Microsoft raised the price of every Xbox console on August 1, 2026. The Xbox Series X and Series S now cost $100 to $150 more in the US, with similar or larger increases in Europe, the UK, and other markets. The company announced the change on June 25, 2026 (Engadget).

In Europe, the cheapest Xbox, the Series S (512GB), now costs 499.99 euros, up by as much as 200 euros from before. The Series S (1TB) is 599.99 euros. The Series X Digital, which has no disc drive, is 749.99 euros. The full Xbox Series X is 799.99 euros.

UK pricing follows a similar pattern. The Series S (512GB) is 429.99 pounds, the Series S (1TB) is 519.99 pounds, the Series X Digital is 619.99 pounds, and the Series X is 669.99 pounds. UK buyers pay 130 to 170 pounds more than they did before.

Microsoft blamed the rising cost of the parts inside the consoles. In a June blog post, the company said it expects the price of storage and memory components to double once again, on top of increases already hitting the supply chain (Engadget).

Think of a game console like a computer. It needs memory chips (the temporary working space, like your brain's short-term memory) and storage chips (where saved games and downloads live, like a filing cabinet). When the factories that make those chips charge more, the company building the console has to pay more — and eventually, so does the person buying it.

Microsoft is not alone. Sony and Nintendo have both raised their console prices recently, amid what the industry is calling a RAM crisis. Sony raised the price of its PlayStation 5 in Europe back in 2022, going from 499.99 to 549.99 euros (Reuters).

For Microsoft, this is the latest in a string of price increases. The company raised Xbox console prices in May 2025 across the US, Europe, Australia, and the UK, then raised them again in September 2025 in the US as tariff challenges continued (Reuters). In October 2025, Microsoft raised the price of its top-tier Xbox Game Pass subscription by 50 percent (Reuters).

But more recently, Microsoft went the other direction on subscriptions. On April 21, 2026, the company lowered Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 per month and PC Game Pass from $16.49 to $13.99 per month (Xbox Wire). Game Pass is Microsoft's subscription service that lets you play a large library of games for a monthly fee, similar to how Netflix works for movies. So the consoles are getting more expensive while the subscription is getting cheaper.

Microsoft has also been expanding the Xbox brand beyond traditional TV-connected consoles. The company opened pre-orders for two handheld gaming devices, the ROG Xbox Ally X at $999.99 and the ROG Ally at $599.99, on September 25, 2025 (Xbox Wire). A limited-edition Xbox 25th Anniversary console and controller collection went on sale June 7, 2026, in select markets (Xbox Wire).

The broader context here is that the entire electronics supply chain is under pressure. When Microsoft says it expects storage and memory prices to double, that is a specific prediction about the cost of the actual parts inside the console, not a general worry. The Xbox Series X contains 16GB of fast memory and a 1TB solid-state drive, making it just as exposed to rising component costs as any consumer electronics product you can buy.

The fact that all three major console makers are raising prices at roughly the same time tells you something important. This is not about one company trying to outmaneuver another. It is a cost problem hitting the whole industry at once. When Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all move in the same direction at the same time, the cause is almost certainly something affecting all of them, not a decision made by any one of them.

The combination of more expensive consoles and cheaper subscriptions could push more people toward subscribing rather than buying a console. If the hardware keeps getting pricier while the monthly service gets cheaper, someone who just wants to play games might sign up for Game Pass on their PC or phone instead of buying an Xbox. Microsoft has been building toward that kind of multi-device, service-first approach for years. The current pricing, however Microsoft arrived at it, fits that direction.

Whether that is the plan or just the result of rising parts costs is a question Microsoft has not answered directly. What is certain is the pricing itself, effective August 1, and the component cost increases Microsoft says are coming.