Microsoft has raised the price of its Xbox consoles worldwide, with the premium disc-equipped Xbox Series X rising £170 to £670 and the baseline Xbox Series S climbing to £430, according to BBC reporting. Microsoft cited rising memory and storage chip costs as the reason, making it one of several consumer electronics makers to pass higher component costs to customers.
Price increases across markets
The UK price changes are the most explicit. Microsoft's premium Xbox Series X with a disc drive now retails at £670, up from £500, BBC reported. The baseline Xbox Series S now costs £430, a roughly 43% increase on its previous £300 price tag.
| Market | Product | New price | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | Xbox Series X (disc drive) | £670 | £170 |
| UK | Xbox Series S (baseline) | £430 | ~43% |
| US | Basic console | $499 | $100 |
| US | Console with more memory | $749 | $150 |
| EU | Series S (more storage) | Not stated | ~€200 |
In the US, basic consoles rose by $100 to $499, while a console with more memory increased by $150 to $749, BBC reported. In the EU, a Series S with more storage will cost roughly €200 more than before. The UK increases follow a wider industry pattern, with rival Sony hiking PlayStation 5 prices by £90 in March.
Why now: memory and graphics chip costs
Microsoft said in June it had hoped another price increase would not be necessary, but blamed the rising cost of console storage and memory for needing to raise prices.
Microsoft is one of a host of tech firms to have told consumers that spiralling component costs mean they must charge more, BBC reported. The underlying pressure is visible in memory and storage components. Random-access memory (RAM), once a cheap part used to provide computers and gadgets with short-term memory, has shot up in price due in part to demand from AI firms. Graphics cards, a key component of consoles and gaming PCs, have also gone up in price because of their use in generating AI content.
Sony and Valve have both faced the same forces. Valve launched its Steam Machine PC-console hybrid at a much higher cost than expected, with both companies pointing to mounting costs for the hardware and storage components needed to power their devices, according to BBC.
Manufacturing restructure and supply chain impact
The price increase lands as Microsoft's gaming division undergoes significant internal change. BBC reported that Xbox revenues had dipped, and in July Microsoft initiated what executives called "the most significant restructure in Xbox history" with approximately 3,200 reductions across its workforce. The combination of rising component costs, lower gaming revenue, and a large workforce restructure places sustained pressure on the manufacturing and procurement operations that supply Microsoft's console line.
Reaction and outlook
The new price points drew immediate criticism from consumers. BBC reported that X user @BlackPanthaa called the new Xbox Series S price "absolutely disgusting", while a Reddit user described it as "highway robbery for a console released 6 years ago". Windows Central editor Jez Corden wrote on X that "this ain't even the ceiling" for Xbox price increases.
Amazon's gaming boss told the BBC that increasing hardware costs may lead more people to ditch consoles and stream games instead. The BBC also reported that some fear console prices, which have essentially been raised across the board in recent months, could go higher still.
Across the sector, the BBC reported, RAM and graphics card costs have climbed because of AI-related demand, and Sony, Valve, and Microsoft have all raised hardware prices for component reasons. For industrial buyers and procurement managers watching semiconductor and memory pricing, the Xbox increase is another visible data point linking AI demand to consumer hardware costs.
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