Microsoft Hikes Xbox Console Prices By Up To $100, Games To Hit $80 (videogameschronicle.com) 101
Microsoft is raising prices for Xbox consoles globally, with the flagship Series X jumping $100 to $599.99 in the US. The more affordable Series S will increase by $80 to $379.99, while game prices will reach $80 later this year.
The company cited "market conditions and the rising cost of development" in a statement, adding that it continues to focus on "offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players."
The company cited "market conditions and the rising cost of development" in a statement, adding that it continues to focus on "offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players."
Are we winning yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Are we winning yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Two birds, one stone!
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If bezos can manipulate Trump that easily try to think about what a guy like Vladimir Putin who was the kgb's Chief information warfare specialist can do.
It's fucked up but a whole hell of a lot of American intelligence agents and soldiers are going to die in the next 4 years for absolutely no fucking good rea
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This will be a continuation of the last time where agents were dying en masse because Trump passed on information to Putin. After all, for what purpose would someone want a list of their country's top spies [thedailybeast.com]? This is the reason the CIA had to exfiltrate a highly placed source [lawandcrime.com] from within the Kremlin because they feared they had been compromised. Not to mention, the CIA had an unu
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And Bezos would be in El Salvador, like yesterday.
Well, Prime shipping *is* usually pretty good ... :-)
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Turning the shining symbol of democracy into Russia in 100 days. So much winning.
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Amazon was chicken-shit about posting the tariff prices. If Amazon did that, it would have ended this madness instantly.
That was only a rumor for their Temu competitor app Haul, it was never proposed for the main site. For Amazon.com they would only be able to do it for items shipped/sold by Amazon, and even then they are most likely getting shipments from distributors and not directly importing the products (exception being their own house brands) so they wouldn't have full visibility to the tariffs. For third party sellers the seller would need to self report, and that might give Amazon to much info on the seller's costs a
Re: Are we winning yet? (Score:2)
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This is different than their Haul app, which ships to end customers direct from the seller (usually in China). In that case, the end consumer is the i
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If Amazon did that, it would have ended this madness instantly.
Debatable, but it won't make a significant difference if they do or don't. Amazon's still going to post the total purchase price, and if/when prices go up by 145%-ish, that won't go unnoticed by the public just because it wasn't itemized.
Trump can (and probably will) try to explain the sudden increase away as "only inflation, not due to tariffs at all", but that's not any better; Trump was elected on his promise that he would lower prices, not that he would raise them and then make excuses about it.
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Maybe for new hardware, but the Series X came out in 2020. The industry doesn't usually hike the price for existing devices by 20% unless there's some serious upgrade or revision, neither of which is happening here.
If you open your eyes quickly enough you'll still be able to see the leopard before it starts eating your face.
Re:Are we winning yet? (Score:5, Funny)
Sure are. I'm living high on the hog, able to afford two dolls!
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For everybody that doesn't get the joke one of Trump's economic advisors, I forget which one they're all so stupid and incompetent and evil, said that it was okay that we would have empty shelves because we would just buy fewer dollies for our little girls.
Never mind that there's more shit on the shelves than little dollies.
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if you have to explain "the deep cut" then its probably not a good dig in the first place. similar to jokes, but we know you don't understand that either.
"Never mind, I don't want to have to explain it three times."
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Sure are. I'm living high on the hog, able to afford two dolls!
That's a lot of doll hairs.
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You know exactly what I mean.
Maybe you only need two XBoxes instead of thirty?
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Re:Are we winning yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Biden inflation caused by the Biden import taxes, no doubt due to Democrats' love of taxes. Good Comrade Trump had to clean that up by replacing the business-hostile Biden import taxes with business-friendly tariffs, and the tariffs are at a much higher rate, showing they're much more serious and important. Nobody has micromanaged an economy as well as Good Comrade Trump, and furthermore, Trump's Central Committee recently approved people purchasing two video game consoles, which is plenty. You don't need thirty of them like some running dog capitalists do.
Re:Are we winning yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
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yeah i feel the same reading the Onion
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It's funny yet quite depressing that Trump more than any president in our lifetimes, or history is acting like all the communists the red-scare folks of the 50's were afraid of, he's basically thinking he can do central planning and autarky, we have our own version of Lysenko in RFK and top it off with nothing but mewling yes-man afraid to deliver their leader any bad news (if anyone has watched The Death of Stalin [imdb.com] it's very similar) and who constantly have to fellate dear leaders ego. I mean our press s
Trump did the single largest tax increase (Score:2)
Re:Are we winning yet? LOSERS! (Score:2)
Neither side can take RESPONSIBILITY for their own actions!
Both sides can take flying FUCK off a cliff!
We would be better without EITHER of them!
