prices resulting in lower sales could be offset by an influx of new Xbox Game Pass subscribers. This service may be perceived as a more attractive value proposition compared to purchasing games individually.

Regarding the reasons for the price hikes, Microsoft hasn’t been overly specific about it: “We acknowledge that these alterations might be difficult, and they were implemented after weighing various factors such as market trends and escalating production costs.

Given the circumstances, it’s not entirely unreasonable to assume that some blame might be attributed to the recent U.S. tariffs imposed.

According to Xbox’s third-quarter financial summary, there was a 5% increase in revenue compared to last year, mainly due to solid first-party sales and subscriber growth from Game Pass. However, the sale of consoles decreased by 6% over the same timeframe.

It seems somewhat disappointing for dedicated Xbox users when the company switches to a strategy emphasizing multi-platform game sales, as a rise in console prices could be perceived as a penalty for their loyalty.