Xbox boss warns of subscription price hikes

There’s potentially some bad news on the horizon for Xbox owners. As reported by GamesRadar+, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has implied that consoles, games and even Xbox Game Pass could be facing price hikes in the future.

Highlighted by The Verge’s Tom Warren, Spencer clarified that prices won’t be impacted this holiday season due to consumers being “more uncertain than they have been in a long time”. Presumably though, things could start getting more expensive past then.

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“For us running the business, we have to look at the return on our business, the cost of the business. We’ve held price on our console, we've held price on games […] and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we'll have to raise some prices on certain things,” he said at WSJ Tech Live 2022. “But going into this holiday, we thought it was really important that we maintain the prices that we have, because we think […] consumers right now are more uncertain than they have been in a long time, and I want our medium of video games to be something that they find attractive.”

Earlier this year, Sony raised the price of the PlayStation 5 in several countries, including the UK, Australia, Japan and Canada. The increases vary from country to country, but here in the UK, for example, the Disc edition now costs £479.99 (up from £449.99), and the Digital edition is £389.99 (up from £359.99).

Shortly after this announcement, Microsoft responded to confirm that the Xbox Series X and S were staying the same price at that time, however, they added that the company is “constantly evaluating our business to offer our fans great gaming options”. This wasn’t all too reassuring, and it now seems that a price hike could be coming sooner rather than later. Might want to grab yourself a new Xbox now before they get extra pricey.