Microsoft is reportedly considering a new price increase for its Xbox consoles.
Although Microsoft has already increased the prices of its hardware twice this year – once in MayAnd then again for US players in September – Reports claim that a global RAM shortage could cause hardware to rise in price again.
According to Moore's Law is Dead (by using TGP), Microsoft has warned its partners that ongoing memory shortages and rising costs could lead to higher prices for its customers as artificial intelligence data centers snap up memory in huge quantities and leave little for consumer electronics.
“[Microsoft] apparently didn't plan ahead at all,” Moore's Law is Dead. “If you still want an Xbox at their current price for some reason, those prices could go up soon, or supply might just dry up, because several of my sources have apparently been warned by Microsoft sales reps that this will impact Xbox Series consoles very, very soon. Sooner rather than later.”
Interestingly, Moore's Law is Dead doesn't think this is necessarily an industry-wide problem.
“From what I've heard, Sony planned ahead, bought up a bunch of RAM at the lowest possible price, and thus they'll be fine for a few months,” Moore's Law added.
“They have a lot of GDDR6, at least that's what I'm told. Prices may eventually rise; I can see this happening next year… but there's a reason Sony is cutting prices on the PlayStation 5 for Black Friday.
“They're not just doing this because of extremes or poor sales. They can afford it; “They're obviously not worried about running out of RAM, at least in the short to medium term.”
This is, of course, further exacerbated by the recent rise Microsoft Xbox Game Pass subscription cost and shaking up levels. Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $29.99/£22.99 per month. It includes access to over 75 Day 1 issues per year, plus Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics. The quality of cloud gaming will also improve, as well as a new rewards program.
