Xbox Is Raising The Price Of Consoles, Accessories, And Games Worldwide

The suffering will continue

Just in time for my raise! Cause the world is fair, and that's how things work and stuff!
Me vote Trump! Purple lanyard water fetus!
(Chews crayon, triumphantly)

I'm sure everyone will act like this is Nintendo's fault and not the state of the world's economic climate lol

Xbox really doesn't want any sales of anything they own, do they? Oh, apart from games on other consoles.

I bought my Xbox series X years ago. Purely for Halo Infinite as I didn't have a Xbox one. Apart from Black Ops 6 and Robocop Rogue City I really haven't played it that much. It's literally just sitting there waiting for GTA 6 now and a possible new Halo game.

I think I've been priced out of this hobby. Been gaming since I found a Sega Genesis under the Christmas tree in 1993. Sigh.

Xbox makes games ?

Thanks, Obama.

Er... Nintendo.

/s

Another industry contraction is coming from all this, if you thought layoffs were bad before, brace yourselves.

@LikelySatan Purple lanyard water fetus? Should I ask?

Thank god I got invested in PC gaming a while ago and already have a good amount of games. This is the fault of corporate greed as much as it is the fault of ol’ Trumpelstiltskin.

The price hikes will continue until morale improves

@acefondu Well, don't worry. The market will sort itself out. Without aaaaany intervention for the "top" side. I assume you mean brace yourselves for massive wealth increases (for us, of course) and market corrections, so we all get a fair shot.
Cheers to us!

@FirMatt play Indie! Lot of great games that are better than major studios

@FirMatt Same here, switch 2 will be my last console. Thank god I have a huge backlog xD

@tobsesta99 I can't believe I've never heard this one. That's really good!

@Cathalm The tide raises all ships. If anything, we'll lose lots more indie studios to this.

People wanted this so they are getting it. Buckle in, it’s going be a wild ride

Xbox hardware sales are already in the gutter, so price increases will accelerate the decline.

The impact will really be felt when PS5 and Switch 2 prices increase.

Perfect time to get out of buying new games, as all 3 companies attempt to drain as much money from their customers as possible. Gotta get those CEOs another yacht!

Sadly, that's the reality we live in. Sony will do the same and so will PC. Nintendo was ahead of the curb. I really hate this. Sigh.

Nintendo was just ahead of the curve.

Guess this company wants to Trump the other company. Tarriffic.

@tobsesta99 No one is more greedy than PC companies. They price their PCs 3 to 4x it cost to make them. No one is worse than PC companies.

@AussieMcBucket even more important to support indies then right now

@Aerona I understood that reference.

They are self sabotaging themselves out of the console business to become the third party that has been so obviously coming.

I mean their console sales are down year on year as is so upping the price really seals their fate.

So the Switch 2 prices got contextually better.

Prices will continue to rise until the consumer pushes back and stops buying. They'll charge as much as they can get away with.

@abe_hikura It's not over. Sony and PC will be next.

Good news for Nintendo. They had the right analysts working on this. Can you imagine if they announced lower prices and then had to bump everything up before the thing even released or right after launch? Better to just shock everybody then have the rest of the market catch up-and the more that that happens before 6/5, the better.

@RainbowGazelle You realize that Furukawa doesn't get a lot compared to other CEOs. How quickly people forget. Only him and Miyamoto make more than 1 million.

Nintendo is far from perfect, but no one person at Nintendo makes an ungodly amount. Their workers get excellent pay, benefits and an hour paid lunches. I don't mean this to be insulting, but a lot of you need to take a business class. I got a minor in business and with all of the high tech parts, I knew gaming was gonna go up in prices because of inflation.

I wish it wasn't like this, but it is. Brace for impact, it's only begun.

You don't really need 30 games, just 2 that may cost a little more.

I've had a Series X on my list for "when the price drops" but that clearly isn't going to happen.

I’m feeling kinda salty that as far as I can tell, nobody is complaining about Xbox or PS raising their price, but when Nintendo just releases a new console with a decent price for a PORTABLE CONSOLE with it’s specs, everyone yells at them, calling them greedy, when they’re on of the few companies (that I know of) that reduced executive salaries during hard times.

