The Xbox Series X will cost another £30 from August, while Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is increasing to £12.99 a month.
As reported by The Verge, the cost of Xbox Series X and Xbox Game Pass will be raised on 1st August. The price hikes will affect every country except the United States, Japan, Chile, Brazil and Colombia.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be increasing from £10.99 (€12.99/$14.99) to £12.99 (€14.99/$16.99) a month, while Xbox Game Pass will go up from £7.99 (€9.99/$8.99) to £8.99 (€10.99/$10.99). However, the price of PC Game Pass will stay the same at £7.99 per month.
This is the first ever time that Game Pass prices have been raised. However, Phil Spencer warned last October that a price increase for Game Pass might be on the way.
The cost of the Xbox Series X is also going up by £30, from £449.99 to £479.99 (and from €499.99 to €549.99 across most of Europe), although the price of the Xbox Series S will remain the same at £299. This exactly follows the price-increase pattern we saw for PlayStation 5 last August, when the cost of Sony’s console rose from £449.99 to £479.99.
At the time of the PS5 price hike, Phil Spencer emphasised in an interview with Squawk Asia that “we have no plans today to raise the price of our consoles”. He went on to add: “We think that in a time where our customers are more economically challenged and uncertain than ever, we don’t think it’s the right move for us at this point to be raising prices on our consoles.”
$MSFT's @XboxP3 talks #Tencent, #JRPG's, and @discord – and explains why it’s not time to follow $SONY's hike in prices. #Xbox #PlayStation pic.twitter.com/BCIY0wE8Gt
— Squawk Asia (@asiasquawkbox) September 16, 2022
Clearly, that thinking has now changed at Xbox headquarters.
In a statement to The Verge, Kari Perez, head of communications for Xbox, said: “We’ve held on our prices for consoles for many years and have adjusted the prices to reflect the competitive conditions in each market.” Global semiconductor shortages have meant manufacturers like Microsoft have struggled to produce enough consoles at the same time as high inflation has affected many countries around the world. Now, those higher costs are being passed on to the consumer.
