Isn’t it mad how just about everybody is feeling poorer right now? In the space of just a few years, loads of people have gone from feeling pretty comfortable to pulling in their spending. I have spoken to numerous people on decent six-figure salaries who have gone from 2 new cars every few years and multiple vacations, to getting to the end of the month and having to keep checking their bank balance.
The cost of everything is through the roof. You wince in a grocery store when you pay after popping in on the way home from work just to buy a couple of things. A quote for a few days at Disneyland for the whole family comes in at a price point that would have gotten you to the Maldives three years ago. A standard family car now costs you over $700 a month to just borrow it for a few years.
Latest to join the ranks of the price points that will make you wince is Microsoft and its Xbox. They have announced that from August 1st, the prices are going up. And not just a little.
Prices will increase by US$100 for 512 GB models and US$150 for 1 TB models. The 2 TB model will be discontinued. So the new prices are $499 for the Series S (512 Gb), $599 for the Series S (1 TB), $800 for the Series X (1 Tb), $750 for the Series X (1 TB Digital).
Microsoft has blamed the current global components crisis, with console storage and memory prices more than doubling. Prices are expected to double again by Fall 2027 as more and more AI datacentres snap up supplies, just so people can use Gemini instead of Google search to answer basic questions, and create videos of cats with guns.
But wait – there’s more! Steam announced their console last week with a quite staggering price point of over $1,000 for the basic model.
And by the time Xbox’s Project Helix (the Series X successor) arrives, it is also expected to land at around $1500.
Has console gaming been killed by the cost?
