Phil Spencer Says Xbox Hardware or Subscription Prices Will Have to Rise at Some Point, But Not This Holiday [IGN]

Xbox Game Pass and the Xbox Series consoles could go up in price at some point according to Phil Spencer, but the increase won’t happen this holiday period.

As reported by The Verge’s Tom Warren on Twitter (below), during The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Live event the Xbox boss said that Microsoft won’t be able to hold off on a price increase for its products forever.

“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,” Spencer said. “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.”

Phil Spencer hints at future Xbox Game Pass or console price increases at WSJ Live

“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.”

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

That’s not to say there are currently plans or timings in place to increase the prices, however, at least for consoles, as Spencer said in September that Microsoft currently has no plans to increase the price of the Xbox Series X or S.

Spencer had first said the Xbox’s price wouldn’t increase after Sony announced a price hike on August 25. Citing “high global inflation rates as well as adverse currency trends,” Sony said it would be raising the price of the PlayStation 5 in Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Canada.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.