@Olliemar28 € is not Europe's currency but EU's currency. UK is part of Europe, like EU. Europe is not just EU either.

@cmlobue Buy one fast, before the price increases at normal retailers.

I’m already reading lots of people outright blaming Nintendo for this, completely ignoring the fact that the president of the US enacted a trade war against the rest of the world…

For me the coming 2 years at least its Nintendo and Pc gaming.
Cant wait to get my hands on the NS2.

@Rees

People already stopped buying Xbox consoles.

That's the funny thing.

You know on second thought, Switch 2 doesn't look that expensive anymore lmao

Suddenly, Switch 2 doesn't seem so expensive.

I'm so happy to have so many games on Switch 1 and PC, because ROG Ally X will be here tomorrow.

Games from nowadays? I'll buy them in a couple of years when they'll be on 80% sale.

I thought Xbox was made in the USA, so why does it cost more to buy it in the USA? The reason Nintendo Switch and PlayStation cost more was cause those were made outside the USA, Xbox had no reason to be this expensive.

@AussieMcBucket I'm sorry. Purple lanyard water fetus is a hot button issue here in America. I shouldn't get so worked up, but I have KIDS, you know???

Guys, girls and everyone else. If you can't afford this stuff you need to record all your spending in a spreadsheet and cut out any spending on wants until you can afford it. If you can only afford needs before expending your paycheck, then I suggest getting educated in a well paid profession that there's demand for. And it's never too late, I know people in their 50s who trained to become teachers. Only you can change things. These consoles are really not that expensive at the end of the day if you do this (especially the spending monitor).

I mean it's xbox were people buying these anyway? If we thought their sales numbers were low, interested to see how they will be once these prices go up.

@Dazman

Or you can still call out the prices for taking the piss and not bow down to your corporate overlords?!

Paying MORE for LESS feature complete games ?

Uwhaaat ?

The crazy thing is even before this price rise the £70 standard for Xbox/PlayStation games was already above the new £67 eShop pricing for Switch 2 games. So £80 AAA games will probably be the new standard now on Xbox/Playstation. Joy. At least Nintendo is giving a better currency conversion to UK. Only positive thing I can really say about all this.

@Serpenterror Xbox consoles are also manufactured outside USA.

"It just goes to show that Nintendo's decision to price Mario Kart World at $80 in the US is not an isolated incident. Rising development costs and economic factors has meant that costs will be increasing across the board."

Yeah sorry no that is nonsense and needs called out.

Am I gonna be a hypocrite and buy the game? Yeah.

Is there any jusification for the game being $80 when it will likely recoup its costs in week 1? No.

Don't normalise it.

@Serpenterror Xbox consoles - like most electronics - are primarily manufactured in China.

And the economic turmoil strikes again. I am starting to see people didn’t realize just how much stuff isn’t made in the US. Ah well with great voting power comes great responsibility. But all of this could train US consumers to consume less. So that is a potential positive.

Hopefully people can stop acting like Nintendo was twirling a mustache and tying gamers to train tracks.

@Serpenterror

Some, but not all, Xboxes are assembled in the USA using parts from China, Japan, Korea and the USA, but all of the components or their raw materials are now subject to tariffs.

All electrons, regardless of where the company is HQed or where they are assembled, are dependent on supply chains from SEA. Intel is the only major chip manufacturer to make most of their chips in the US, but even they are dependent on raw materials that come from China to do so.

That's why we are already seeing US factories shutting down and laying people off; they can only make the things that they make because they have been able to buy cheap electronics from China, and to a lesser degree, cheep steel and rare earth metals from Canada. They can't do that any more.

It's hard to overstate how globally dependent US supply chains are, and how a global disruption in trade has upset these supply chains. Even the White House has changed their tone from "Good for America" to "Actually really awful for America, but hey, it's probably worse for China so we're winning".

Thanks tariff, didn't know UK, AUS, Europe and many other regions part of the US. At least we're all united.

I can't believe Nintendo would do this to Xbox.

