After raising the price of the PS5 last year, Microsoft has announced a price increase of its own. So far, though, it’s only affecting one region. Xbox Series X and Series S will increase prices in Japan on February 17.
A 5,000-yen price hike for two of Microsoft’s consoles will take effect next month. That works out to $38.33/£31.14/A$54.84. This will raise the suggested retail price of the Xbox Series X from ¥54,978 to ¥59,978, and that of the Xbox Series S from ¥32,278 to ¥37,978 — now $459.67 / £373.02 / AU$656.82 and US$291.10/£236.20/AU$415.90, respectively.
“After carefully evaluating the market conditions in Japan, we have decided to change the suggested retail price of the Xbox game console in the country,” Microsoft Japan said in a statement. Under the pine (opens in a new tab)“We regularly assess the impact of local pricing to maintain reasonable consistency across regions. This price adjustment impacted our customers and was a difficult decision, but going forward we will continue to deliver the ultimate Xbox experience our customers have come to expect.”
The increase came after Xbox boss Phil Spencer rejected exclude price increases last year. Spencer made it clear that “[Microsoft’s] Always evaluating our future business, so I don’t think we can ever say we’ll never do something. It looks like Xbox has finally decided to do something, at least in Japan.
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JPY/USD has struggled throughout 2022. While the yen has been recovering steadily since November, exchange rate concerns are likely to contribute to what Microsoft Japan referred to as “local pricing” in its statement. It’s unclear whether the yen will recover, so given the more fragile economic environment, Microsoft Japan’s caution is justified.
From Game Pass to important Black Friday deals, Microsoft has offered some great deals on Xbox in recent years, often making Sony look losing contact By comparison.However, we know that Microsoft is Increase the price of first-party exclusivity, so there may be more price increases in the future. In an interview last year, Spencer made it clear that “we have no plans to increase console prices today,” but he made no promises about future price increases.
The price increase in Japan could be a market test of rising global prices, although this has not yet been confirmed. While we don’t know if Microsoft plans to roll out the price hike outside of Japan, if you’re in the market for a new console, I’d recommend getting one early, just to be on the safe side.
