If you have an inflation kink, you might be the only one excited about this Xbox news (sorry).
Editor’s note: Christ. — David.
Tom Warren, the senior editor over at The Verge, has reported via Twitter that Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has hinted at future price increases for Xbox Game Pass and consoles.
Phil Spencer hints at future Xbox Game Pass or console price increases at WSJ Live
“I do think at some point we’ll have to raise the prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices.”
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022
Warren continues the quote in a threaded tweet, saying:
“We’ve held price on our console, we’ve held price on games… and our subscription. I don’t think we’ll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we’ll have to raise some prices on certain things…”
Previously, it had been reported that PlayStation would be raising the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles in all major territories where PlayStation resides EXCEPT for the US. This was, of course, due to ‘high global inflation rates’ and ‘adverse currency trends’.
In response to this decision by Sony, Kotaku US reached out to Xbox to see if they had plans for a price hike, to which they responded with this statement:
We are constantly evaluating our business to offer our fans great gaming options. Our Xbox Series S suggested retail price remains at $US299 ($499 in Australia) and the Xbox Series X is $US499 ($749 in Australia). This also applies to other markets and their current pricing.
Nintendo had also mentioned in an interview with Nikkei Asia that they are currently “not considering” a Switch price increase. Both statements leave it up in the air, really. Much more of a ‘not right now’ than a ‘not ever’.
Then, later on, Spencer stated in an interview with CNBC that their plans to commit to the current console prices remain the same, as “customers are more economically challenged and uncertain than ever”, and then goes on:
We’re always evaluating our business going forward. I don’t think we can ever say on anything that we will never do something. But when we look at our consoles today, […] Series X and Series S, we think value is incredibly important. We love the position of Series S in the market, which is our lower cost console. Over half of our new players that we’re finding are coming in through Series S. And I can definitely say we have no plans today to raise [the prices] of our consoles […] we don’t think it’s the right move for us at this point to be raising prices on our console.
This statement, while still making it clear that they won’t be making money moves right now, leans a little bit further into the likelihood that eventually, they’ll have to move in the direction that the economy is going.
So basically Christmas time, the jolliest time of the year, is not the time that we’ll be seeing a rise in price for the current generation of Xbox consoles and Game Pass. However, it’s definitely on their mind for the potential near future.
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