Here we go again
Higher than the usual inflation can help explain part of the nominal price increases for the oldest Xbox consoles that are affected by today's price increases. For example, the $ 300 for an Xbox series S at the launch in November 2020 is worth around $ 375 in August 2025 dollars. And the $ 500 for an Xbox series X in 2020 is now worth around $ 625.
But the particularly competitive price increases for more recent Xbox configurations cannot really use that inflation excuse. The Disk-Drive-free Digital Xbox series X Digital and 2TB “Galaxy Special Edition” are now no less than 33 percent more expensive than they were at the launch in October 2024. A year in inflation would only explain a small fraction of it.
Even taking into account inflation, however, the current wave of nominal consola price increases drives against an almost universal, decades long trend of game console prizes that fall considerably in the years after their launch. Those days now seem good and really disappeared, because the costs of the consolem makers remain high thanks to the partial tariff uncertainty and partly the broader delay in Moore's Law.
We will see how much the market can wear age -hardware that rises in time in time instead of taking. But until and unless consumers start to beam, it seems that ever -increasing consoles are here to stay.
