Right here we go once more
Greater than ordinary inflation will help clarify among the nominal worth will increase for the oldest Xbox consoles affected by at this time’s worth hikes. The $300 for an Xbox Collection S at launch in November 2020 is value roughly $375 in August 2025 {dollars}, for example. And the $500 for an Xbox Collection X in 2020 is now value about $625.
However the notably sharp worth will increase for more moderen Xbox configurations cannot actually use that inflation excuse. The disc-drive-free Digital Xbox Collection X Digital and 2TB “Galaxy Particular Version” at the moment are a whopping 33 % dearer than they have been at launch in October 2024. A yr’s value of inflation would account for less than a small fraction of that.
Even accounting for inflation, although, the present spate of nominal console worth will increase goes in opposition to a near-universal, decades-long trend of game console prices dropping significantly within the years following their launch. These days seem well and truly gone now, as console makers’ prices stay excessive thanks partly to current tariff uncertainty and partly to the wider slowdown of Moore’s Law.
We’ll see simply how a lot the market can bear getting older console {hardware} that will increase in worth over time quite than decreases. However till and except customers begin balking, it appears to be like like ever-increasing console costs are right here to remain.
