Microsoft's Xbox price hike reportedly still doesn't offset $150 per-unit loss

Microsoft has increased the price of its Xbox Series X|S lineup several times throughout this generation. However, a new report by Windows Central finds that Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division is losing $150 per unit sold. Despite the upcoming August price hike to $599.99 for the Series S 1TB model and $799.99 for the Xbox Series X 1TB Disc Edition, Microsoft will still be taking a loss.

Windows Central’s Jez Corden explained the figures while discussing Xbox’s next-generation console, codenamed Project Helix, and said, “If Xbox Helix is indeed an ‘open’ PC, Xbox would have no choice but to price it like an ‘open’ PC. The Xbox Ally also costs $999.99 because ASUS cannot make their money back on software sales, given that they have no real distribution platform of their own.”

Afterward, he connected his reasoning to the current-generation lineup of Xbox hardware and said:

“Thanks to the RAMpocalypse, those wafer-thin margins get even trickier. I’ve been told Xbox is losing around $150-ish per Xbox Series X|S sold right now, even after the planned August price hike. Now imagine 50% more of those Xbox Series X|S users bypassed the Xbox ecosystem and went straight to Steam to buy games. The margins would be even worse. You wouldn’t have a business at all.”

According to many industry watchers and Corden himself, the core problem is currently memory. Elsewhere, he stated that current-generation consoles are now the most expensive home consoles to date owing to the RAMpocalypse. The ever-increasing demand for AI infrastructure has driven memory chip prices to an all-time high, effectively disrupting the consumer market and consumer electronics as a whole.

PC shipments worldwide have declined sharply, and smartphones are getting pricier. Additionally, something that has never occurred in console history happened this year: consoles like the Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2 are far more expensive than they were at launch. This runs counter to the trend of consoles going on sale over the course of a generation.

However, that’s not all; the Nintendo Switch 2 is also getting a $50 price hike this coming September, meaning all the big three console manufacturers are feeling the squeeze of the RAMpocalypse.