Shoppers got a double whammy of bad news on Thursday as Microsoft announced yet another round of Xbox price hikes hours after Apple boosted prices.
Taken together, the price increases — which both companies say are due to spiking memory and storage costs — are set to make holiday shopping significantly more expensive. For gamers, it makes gaming increasingly feel like a luxury hobby.
Microsoft’s popular Xbox game consoles are set to increase by $100-$150 on August 1. The 512 GB models will go up by $100, and the 1 TB versions will increase by $150. The Xbox with the highest available storage configuration of 2 TB will be discontinued entirely.
“Last October, we increased XBOX console price by $20-$70 in the U.S. We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027.”
The new price hikes will apply worldwide.
This is the third time Microsoft has raised prices on its latest Xbox generation, following increases in May and October 2025. The Xbox Series X is now $250 to $300 more expensive than it was when it launched in 2020.
The memory shortage has impacted a broad range of consumer electronics companies, many of which have raised prices in the last 8 months.
Microsoft’s chief rivals in the gaming wars, PlayStation and Nintendo, have both previously announced price increases for the PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, respectively.
Computers, which also rely on memory and storage chips, have also become more costly to produce, and Apple followed many of its peers in boosting MacBook and iMac prices, along with the iPad, Apple TV, HomePod, and Vision Pro, on Thursday — by as much as $300.
“The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” Microsoft said. “Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make.”
In its blog post announcing the coming price hikes, Microsoft shared details on programs it said “make XBOX consoles more accessible,” such as buy-now-pay-later and interest-free financing services, along with efforts to make previously used game consoles available via retailers to purchase.