That's a FACT!
Scientists say Trump's poor covid response (Score:2)
So I think Joe Biden was justified calling out Trump's incompetence I just wish folks like you could get over yourselves and admit you're wrong. Or at least admit your Russian operatives that works too. Slava Ukrani!
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You know what the worst thing is until comrade Trump I couldn't tell that this was a joke because Trump is literally going around blaming Joe Biden for the mess caused by Trump's tariffs and his national sales tax
Things are fucked up when reality and parody are almost indistinguishable.
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Moderators, get real. This post isn't even close to Poe's Law ambiguity.
Re: Are we winning yet? (Score:3)
Any down mods are coming from Trump supporters, not his opponents. They are all snowflakes who cannot handle some satire.
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I thought the "Insightful" moderators were obsequious Trump-supporters unable to see the satire, but you may have a point.
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who knew one blowjob would cost this much
Re: Are we winning yet? (Score:2)
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If we're being real here, even if the US had pushed an anti-China policy following the collapse of the Soviet Union (which would have been a good plan, actually), there still would have been a push for industrialization in other countries with cheap labor. Just not in China. We were already importing lots of textiles from countrie that were not China prior to the Clinton administration.
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You know exactly what I mean.
I don't think the average MAGA voter is overly concerned that the cost of a nearly 4-1/2 year old gaming console has gone up in price. In fact, this kind of stuff usually elicits a "Fuck you, I got mine" response among conservatives who bought before the price increase.
Eggs and gasoline, though? That's something that regularly keeps hitting you in the pocketbook. And the rest of the crap at Walmart and on Amazon that lasts a day over the return period and then you've gotta buy another one? Yeah, they're
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Good thing gasoline prices have been pretty flat lately.
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Probably not. At least not in the US. There hasn't been enough EV adoption here to influence gasoline demand. Regional markets with relatively low rates of EV adoption have some pretty cheap gas.
OPEC is calling for production increases as a response to Trump's call for increased petroleum production in the US. They're trying (again) to bankrupt American producers.
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Price of eggs is still coming down. Just watched this happen, in person, today. Of course, I work in a grocery store and get to see the price change crew do their job. So yeah, eggs went down today but are still above a year ago.
Still, anyone that really thought Trump could "fix" the price of eggs was/is an idiot anyway. No president can make chickens grow faster.
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2 Points, the article is pointing out GLOBAL price increases. Last I checked, US Tariffs don't typically affect the price of goods produced and sold outside of the US. And most of the games are now sold in electronic form, those are considered "produced" at the distributor's location so they wouldn't be subject to tariffs.
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You know exactly what I mean.
Yup.
The company cited "market conditions ...
And if they had listed the increase as "Added Tariffs" the Administration would have said that was "hostile" and the President would have called MS to complain and they'd have to be seen rolling over -- like Amazon, Amazon in White House crosshairs over report of displaying tariff costs [reuters.com]. though they now say they were just "thinking about it."
Amazon said on Tuesday its low-cost Haul unit had considered listing import charges for goods in light of new U.S. tariffs but denied looking at such a plan for its main website, after the White House accused it of a hostile political act.
So... citing simple facts, that the Administration doesn't like, is now a "hostile political act".
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You know exactly what I mean.
In this case I don't, because Microsoft announced an increase in game prices and console prices for the Eurozone too. And we don't have tariffs on Chinese electronics.
Tariffs are an excuse (Score:3)
This is pretty much solely defined by the Switch 2 announcing a higher price and realizing that they can up the price gap a bit. Sony hasn't announced their price increase for the US as far as I can tell, but they've started elsewhere.
Re:Tariffs are an excuse (Score:5, Insightful)
The short story is that tariffs are inflationary. Products affected by tariffs go up in price, and products not affected go up also, because market.
Re:Tariffs are an excuse (Score:4, Insightful)
Except they aren't raising the costs just in the US and neither is Sony. I'm sure this would have happened without the tariffs with slightly different timing.
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Ah yes, you're right. From TFA:
Microsoft is raising prices for Xbox consoles globally
Sorry. My point still stands on tariffs though.
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The sad thing is that while tariffs primarily hit Americans in the pocket book, as long as there is demand there, companies are going to use it as an excuse to inflate prices across all their markets. Global inflation. Just like what happened during Covid.
