Xbox is officially more expensive. As of today, the Series X costs €749 and even the small one starts at €449

The new numbers, machine by machine

Time's up. As of this 1 August, the Xbox Series X with a disc drive goes from €599 to €749 and its Digital version from €549 to €699, while the Series S climbs from €349 to €449 for the 512 GB model and from €399 to €549 for the 1 TB one, per the figures reported by Vida Extra. The 2 TB Galaxy Black Series X disappears from the catalogue outright: Microsoft has decided to stop making it.

The official explanation isn't greed but components: 'we had hoped not to have to do this', the company said when announcing it, with storage and memory prices up more than 2.5 times and forecasts of doubling again before autumn 2027. Translation: nobody is promising this is the last rise.

To grasp the size of the jump, look backwards. The Series X debuted in November 2020 at €499.99 and the Series S at €299.99: five and a half years later they cost €249 and €149 more than on launch day. Consoles spent their whole history getting cheaper with age; this generation has flipped the curve, and every birthday the machine celebrates makes it more expensive to buy.

Sony raised prices in April, Microsoft in August: the whole generation got dearer

The move doesn't arrive alone. Sony already raised every PS5 by €100 in April — the standard model landed at €649.99 and the Pro at €899.99 — so the memory crisis has swallowed both brands in the same year. The cruel part is the calendar: the generation gets more expensive exactly when the most people were about to buy a console, three and a half months before GTA 6 launches. Our which-console guide is already updated with the new prices.

The deeper problem is who takes the hit: whoever was waiting for Vice City to buy their first machine. The game arrives on 19 November at €79.99 for the standard edition and its physical box ships with no disc, just a download code, so there is no second-hand shortcut either. Do the maths: a new console plus the game now starts at €529, when last week it was €429.

Welcome to the generation where waiting costs you money.

Whoever bought this week made the deal of the year without knowing it. For everyone else, the map from today is this: €449 or €549 for the Series S depending on storage, €699 or €749 for the Series X, and the PS5 range at €549.99, €649.99 and €899.99 since April.