Xbox Series X price hiked by £170 due to rising memory chip costs

- Published
Microsoft has increased the price of Xbox consoles worldwide, citing rising memory and storage chip costs.
Its premium Series X console with a disc drive will now cost £670, when it previously retailed for £500.
Meanwhile a baseline Xbox Series S console now costs £430 - a roughly 43% increase on its previous £300 price tag.
It is among a host of tech firms to have told consumers that spiralling component costs mean they must charge more, with rival Sony hiking PlayStation 5 prices by £90 in March.
Microsoft said in June it had "hoped another price increase would not be necessary", but blamed the rising cost of console storage and memory for needing to raise prices on consumers.
In the US, its basic consoles rose by $100 to $499, and the cost of a console with more memory increased by $150 to $749.
Similar increases have been revealed in the EU as well - where a Series S console with more storage will cost roughly €200 more than it did before.
As well as Sony increasing PlayStation prices, Steam Machine maker Valve launched its PC-console hybrid at a much higher cost than expected.
Both likewise pointed to mounting costs for the hardware and storage components needed to power their devices.
Once a cheap part used to provide computers and a range of gadgets with short-term memory, random-access memory (RAM) has shot up in price due, in part, to demand from AI firms.
Prices for graphics cards, a key component of consoles and gaming PCs, have also gone up because of their use in generating AI content.
But large tech firms have faced criticism for passing such costs to consumers - particularly when it can mean paying eye-watering amounts for products released years ago.
X user @BlackPanthaa called the new Xbox Series S price, external "absolutely disgusting", while a Reddit user said, external it was "highway robbery for a console released 6 years ago".
Some fear console prices - which have essentially been raised across the board in recent months - could go higher still.
"This ain't even the ceiling," wrote, external Windows Central editor Jez Corden on X of Xbox's price increases.
Amazon's gaming boss recently told the BBC increasing hardware costs may lead more people to ditch consoles and stream games instead.
Xbox has also seen its own struggles lately, with owner Microsoft recently revealing revenues had dipped across its gaming division, external.
In July, it initiated what executives called "the most significant restructure in Xbox history" with approximately 3,200 reductions across its workforce.
New consoles used to come out every five years – so where's the PlayStation 6?
- Published12 November 2025
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Facts Only

* The Xbox Series X console price is now £670, compared to a previous retail price of £500.
* The Xbox Series S console costs £430, an increase from the previous £300 price tag.
* The cost increases are attributed to rising memory and storage chip costs.
* Sony hiked PlayStation 5 prices by £90 in March.
* In the US, basic consoles increased by $100 to $499.
* A console with more memory increased in the US from $749 to $150 more.
* EU Series S consoles with more storage will cost approximately €200 more than before.
* The price hikes are linked to rising costs for memory, storage chips, graphics cards, and RAM, driven partly by AI demand.

Executive Summary

Microsoft increased the prices of Xbox consoles due to rising costs for memory and storage chips. The premium Series X console with a disc drive is now £670, up from £500. The baseline Xbox Series S console costs £430, representing a 43% increase from its previous price of £300. This action follows similar increases by competitors, such as Sony hiking PlayStation 5 prices by £90 in March. The underlying cause cited for these hikes is the escalating cost of hardware components. In the US, basic consoles rose by $100 to $499, and higher-memory configurations increased by $150 to $749. These component cost increases are linked to broader market trends, as RAM and graphics card prices have risen due to demand from AI firms.

Full Take

The narrative presented involves a systemic transfer of externalized costs onto consumers under the guise of necessary operational adjustments. The core tension lies between market realities—specifically escalating component prices driven by demands from the AI sector and hardware scarcity—and the perception of predatory pricing, especially for older hardware. The framing shifts responsibility away from internal cost management to external supply chain volatility, which allows large entities to enforce price hikes perceived as unavoidable. This dynamic echoes a historical pattern where technological progress results in concentrated wealth, where innovation's benefits are captured by platform owners through mechanisms that utilize perceived necessity as justification. The public reaction highlights the erosion of consumer trust when these adjustments are framed as mandatory rather than negotiable. A critical gap exists in examining the long-term effect of this strategy on market adoption versus revenue maximization for the vendors. What is the external cost to the ecosystem when supply chain inflation becomes a permanent, embedded feature of premium hardware? How does the stated focus on necessary costs obscure the possibility that these actions contribute to broader economic friction rather than simply reflecting raw input expenses?

Sentinel — Human

Confidence

This text functions as standard business/tech reporting, presenting factual cost increases and citing related industry commentary while weaving in broader contextual themes about hardware costs and corporate strategy.

Signals Detected

Sentence length variance is noticeable; some sentences are short and punchy, others more descriptive.

The flow between specific price hikes (Xbox, PS5, Valve) and the broader theme of component costs is logically connected, typical of journalistic synthesis.

The structure moves from specific facts to broader context/criticism, which reflects a standard news report structure; the inclusion of social media quotes is integrated but not perfectly seamless.

The core claims regarding price increases and component costs are presented as reported facts, citing specific actions by Microsoft and Sony, suggesting reliance on primary reporting rather than pure fabrication.

Human Indicators

The text incorporates direct quotes from social media users and named journalists (Jez Corden), which injects a distinct, less machine-like voice and context not usually present in purely synthetic summaries.

The transition between financial data, market speculation, internal company news (restructure), and consumer reaction is handled with a pragmatic, journalistic cadence.