Microsoft just made its 25th Anniversary Xbox Series X console available, and it was on sale for approximately 0.3 seconds. Scalpers swooped in and bought the lot in the most tediously predictable way, with presumably one or two legitimate customers squeaking in alongside them. And in the midst of all this, GameStop managed to list the $900 machine for $4,950. In fact, even the direct link from Microsoft’s own site will take you to a page offering it for that price.
The special edition Series X is made in a translucent green to match the design of the original Xbox from 2001, and is intended to sell for an already incredibly steep $900. (Bear in mind this is just the 1TB model.) It comes with a modern controller in matching see-through green, with both machine and controller engraved with “XBOX 25,” and you get a copy of Halo: Campaign Evolved thrown in too. However, none of this justifies a $5000 price.
It’s deeply peculiar that in these times, when pretty much any special edition of anything gaming-related sells out instantaneously, Microsoft wouldn’t have instituted some sort of limitations on how the console could be bought. Instead, the green machines were in stock for a matter of seconds before being listed as “sold out” or “coming soon.” Or in the case of Walmart, just entirely delisted from the store like it never existed.
GameStop still seems to have stock, however! At the time of this writing, I was able to add the $4,950 X25 edition to my basket, where it then added $7.99 in shipping and handling, and another $353.26 in tax. A mere $5,311.25!
Last night Reddit users noticed that GameStop had bumped the pre-order price for the X25 up to $1,500, ahead of it actually going on sale. Now another $3,450 as been tacked on. Why? Our best guess is that this is GameStop attempting to price-match what it’s finding elsewhere for “used” versions, i.e. the scalping prices people are aiming for on secondhand markets. eBay is currently flooded with offers for the machine at around $1,700, and the highest I’ve found is $2,395.95, so somehow GameStop is even doubling this.
This very much matches GameStop’s current model for selling Pokémon cards, with the outlet appearing to have become a store-based scalping company for the TCG. MSRP be damned when there are desperate people out there trying to buy its products.
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