TL;DR: Microsoft raised Xbox Series X to €799.99 and Series S to €499.99 in Europe, marking increases up to ~40% and making the Series S cost what the Series X did at launch; Microsoft cites component and memory/storage cost pressures, raising concerns about affordability and next-gen console pricing.
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Xbox just got a lot more expensive in Europe, and the new numbers are quite rough. Microsoft has raised Xbox Series X/S prices across the UK and Europe by as much as 40 percent, and the German Microsoft Store confirms it. A 1TB disc-based Xbox Series X now lists at €799.99, up from €599.99, while the 512GB Xbox Series S has jumped from €349.99 to €499.99.
That last figure is the one that really puts these price hikes into perspective. At €499.99, it is exactly what an Xbox Series X cost when it launched back in 2020. The Series S was supposed to be the budget option, and now it costs as much as the flagship console did on day one, for a machine with a fraction of the power.
Microsoft flagged this back in June, warning that prices would rise worldwide starting August 1, though it kept quiet on exactly how steep the European increase would be until stores updated overnight. It’s not even the first hike this generation has seen. US pricing already went up once before, so this is at minimum the second or third round of increases depending on the region.
The company has pointed to what it calls the ongoing components crisis, blaming memory and storage costs that have already climbed by more than double and could climb again by the fall of 2027. That does line up with everything else happening in the RAM and NAND market right now, though it’s also worth remembering Microsoft has poured hundreds of billions into AI datacenter buildouts over the same stretch, so they’re not exactly victims in this scenario.
What makes this even more uncomfortable is what it signals for next-gen. Sony’s PS6 bill of materials is already reportedly sitting close to $1,000, and some analysts have floated Project Helix launching around the same mark. Earlier estimates for Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox put it at $1,200, and that guess was made before this round of hikes. If current-gen consoles are already this expensive, the idea of next-gen consoles launching comfortably under $1,000 is starting to look optimistic.
Which Microsoft store confirmed the price increases cited in the article?
Has Xbox pricing increased before this round, and where does the article say that occurred?
How could these price hikes affect the perceived value of consoles versus gaming PCs, based on the article?
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Consoles built their entire identity on being the affordable way into gaming next to a gaming PC. If Helix and PS6 both land north of $1,000, that pitch mostly falls apart, and consoles start looking less like a mainstream purchase and more like a luxury one. Combine that with games already pushing $80, and the value proposition gets a lot harder to defend, no matter how good the hardware inside turns out to be.
