Microsoft has announced plans to increase the price of its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in Japan, and has already done this in India. Could the UK be next?
(Picture: Microsoft)Microsoft has announced plans to increase the price of its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in Japan, and has already done this in India. Could the UK be next?
The cost of both the Xbox Series X and Series S will rise in Japan by 5,000 yen, equivalent to just over £30, on February 17.
A comparable hike in the UK would mean new prices of around £279 for the Xbox Series S and £489 for the Series X.
Meanwhile, in India the price of the Xbox consoles has risen three times. In November 2022, the Series X was bumped up to the equivalent of £556. The Series S’s price rose in both August 2022 and January 2023, to almost £400 in a direct currency conversion.
What do Japan and India share in terms of console gamer behaviour? Microsoft’s Xbox series does not fare particularly well in either territory.
Microsoft’s Xbox series consoles have sold around 400,000 units in Japan, according to Pure Xbox. The PS5 sits at around 2.5 million sales, VGChartz says.
Xbox head Phil Spencer said in November 2022 that Microsoft lost up to $200 on each Xbox Series console sold.
Price rises in India and Japan suggest losses in these countries had reached levels Microsoft could no longer withstand. This would also have been compounded by a weakening of both the Japanese yen and Indian rupee against the dollar throughout 2022.
In October, Spencer said he didn’t think Xbox prices would stay the same indefinitely.
“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,” he said at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live show.
Will Xbox console prices rise in the UK?
Where do we stand in the UK? We approached Xbox’s representatives for an update.
“We are constantly evaluating our business to offer our fans great gaming options. Our Xbox Series S suggested retail price remains at £249.99 and the Xbox Series X is £449.99 in the UK,” we were told.
Changes may come, then. From a more positive outlook, the catastrophic currency lows we saw during the Liz Truss government seem fairly far away now. At the time of writing, a pound buys you $1.23, up from lows of below $1.10.
The latest forecasts suggest the UK has the bleakest economic outlook of the G7 nations, though, with -0.8 per cent projected growth to the USA’s 4.4 per cent. This won’t help.
Console sales are short-term wins for Microsoft. Its real aim is likely to successfully increase the cost of Game Pass, without suffering massive losses of subscribers or a significant tarnishing of its brand image.
Microsoft announced that Xbox Game Pass had 25 million subscribers in January 2022. It costs £7.99 for either Xbox or PC access, £10.99 for both as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Our best guess at a new price is £9.99 for a single service, £14.99 for the pair.
One obvious route to avoid subscriber attrition is to time a price rise shortly before a big game release, or a series of big games. The obvious contender here is the “Skyrim in space” adventure Starfield, which is due in the first half of 2023.
