OPINION: Microsoft is raising the price of a console that, five years in, is pretty much surplus to requirements. Gamers can and will say “no”

The idiocy of 2025 has me really interested in existential nihilism, but that doesn’t pay the bills. As such, I’m contemplating ludicrous news like one of the world’s richest companies adding to the cost of a 5-year-old games console that has been a loser from day one.

The Xbox Series S is going up £50 to £299.99. The Xbox Series X 1TB is going up £20 for £499.99 and the Xbox Series X 2TB is going up £40 to £589. At this stage of a console’s lifecycle we’re used to seeing the prices come down, but today they’re going up.

In its infinite wisdom Microsoft is raising the price on a piece hardware that, because of the company’s own change of tact towards cloud gaming, you don’t need to own to play most of the games. All you really need is a £50 Fire Stick and a controller.

The expected increase

This increase was in the post though. Sony already sliced open the wound with the PS5, and Nintendo’s games are gonna be more expensive on the Switch 2.

We can never expect the corporate world to pick up the slack and sacrifice a penny when times are tough. We can never expect the companies we’ve been loyal to as fans and consumers to suck it up and take the temporary hit and say “we got you here folks” until the storm passes.

We certainly don’t expect a company like Microsoft, which cosied up to the person largely responsible for the price increases in the hope of currying favour for its business agenda, to avoid passing the literal buck to consumers now that plan has spectacularly backfired.

I’m sick to death of it, to be honest. Sick of the greed and exploitation. Sick of the entire sordid mess of a technology industry that is disconnected from serving its customers solely and honestly. After 100 days I’m already sick of death of amoral tech companies capitulating to whatever Washington dictates.

Microsoft’s stock is up 9% today on the day these price increases were announced, in case you were wondering. The company just reported Q3 earnings per share of $3.46 on revenue of $70 billion. And now they want an extra £50 off you for an Xbox Series S.

I’d be complaining about Microsoft boosting the price for new games from $70 to $80 in the United States too (thanks to Nintendo for setting that precedent by the way), but to be honest, where are they? You’ve gotta have AAA games to buy AAA games and Microsoft has spent the last 5 years providing the occasional cut of filet mignon among an abattoir of scraps.

Name me a single game in the pipeline that makes it worth you paying extra for the console hardware at this point in this generation? It’s not like this is a PS5 is it? With loads of exciting exclusive properties in the pipeline you aren’t going to get elsewhere! Hell, even the biggest Xbox exclusives are going to end up on PS5 within months now.

Where’s the incoming star that’s going to compel you to buy a Series S or X now, five years in? Hell, if mine were to break tomorrow, what would be the point of replacing it? To have another razz around Mexico in Forza? To play through Psychonauts 2 again? Listen, the best Xbox Series X games roundup doesn’t get added to very often around these parts because it doesn’t need to be.

There’s a simple solution here: Don’t buy an Xbox. Just don’t. If you want to play most of the games, they’re on Game Pass. Pretty soon you’ll be able to buy games to own and stream them over the cloud too. You can use a controller old or new via your laptop, tablet, phones, TV, Fire Stick, and more without adding an additional piece of energy guzzling hardware to the home.

Microsoft admits as much itself in its not-nearly-contrite-enough explanation. “We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration given market conditions and the rising cost of development. Looking ahead, we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players,” the company says.

Microsoft has made Xbox a disposable service, so use it. Get whatever cheap, on-sale, stacked Game Pass Ultimate membership card and spend only that. Don’t support them. Don’t be a fan of them. In fact don’t buy an Xbox ever again. As time goes on there’s literally going to be no point in the hardware. Game Pass is getting 4K streaming over the cloud soon. Before too long the cloud streaming quality will be indistinguishable from the console experience.

If you must have an Xbox Series X, you can buy mine. It’s arguably the most misguided tech purchase I’ve ever made.