Anyway. I kind of feel like I've been preparing for this my whole life. By this point I have enough video games and consoles to probably last me through old age especially considering the Pocket, Vita, Wii U, and various everdrives. I like to get new stuff of course but realistically I could play what I have right now until I die and be happy. It's like when the pandemic hit and my family suddenly didn't see me as so crazy for having held onto all the old video games they so readily left behind.

@T0mizawa

The price increase outside of the US is because Xboxes are assembled in the US using parts from China, so the raw price to make the units in the US has drastically increased.

Microsoft is likely moving very quickly to shut down US factories and move production to India or some other location that is friendly to China where they already have a strong footprint. Hopefully, we'll see prices outside the US drop once they happens. It won't effect the US price as the import tax will still apply to the assembled product based on where the components come from.

@pikachupikachup Theres a saying you cant please some people these days reason.

@SBandy1 you expect games to remain at $60 forever seriously i didnt see anyone whine over Nintendo64 games being $70+ a pop plus not all games will be priced at $80 but thats the current climate were in now.

I’m glad I only play one company’s system like Nintendo’s, not because I’m a close-minded fanboy but just so I’m not spending even more. Gaming is an expensive hobby. Always has been.

This nonsense is why I’m getting a system like Switch 2 at launch or soon after for the first time ever. I want to get ahead of a future recession in which even Nintendo would be forced to raise the price of everything, not just accessories and amiibo.

I hope the world economy will be stabilized soon, so we all can play super together, without worrying.

They too want to sell less games!

@Dazman While your intentions are good, the advice is a bit tone deaf...

I'm sure most folks on this site are already trying to budget responsibly. And the suggestion to just "jump into a better paying profession" is always easier said than done in both the time (and money!) it takes to get a certification + however chaotic an industry is to apply for that isnt also gonna be downsizing due to all this economic turmoil.

It'd be one thing if it was JUST hobbies getting more expensive, but it's a smaller part of a much bigger issue.

@RiasGremory

You just sound like an apologist.

Nintendo don't sell their consoles at a loss, have a massive revenue stream from charging for the online service and this is the first true Mario Kart game in over a decade that will easily recoup its cost within a month of being on sale.

So yeah charging over 70 quid for the game is a pisstake.

And I whined over paying 70 quid for Turok back in the day along with many other games. You may recall the N64 was trounced by the Playstation whose games were much cheaper.

How very funny this happens the day after I ordered a Steam Deck!

@Serpenterror I doubt much of the Xbox is actually manufactured in the USA, at least materials. It's 'designed in USA' or 'assembled in USA' at best.

Cool, I'll keep moving my gaming towards Steam instead of the console-manufacturers.

This trajectory of games being "settled" at $60, moving to $70 and now $80 (or more realistically $100 in my currency) is happing a little too fast - even if I were to agree that a rise was overdue, which I don't. My guess is we'll see an upswing in videogame piracy over the next few years.

"It just goes to show that Nintendo's decision to price Mario Kart World at $80 in the US is not an isolated incident"

Bruh, really? Are you going to use this to justify Nintendo raising the price of games? Especially when for the time being the $80 price is decided on a case-by-base basis. Nintendo even decided all its prices before the tariffs.

That's just the times we live in.

@Serpenterror Xbox is designed in the United States; not one scrap of it is made in the United States just like how Playstation 5 and Switch is made is China and Vietnam, not Japan.

@fenlix I don't think it's accurate to say Nintendo decided prices before even considering tariffs to be honest.

The tariffs were a known threat to all future imports well before they were unveiled, and although Trump never gave specifics during the campaign (does he ever?) it was clear it would at minimum match the tariffs imposed on the USA by other nations on a case-by-case basis, or be even worse as some sort of punishment.

Nintendo baked this into their prices, both the console and software. Probably with some conservative profit margin cushion in case the tariffs were even worse than expected. No competent electronics corporation was shocked by a rise in price due to tariffs in 2025. It was crystal clear protectionism was the name of the game in the US moving forward. International corporations hate it, and rightfully decry it, but it was a known issue coming down the pike.

I got a great deal on a Xbox Series X back in November. I've been playing it non-stop since then. There are currently great games being released for the system. I haven't touched my Switch since January.