Re:Tariffs are an excuse (Score:4, Informative)
They're raising costs in all markets, but the difference in price varies significantly between markets:
While prices for Xbox consoles and accessories are increasing all around the world, the difference is far greater in the U.S. For instance, in the UK the Xbox Series X is increasing from £480 to £500, only a four percent rise compared to 20 percent. (The Series S is changing significantly more, going up 20 percent from £25o to £300, but that’s still a smaller change than in the United States.)
src: https://kotaku.com/microsoft-x... [kotaku.com]
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Seems like a false dichotomy to me. I find it likely that some of the adjustment may be due to plain old increases in cost on their side - the consoles have been out for quite some time, but the US increase has the cost of the tariffs factored in which is why it's proportionally higher? But indeed maybe it was easier for them to swallow making those non-US market adjustments thanks to the forced hand of the tariffs?
It's easy to speculate, but certainly the difference in proportional price increase points to
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To be fair, I've seen some analysts pointing out that some of the increase in other markets may well be to soften the price spike for US consumers given that it's XBox's biggest market.
Re:Tariffs are an excuse (Score:4, Informative)
Except they aren't raising the costs just in the US and neither is Sony.
All that means is that they are trying to soften the blow in their largest market by spreading some of the costs out to other markets.
I'm sure this would have happened without the tariffs with slightly different timing.
No, this is a tariff-induced price hike. Without the tariffs, yes there would be a price hike for some other reason, but it would have happened later, and it would have been something else. These tariffs are causing economic chaos all over the planet because they are disrupting businesses all over the planet, both those which normally export to us and those to which we normally export products. The prices of those export products are also being increased, because there are so few things we can make without foreign parts which are subject to tariffs.
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No, this is a tariff-induced price hike. Without the tariffs, yes there would be a price hike for some other reason, but it would have happened later, and it would have been something else. These tariffs are causing economic chaos all over the planet because they are disrupting businesses all over the planet, both those which normally export to us and those to which we normally export products. The prices of those export products are also being increased, because there are so few things we can make without foreign parts which are subject to tariffs.
Yep.... and if you think prices are going to go down after the tariffs are removed you've got another thing coming.
This is just the console manufacturers getting the frog water ready.
Sony got in first with a $700 PS to test the waters, people took the abuse. Nintendo raised their US prices, people begged for more... Now Microsoft is doing it. $700 is the new normal price, normal starting price that is so you can expect an $800 or more version premium version.
Gets the Gene Wilder picture out "oh tel
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They haven't yet increased Switch 2 pricing over tariffs. They increased it over the Switch 1 based on increased specs. But they priced hit high relative to the performance of competitors.
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Tariffs are net deflationary:
https://www.econlib.org/can-ta... [econlib.org]
Re: Tariffs are an excuse (Score:1)
"Just to be clear, tariffs do not always have a deflationary impact; it depends on how they interact with the monetary regime."
- the article you linked to
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True! But in a vacuum (e.g. no change in monetary policy), tariffs will only lower spending/monetary velocity. The main driving factors behind broad market inflation are money supply and monetary velocity.
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https://www.nintendo.com/us/wh... [nintendo.com]
Raising prices on existing hardware is pretty rare in tech. Moore's outlaw?
Games, ok, that's a labor-driven thing. Nobody thinks the cost of the dvd media or download bandwidth are driving the price.
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Nintendo raised the price of Switch games from $60 to $80. And now the rest of the industry is doing the same.
Also, Nintendo shamelessly admits they will sell a "japanese-only" version of the switch for $100 less in Japan. IOW, they will charge the rest of the world $100 more
Unfortunately, nintendo can do whatever the fuck they want because nintendo users are just like apple users. They will complain but still buy whatever nintendo is selling.
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By this point, the hardware in the Xbox Series X is pretty old. Given the general depreciation in value for consumer electronics, the market value for such a console should have vastly decreased by now.
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They're following Sony, who is in Japan. The value of the Yen vs. the Euro has plummeted in the last few years due to inflation. Even if the market value goes down, it may not be keeping pace with inflation. Ignoring exchange rates and Sony, a $499.99 price in 2020 is equal to a bit under $620 in 2025 dollars. So raising it to $599.99 is a bit below inflation.
They timed it right around the time of the Switch 2 price announcement because they didn't want to be compared to original Switch pricing.
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I should have said that I mentioned Euros because Sony hasn't announced their US price increase yet so I only have Europe to go by.
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Okay but Sony is grossly overcharging for the PS5 as well. We're talking about the equivalent of an AMD gaming PC from 2019. Even brand new, that equipment is probably at 20% of its original value on the open market. Maybe Sony and MS are paying a bit extra for the dated RAM or what have you. Otherwise there's nothing more exotic than TSMC N7 silicon in there, and at this point those wafers are gonna be pretty cheap.
Both of these consoles have easily gone from being hardware loss leaders to profitable a
Welcome to inflation, children. (Score:2)
So now people are learning what inflation actually is... all the other stuff didn't get their attention but when their toys go up... then they notice. sad.
