Microsoft Raises Xbox Prices Globally and Blames Tariffs, But Is That The Whole Story?
Microsoft has announced global price hikes for its Xbox consoles, accessories, and games, including in major markets like the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. The Xbox Series X will now retail at around $600 in the U.S., a full $100 increase. The company claims this is due to "global manufacturing costs and international tariffs," but that explanation doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
This isn’t a sudden reaction to macroeconomic forces. Microsoft had already started exploring price increases well before current tariff concerns even entered the picture. In fact, internal emails unearthed during the FTC's case against Microsoft last year showed that the company was actively discussing price adjustments for Xbox hardware and Game Pass as far back as 2022. So while tariffs might provide a convenient headline excuse, the groundwork for this hike was laid long before supply chain issues or global economic shifts were being widely cited.
And it’s not just Microsoft. Sony recently raised prices on the PlayStation 5 Pro, and Nintendo has hinted at doing the same for its next console generation. What we’re seeing is a broader trend in the gaming industry one where platform holders are increasingly normalizing premium pricing on hardware, software, and services across the board, even when the tech isn't fundamentally changing.
The pattern is becoming harder to ignore. We’re talking about a gaming industry that’s posting record profits while simultaneously charging more for base games, adding deluxe tiers, locking content behind paywalls, and now, raising the cost of even getting into the ecosystem. All of this comes at a time when the industry is still aggressively pushing digital storefronts, subscriptions, and microtransactions.
For Microsoft, this move feels especially calculated. With Game Pass positioned as the company’s long-term revenue engine, pushing users toward subscriptions by making hardware less accessible starts to make a kind of cold strategic sense. But it’s also a reminder that for all the “player-first” messaging, the business model remains exactly that… a business.
The reality is, players are paying more and getting less control. Between live service fatigue, half-baked launches, and now hardware price bumps, the industry’s race to maximize revenue is starting to wear thin. Microsoft just made the latest move, but they’re far from the only ones playing this game.