It's a dumb time to buy an Xbox, even with the coming price hike
Key takeaways
- Engadget In the immediate aftermath of Microsoft's announcement that it was raising prices of the Xbox Series X and S for the third time this generation, a tiny trend broke out on our technology news feed.
- While it often makes sense to plan purchases around known price hikes, it's a dumb time to buy an Xbox.
- It's worth noting that today's marketplace is uniquely unmoored, fueled by a memory and storage shortage that's driving up hardware prices across the tech industry.
Engadget In the immediate aftermath of Microsoft's announcement that it was raising prices of the Xbox Series X and S for the third time this generation, a tiny trend broke out on our technology news feed. A smattering of stories appeared encouraging readers to run out and buy an Xbox console before the price hike goes into effect on August 1. Combine this deadline with the allure of active Prime Day deals on Xbox consoles, and the message from these articles is clear: The best and most fiscally responsible time to buy an Xbox is right now, so go do it.
While it often makes sense to plan purchases around known price hikes, it's a dumb time to buy an Xbox. Yes, even with discounts offering an Xbox Series S for $350 and an Xbox Series X for $573 — hell, especially at these prices. In 2020, the Xbox Series S launched at $300 and the Xbox Series X was $500. Over the past couple of years, I personally picked up a Series X for less than $400 and a Series S for $250. These consoles are now in their sixth year, and normally around this time in the generation, hardware prices would be dropping and we'd be getting cool colorways and bundles. Today's discounted Xbox prices are obscene for a console entering its sixth year.
It's worth noting that today's marketplace is uniquely unmoored, fueled by a memory and storage shortage that's driving up hardware prices across the tech industry. However, Microsoft is a core part of the problem here. The company is exacerbating the RAM shortage with massive investments in AI data centers, and its feigned ignorance around spiking Xbox console prices is laughable.