Rebekah Valentine writing for IGN:
In an announcement today, the company said it will be raising prices on Xbox consoles, controllers, headsets, and some games. The price hike for consoles and accessories kicks in today, May 1, and while game prices will stay the same for now, we should expect to see Xbox charging $79.99 for new, first-party games around the holiday season.
Going forward, here are the expected prices on various Xbox consoles and accessories in the U.S.:
- Xbox Series S 512 – $379.99 (up from $299.99)
- Xbox Series S 1TB – $429.99 (up from $349.99)
- Xbox Series X Digital – $549.99 (up from $449.99)
- Xbox Series X – $599.99 (up from $499.99)
- Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Special Edition $729.99 (up from $599.99)
If you take inflation into account, games and gaming consoles aren’t necessarily more expensive than it used to be. A few weeks ago the Switch 2 prices looked exorbitant, but IGN did the math and it really wasn’t that bad. But with a cost of living crisis around the globe, more taxes and tariffs, it feels our hobbies have gotten expensive too. And they have.
These are not new consoles, a nearly 5 year old console going up in price doesn’t seem fair, but life isn’t fair and here we are.
All of a sudden, the PS5 Pro looks like a great deal. Sony did hike the price of their consoles a few weeks ago but the PS5 Pro price wasn’t affected. That may change in the future.
I fear for the next generation of gaming consoles. With prices like this, gaming might end up becoming a luxury.
