Consoles Get Pricier Late in the Cycle: Xbox Series X Hits $800, PS5 Pro $900
Sony and Microsoft both raised console prices in 2026, blaming memory and storage costs that keep climbing.
Key takeaways
- Microsoft's third hike in about 13 months takes the Series X to $799.99 from August 1.
- Sony raised PS5 prices from April 2, 2026: PS5 Pro $899.99, PS5 $649.99, Digital $599.99.
- Microsoft says console memory and storage costs have risen over 2.5x and could double again by autumn 2027.
Consoles are meant to get cheaper as a generation ages. This one is going the other way. Microsoft announced in June that every Xbox Series model gets a $100 to $150 increase from August 1, following Sony's spring price rise on the PS5 family.
The new prices
Under Microsoft's plan, the Series S 512 GB moves to $499.99 and the 1 TB to $599.99, the Series X Digital to $749.99, and the Series X 1 TB to $799.99. Sony's increase took effect April 2, 2026, putting the PS5 Digital Edition at $599.99, the standard PS5 at $649.99 and the PS5 Pro at $899.99. Sources differ slightly on whether Microsoft counts this as its third increase in 13 or 15 months, but all agree earlier hikes came in May and October 2025.
Why memory is the driver
Microsoft's statement said the cost of console storage and memory has risen by more than 2.5 times and could double again by autumn 2027. That matches the wider DRAM picture, where analysts forecast further double-digit quarterly increases. Console makers have thin hardware margins and cannot easily swap parts mid-generation, so the cost reaches shoppers directly.
An unusual reversal
For most of console history the pattern was reliable: launch at a high price, cut it as manufacturing matured, and reach mass-market levels in the middle of the generation. Smartprix framed the present moment as consoles being more expensive than ever this late into a generation, and the numbers support it. A PS5 Pro at $899.99 and a Series X at $799.99 are above the launch prices of many past flagship consoles, years after the hardware first shipped.
Microsoft's three increases in roughly a year also change the economics of its platform. Each one makes the console a harder sell against a PC or a competing machine, and the company has to weigh that against the cost of selling hardware at a loss. Push Square called the Xbox increases absurd, which reflects how the reaction from players has been sharper for Microsoft than for Sony, whose increase was a single step.
Memory as the bottleneck
Consoles are vulnerable because a console is, in cost terms, mostly a bill of materials: a system-on-chip, a large pool of fast memory and a flash drive. Memory and storage are the parts that have more than doubled. A company can redesign a board or cut a manufacturing step to save a few dollars, but it cannot easily offset a cost increase of this size without raising the price. Microsoft said the cost of console memory and storage has risen more than two and a half times, which is roughly the scale of the increases we have seen elsewhere in the industry.
That arithmetic also explains why analysts have begun to argue for delaying the next generation of PlayStation and Xbox hardware. A new console launched into the same shortage would either carry a very high price or ship with less memory than players expect, and neither company has confirmed a timeline. The same logic applies to handhelds and PC-like boxes, as Valve's Steam Machine pricing shows, so players should assume that hardware stays costly until memory supply recovers.
What to watch
- A further PS5 increase; reports say one is possible late in the year, but neither company has confirmed.
- Whether next-generation console plans slip, as some analysts argue they should.
- Whether Switch 2 and Steam hardware follow with price rises of their own.