I have a huge backlog of games on that system that I don't have time to get to. I'm currently playing through Indiana Jones. I think it's great! Then I'm finally moving onto South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or Elder Scrolls Remastered. I'm also taking advantage of Gamepass Ultimate, which at the moment is really good value....but I'm sure that will go up in price soon too.

The market will adjust itself. The price of games will go back down when people stop paying for them. You already see this when AAA Ubisoft games go on sale three months after launch.
IF Nintendo games are not selling at the $70-$80 price point they will absolutely adjust their strategy. I still don't think $450 is unreasonable for a Switch 2 (and apparently the market doesn't either) given the tech inside it. The GAME pricing on the other hand...is stupid. I have strong suspicions that sales will be less than Nintendo is anticipating, and they will mark down Mario Kart (with sales at the very least)

Regarding the increase in the Xbox price, I think this is a temporary adjustment under market conditions. Its important to remember that this is not permanent: the trade war is only going to happen until one of the major economies becomes negatively impacted. Once it does, someone is going to give in, and things will (mostly) go back to normal. When it does, Xbox will adjust their prices again. They are in a distant third place, and have created a model that profits from subscriptions. They are more than happy to sell the Series S at a small loss (as they have for years). They will go back down to being the "low cost option" as soon as they can.

Its also worth pointing out, Xbox has chosen not to change the price of their controllers in over ten years. Their base controller remains the same price: $60 USD.

Also reminder that sony has already raised prices.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/04/ps5-price-increases-announced-by-sony-immediately-affects-uk-europe-and-more

I know it’s overly simplistic, but this makes no sense outside of the US given supply should be up global with fewer hardware units reaching the US in the next few months and I’d expect demand in the US to go down for Xbox hardware in same time period. Also shouldn’t this only affect new titles not older ones?

Seems like the same pandemic level corp price gouging is at play here to some extent IMHO.

@MocawNow

Comment #61.

Xboxes are assembled in the US using parts from China. The price is increasing outside the US because that price of these components in increasing. Ironically, is Microsoft simply built the console where it's components are made rather then have a factory in the US, prices would not be increasing outside of the USA.

$ony and M$ saw $80 being paid for N$2 games and said, hey, why not us!

@Cathalm
Ninty set the prices BEFORE the Tariffs!

Hey remember when the GameCube dropped to $99? The good ol' days

@MocawNow a lot of it is price couching. For many of these companies the US is a larger/largest consumer market. And these price increases aren’t because the cost of manufacturing is more expensive but instead the logistics cost (shipping/importing) shot up due to a trade war. So if they can spread the cost across regions it does two things. Keeps them from having to push the entire tariff cost onto one region. Which will instacrater sales and hedges against the lower buying power of the US market as they will make some of that money back from other regions. It also absorbs shock to their partners. (If a third party accessory company stops shipping stock from China. Then when their US allocation runs out that means one less sales driver to push people further into the console ecosystem.) There are other factors and reasons of course.

The bad part is for good or ill they won’t simply tack a “tariff surcharge” on goods as that can be removed and applied with shipments that have tariffs but instead bake it into the price which means that will be more difficult to remove once the market adjusts and the trade war ends (or the US slides into a full blown recession or depression) .

“Say hello to more $80 games” — this framing of “see the bad guys are doing it, too!” Is interesting when the source article never mentions anything about $80 titles. It’s purely about physical retail prices as a result of tariffs. Everyone’s issues with Nintendo prices is in their games, e.g., charging $70-$80 for minor performance bumps of old titles. Meanwhile Xbox just rebuilt Oblivion in unreal engine 5 and only charges $50 to purchase. Oh, and one purchase allows you to play on pc or on Xbox, with cross saves to boot.

The Series X|S has a the worst selling of the 3 9th gen consoles by far. Xbox is cooked

They call this console generation 007:
0 games
0 new IPs
7 price increases

@Tfox245 this is a great point! It is worth noting that MS isn't afraid of marking their games up (Indiana Jones is $70, and most of their releases have early access "Deluxe" editions) MS remains the best value for gamers overall, especially when considering low end gaming PC's.

