It’s never happened before that two companies in a console generation have both raised prices after launch when the opposite should happen!

The Verge has reported that most countries around the world will be raising the price of the Xbox Series X from August 1. The exceptions are the United States (oh look, making the same exception as Sony…), Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. So the current €500 console will cost €550, the same price as the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition. And it was by building on the lower price that Microsoft could have built its strategy, but no, the console, which the company says is intended as a mid-gen upgrade, is in line with its exploitation.

Xbox Game Pass will also become more expensive from July 6 in most countries except Norway, Chile, Denmark, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia. It will cost €11 per month instead of the previous $/€10 per month, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will cost €15. It should be stressed that the price of the PC Game Pass (i.e., the PC subscription) and the Xbox Series S will not change! Only the more expensive Xbox and the console Game Pass are affected!

The Xbox Game Pass price increase will not affect monthly subscribers until August 13 (September 13 in Germany), but new subscribers will have to pay more from July 6. Subscribers with a one-year code will only see a price increase when they renew their subscriptions. How funny, a few days ago, Microsoft said they would not raise prices after acquiring Activision Blizzard King. Haha, they pulled it off before!

“We’ve held on our prices for consoles for many years and have adjusted the prices to reflect the competitive conditions in each market,” said Kari Perez, Xbox’s head of communications, in a statement. And all we can say is that we didn’t come off the wall today. So if you’re considering buying the more expensive Xbox Series, you’ve got a little over a month before it gets more expensive…

Source: Gematsu