Quick Summary
Xbox’s worth rises have lastly come into have an effect on and they’re extra savage than many anticipated.
Xbox consoles within the UK and Europe have risen by 30% since they initially launched.
It is not any exaggeration to counsel one thing’s gone flawed with gaming. At least in the case of consoles.
The ongoing RAM disaster has proved disastrous for the business as an entire and console gaming extra particularly. Not solely have Valve’s bold Steam Machine plans been wrecked by rising element prices, however now the complete influence of Xbox’s worth rises are identified – and so they’re not fairly. Especially for these within the UK and Europe.
After initially saying the brand new US costs, which got here into have an effect on on Saturday 1 August, it appears Brit’s are confronted with even heavier hikes. The identical with patrons within the EU.
Those in the US got off lighter, with less than a 25% rise.
Even the underpowered Xbox Series S – released six years ago to be a much more affordable route into “next-generation” gaming – has received a shocking markup. The standard 512GB version is now almost expensive as the Series X was at launch.
And the 1TB Xbox Series S is a mind-bending £519.99 / €599.99 / $599.99.
The new Xbox Series X and Series S prices (as of 1 August 2026)
- Xbox Series S (512GB): £429.99 / €499.99 / $499.99
- Xbox Series S (1TB): £519.99 / €599.99 / $599.99
- Xbox Series X (1TB, disc-free): £619.99 / €749.99 / $749.99
- Xbox Series X (1TB, disc): £669.99 / €799.99 / $799.99
Where does this leave console gaming?
Of course, Xbox isn’t the only console maker to inflate its prices in the face of RAMageddon. Sony also heavily increased its PS5 prices earlier this year, with the standard PS5 costing today £569.99 / €649.99 / $649.99.
A PS5 Pro will set you back £789.99 / €899.99 / $899.99.
While Valve’s all-new Steam Machine starts at £879 / €1,039 / $1,049 – and that’s without a controller.
Let’s not even get into how much Project Helix or the PS6 might cost, if the components market doesn’t settle down again.
Then there’s Sony’s decision to ditch discs from the start of 2028 – with Xbox likely to follow suit. That has resulted in a big backlash from console gamers. And staff across some of the best and biggest game studios have either already lost or face losing their jobs this year. It’s a mess.
It all leaves the console scene in a very perilous place. While PC gamers have hardly been unaffected over the last few months, especially when it comes to upgrading their systems.
It’s hard to see where we can go from here. Although it can be argued that, with more than 120 million Xbox Series and PS5 consoles out there already – not including the number of Nintendo Switch owners there are – there’s still an enormous market for games, if not the machines themselves.
And of course, there’s still cloud gaming – of which Xbox is trialling a free, ad-supported version as things stand. Maybe that’s the future after all. It’s certainly a way to circumnavigate rising hardware costs if you can serve the best games to devices people already own.
That’s if there’s anyone left to make the games, of course.