It seems that Microsoft’s Xbox isn’t in the best of places right now. And as things stand, it seems like it’s about to get worse. If you haven’t heard, the company previously detailed plans to do a few major studio shutdowns and layoffs. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Microsoft sub-brand officially announced that it will be raising its console prices globally.
And these aren’t somewhat inconvenient bumps either; we are talking a minimum increase of US$100 (~RM410). Much like many tech-related price hikes as of late, the ongoing component shortage is to blame.
Per the announcement, Xbox will raise its prices globally from 1 August. The 512GB model will receive the aforementioned US$100 increase, while the 1TB variant gets a US$150 (~RM615) spike in price. Worse still, the company also announced that it will be discontinuing its 2TB model moving forward.
At the time of writing, we checked several local video game retailers and found that they have yet to update the pricing of Xbox consoles. As such, if you’ve been holding off on buying one, now may be a good time to do so before the new prices take effect. We will update this article should local retailers revise their pricing or if Microsoft provides any additional information.
“Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5 times,” Xbox said. Unfortunately, the brand plans another price doubling by the fall (around September to November) of 2027.
While we should have seen this coming, it is still quite disheartening, especially during the brand’s 25th year in the business. In case you missed it, PlayStation, Nintendo, and even Steam raised their prices for their respective consoles. Moreover, just yesterday, ASUS mentioned that the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X 20 could go for at least RM5,000 locally.
(Source: Xbox)
