Xbox Series X price hiked by £170 due to rising memory chip costs
📰 source: bbc_business · 💼 business
microsoft raised xbox console prices worldwide, citing rising memory and storage chip costs. the premium series x with a disc drive now costs £670, up from £500. the baseline series s now costs £430 — a roughly 43% increase on its previous £300 price tag.
sony hiked playstation 5 prices by £90 in march. in the us, microsoft's basic console rose by $100 to $499, and the higher-memory version by $150 to $749. eu prices also rose, with one series s model costing about €200 more. ram and graphics card costs have surged, partly because ai firms are buying up memory chips.
some players called the increases "absolutely disgusting" and "highway robbery" for a console released six years ago. others fear prices haven't peaked. the price hikes land as microsoft's gaming division saw revenue dip and cut roughly 3,200 jobs in july.
why it matters: rising memory costs driven by ai demand are pushing console prices up, squeezing consumers and pressuring microsoft's gaming business.
source: bbc_business
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