It's more complex, but since inflation isn't understood, why bother trying to explain actual capitalism and it's flaws? This is like trying to explain fire makes light to somebody who didn't realize the room got brighter and then expecting them to grasp how the fire could burn out of control and ruin everything...
Older games are more fun (Score:3)
There is a vast back catalog of games that are far more innovative and fun then 90% of the rehashed AAA games we seem to always get.
And they are cheaper and most run great on modern hardware (with a few exceptions, Dungeon Keeper 2 I am looking at you).
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There is no Dungeon Keeper 3. Never happened. La la la la la la la la la.....
Re: Older games are more fun (Score:2)
War for the Overworld was pretty decent I thought. Chunders aren't Bile Demons and Succubi are obviously no substitute for Black Mistresses but you have to take what you can get. It doesn't have the darkness of the original but neither did DK2.
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There are a ton of games, and people are still adding content. I am surprised that there are still people making NWN 1 and NWN 2 modules, as well as Doom WADs. Even older MMOs still are being updated. DDO is still around, as well as Age of Conan.
If AAA games disappeared entirely, there are always indie games on GOG and Steam coming out all the time. No, they may not have the eye-popping graphics that will slam a GPU to its limits... but they often will be playable and re-playable.
Maybe it might be good
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then 90% of the rehashed AAA games we seem to always get
What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that you make your purchasing decisions based on who has the biggest advertising budget? All the platforms are a wealth of excellent unique and innovative games. Just ignore the latest Ubisoft / EA bullshit and look beyond what ads you see on TV.
It's the same problem as with movies. Just a few years ago I saw someone complaining that the only thing being released is comic book movies. In a year where only 4 comic book movies were released, out of over 800 movies p
Get to the tariffs! (Score:2)
Get to the tariffs!
That's what you get for not buying a real computer (Score:1)
See subject.
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You're overpaying on hardware to play DRM'd games with cheaters. Nice flex.
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You're overpaying on hardware to play DRM'd games with cheaters. Nice flex.
You think consoles don't have DRM?
You think there aren't cheaters on consoles?
Try thinking sometime.
Re: That's what you get for not buying a real comp (Score:2)
My words stung because you know on each point I brought up, including the important one you casually ignored, is disproportionately worse for PC Gamers. The "holier than thou" attitude over-zealous PC gamers have is hilariously un-justified.
Heh Windows users are funny.
No 2TB model available (Score:2)
I was seeking a 2TB model because COD takes up so much space it doesn't leave much space for other games. Maybe I'll just wait for the next edition in a few years.
There's always Steam (Score:2)
Just saying, Steam anyone?
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You gonna pay the tarriff hike on a new graphics card for me?
You know the best part of all this? (Score:2)
Companies are free to raise prices artificially on practically anything. Just pretend the tariffs leave you no choice and everyone blames Trump for your own corporate greed!
I mean, look... I fully expected the $200 or so price hikes on Bambu Labs 3D printers. They're fully assembled and sold directly out of China. That's a clear cut case of tariffs causing a price increase. A sudden need to raise prices of game software? It's intellectual property! Next, you'll tell me streaming music subscription prices ha
First world problem detected. (Score:2)
If a toy is too expensive I kill time differently (including usefully because money that saves or makes is freed for other things I want).
Slashdotters being a techie audience finding engaging things to do shouldn't be a high bar.
To be fair (Score:2)
AAA video game prices were fixed to $60 for around 15 years. However, during those 15 years, games kept getting bigger, longer, and prettier. The cost of development has gone from under $100k to over a million dollars (and sometimes even tens of millions). This whole standardized pricing has only hurt everyone. The AAA studios have backed themselves into a corner, and the customers have deluded themselves.
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AAA video game prices were fixed to $60 for around 15 years.
Way to gloss over the facts.
This hugely inflated pricing behaviour originated on consoles. The one market chock full of mouth-breathing gamers that would happily support it because they picked a platform on which they have no choice.
The pricing was inflated to "protect" brick-and-mortar stores but has never witnessed a decline in parrallel with the death of those stores.
One of the common arguments put forward for the cost was always physical media distribution and marketing... Virtually none of which exists
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Your argument appears to be "If the game cost $1m and only 100 people purchased it then they should pay $10k each!" That's the dumbest argument for price gouging yet.
That isn't my argument and wouldn't make sense anyway, since that would be pricing the game after determining the number of buyers and somehow charging them retroactively. My argument is that various "price locks" have always been stupid. They didn't protect brick-and-mortar stores. They didn't properly offset physical media or marketing. It promoted lazy copy/paste development - looking at you EA Sports, 2K Sports, Call of Duty. It promoted customer complacency and acceptance.
My argument is also that the b
Games they were going to do anyways (Score:2)
Meh (Score:2)