Xbox has recently increased the retail prices for their Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X in Sweden according to gamesindustry.biz. The Xbox Series S was previously sold for 3,595.00 SEK ($347.34), and is now being sold for 3,894.00 SEK ($376.99). The Xbox Series X was previously sold for 5,695.00 SEK ($550.53) and is now being sold for 6,195.00 SEK ($599.82).
Prices for video games and consoles have been increasing over the past few years and are seemingly only rising further. Back in August, gamesindustry.biz reported that the prices for Sony’s PlayStation5 had been increasing across countries including the UK, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and over forty others. Sony was also the first company to increase the cost of their first-party games from $60 to $70 back in 2020 according to vg247. The next group to jump on that train was Microsoft in December of 2022 IGN notes, which Nintendo has recently decided to mirror, with their upcoming release, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also being listed at $70. Now, in February of 2023, Xbox has announced that their console prices are increasing, though it only seems to be in Sweden as of right now.
The Xbox Series X|S are their most recent models for the newest generation of Xbox consoles, so an increase in their pricing follows suit with the model that Sony set with the PlayStation 5. The pricing also makes sense for the types of models the two consoles are. According to the New York Times, the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X both play the same games, so for the casual gamer, they both serve the same purpose. However, the Xbox Series X has better graphics, more storage and a disc drive, which are what warranted the higher retail price of the Series X over the Series S and have now caused a larger increase in price from their previous amounts.
This marks the continuation of the gaming industry’s trend of increasing prices overall. Only time will tell which other countries will be affected by these price increases, and furthermore, which companies might follow suit next.