Xbox enjoyed a brief period of positivity earlier this year, promising its fans that it would not be increasing the price of its Xbox Series consoles following Sony's PS5 price increase. Well, turns out Phil Spencer might have only meant until next year, as he has revealed in a talk during the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach that Xbox will probably have to "raise the prices on certain things" after the Christmas period.
First shared by The Verge journalist Tom Warren, Spencer hinted at several things potentially receiving price increases in the future, specifically mentioning Xbox consoles, future Xbox games, and Xbox Game Pass. Spencer doesn't mention which of these things will be getting price increases, if not all all of them, but explained that Xbox wants to "maintain the prices" for the coming festive period.
"I do think at some point we'll have to raise the prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices," says Spencer. "We've held price on our console, we've held price on games... and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we'll have to raise some prices on certain things..."
In all likelihood, if Spencer wants to stay true to his word about Xbox Series console prices not going up, he's most likely talking about Game Pass and game prices. Xbox is still one of the major publishers still charging $60 for their titles instead of $70, so it's likely we'll see Xbox follow suit now the practice is becoming more standard.
Game Pass is also talked about widely as a great deal for gamers, so people probably won't be too upset if Xbox jacks up the price for that too. Whatever the case, it seems like being an Xbox fan is going to get a little more expensive next year.