Xbox console prices increased again starting August 1, Microsoft announces

Xbox consoles are getting another price hike, Microsoft today announced.

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Gaming is getting more expensive. GTA 6 will cost $80, but most people are buying the $100 version. Valve's new Steam Machine will launch at $1,049, and consoles are more expensive than they've ever been. Now gaming hardware is getting more expensive, at least at Microsoft.

Xbox today announced another price hike to its hardware lineup that affects all variants. The 2TB Series X Galaxy Black is also being taken out of production. "Effective August 1, 2026, we will be updating prices worldwide. The price of XBOX consoles will increase by US$100 for 512 GB models and US$150 for 1 TB models. We will also be sunsetting our 2 TB model."

Microsoft continues, saying that they expect prices to double again by fall 2027. That's not great news for its next-gen Project Helix system.

"Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027."

This is the third price hike that Microsoft has made to its Xbox console duo across the ninth generation; the first occurred in May 2025, and then again in October 2025, and the latest is happening less than a year later.

The ongoing RAM crisis is choking supply, leading to significant increases in costs. Chip plants are struggling to keep up with the overwhelming demand from the AI datacenter sector, which is hungry gobbling up critical materials needed to make Xbox consoles.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has recently said that memory and storage costs will be up by 7x since the time she arrived at Xbox to holiday 2027. This has prompted the group to make drastic decisions to reduce costs, and now this price hike may also be a move towards some sort of console profitability at Xbox.

Microsoft produces all Xbox consoles at a loss, meaning less consoles being produced is actually good for Microsoft's immediate costs, however this shift towards a higher pricing structure may now be producing some per-sale profit for the hardware.

The company has also indicated that it needs help to launch the next-gen Project Helix console, meaning we could see Microsoft team up with OEMs like ASUS to make PC-console hybrids in the future.