Microsoft announced on Thursday an increase in the price of its Xbox consoles worldwide, a few days after a similar decision by Sony for its PlayStation 5, the group citing “market conditions”.
The Redmond group (Washington State) also plans to raise the price of some of the new games developed by its video game subsidiaries.
“We are aware that these changes are difficult” to collect for consumers, said Microsoft in a press release published on its site.
“They were decided after careful thinking,” added the group, “given market conditions and the increase in the cost of development” of consoles and games.
For the entry-level model, the Xbox Series S, the sale price in the United States goes from $ 299.99 to $ 379.99, or 27 % increase.
The most expensive version, the Xbox Series X Galaxy Black, is now sold for $ 729.99, compared to 599.99 previously (+22 %).
In addition, some new games produced by studios controlled by Microsoft will be offered at $ 79.99, or 14 % more (69.99 dollars so far).
In Europe, the SERIES S increases from 299.99 euros to 349.99 euros (+13 %).
It is very rare to see a console manufacturer raise its prices several years after the launch of a game terminal, the dominant model consisting, most often, to make, on the contrary, lower the price during the life cycle.
The SERIES S and X were launched at the end of 2020 and have already been sold at around 30 million copies, according to the estimates of several specialized firms.
-Even if Microsoft did not mention it directly, the shadow of customs duties imposed by Donald Trump on the United States business partners weighs on the video game sector.
Xbox consoles are essentially manufactured in China to whom the Trump government applied 145 % customs prices on many products.
In mid-April, Sony had announced an increase in the price of several models of its PlayStation 5 console (PS5), but only in certain markets, Europe among others, excluding in particular the United States.
The Japanese entertainment giant had reported a “difficult economic context, marked by high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates”.
The PS5 are also assembled, for the most part, in China.
For its part, Nintendo delayed, in the United States, pre-orders for its new Switch 2 console, whose marketing is scheduled for June 5.
The launch prices of the SWITCH successor are considered high ($ 449.99 in the United States), but Nintendo said at the end of April that 2.2 million pre-orders had been spent.
This figure exceeds the group’s expectations, said Nintendo, who expects to deal with stock breaks.
Unlike the Switch 2 are, for the most part, are made in Vietnam, to whom Donald Trump inflicted, as it stands, 46 % of customs duties, that is much less than China.
With AFP