@pikachupikachup
I didn't see anyone complaining about the price of the Switch 2, just the game prices!

For feck sake Nintendo this is CLEARLY ALL YOUR FAULY! 🙃

@IOI
Again, the prices by Ninty were set BEFORE the tariffs were in effect!

@pikachupikachup Nah, it was never worth $500 to me. I got my Switch 2 preorder and that should be all I need for a long time.

I’ve been seriously thinking about it and because of a combination of shifting tastes and raising prices, I don’t know if I’d call myself a “gamer” anymore.

I love these worlds and characters and histories, but it’s just too much now - especially as I’m getting older and beginning to pay for things myself.

It kinda sucks, but it is what it is.

@Serpenterror
As far as I can remember, it is only assembled here, it's components are created in other countries.

And just like that Xbox lost the console war. The last place console needs to find ways to bring in new sales, not drive them away. The real winner here is Nintendo because they’ll be the most affordable console on the market by year’s end.

Just play Indies if you don't want to support this. Most triple AAA games are over hyped anyway tbh

Microsoft could've made a power move against the Nintendo price gouging, and instead nope, more lunacy.

All collusion, mark my words. MS, Nintendo, and Sony; all of them.

@RiasGremory Uhh...we whined about N64 game prices all the dang time back in the day.

@FirMatt I paid 120 Deutschmark for Ocarina of Time back in the day. It‘s not that far away from today’s prices!

The Xbox Series X is now 100 euro more then when I bought it 5 years ago. Mad stuff.

@jfp psychic abilities are actually part of the new perks to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pass! Subscribe/Update today!

Microsoft: sees NSW2 price going viral “Oh, so that’s our problem!” raises their prices in order to get publicity

@spider-kev it's almost like the tariffs were discussed before the full reveal and they have analysts to predict what might happen so they can plan for the worst case scenario and not need to raise the price after they are in effect having to raise the console price before it even launches!

@Tfox245 “Microsoft has raised the prices of Xbox consoles and controllers globally, while some new Xbox games will increase in price to $79.99 from this Holiday season.” first paragraph of source article.

“Say hello to 80$ games” nah I think I’ll say hello to piracy instead.

@pikachupikachup Because Nintendo is for the kids, obviously. They need to sell their consoles at ridiculously low prices because the only people who play them don’t earn paychecks.

"However, it's noted that incoming titles such as DOOM: The Dark Ages will not be affected."

Doom: The Dark Ages already costs €80 on Steam. How much more were you going to charge for it, Micro$oft?

@Wilforce Xbox already gave up, but they just tried to make it sound like it ended before there was a winner.

Have the US tariffs for consoles actually been implemented yet though? I thought they’d been postponed?

@Dazman
"I suggest getting educated in a well paid profession that there's demand for. I know people in their 50s who trained to become teachers."

There is so much to love about your comment, but these two sentences combined are pure perfection. It seems that you are suggesting that teaching is a 'well paid profession' (Suggestion A) and that there is 'demand for' teachers (Suggestion B).

I have carefully constructed rebuttals to these two suggestions. I will take the liberty of addressing the suggestions in reverse.

Regarding Suggestion B: I am blissfully unaware of a state anywhere in the world where the ruling elite wants a more educated populace. It's notably harder to exploit people who have even a rudimentary knowledge of history and politics, as they tend to realize that your regime is, like all of them throughout time and space, corrupt.

Regarding Suggestion A: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Thanks, Trump. As a LIB I feel totally owned.

The ‘X’ stands for ‘expensiver’.

@michellelynn0976 I'm not trying to be rude, but as a customer, I'm not interested in what the specifics of Nintendo's pay scheme is.
What I know is that these companies usually pay their higher ups ridiculous amounts (Nintendo being an exception), whilst upping the prices of their games, but including less content at launch, and (in Microsoft's and Sony's case) throwing in copious numbers of microtransactions. Nintendo, instead, never put their games on sale and will be objectively offering customers a worse deal than before with their key card nonsense, meanwhile Microsoft and Sony are similarly reducing quality across their services, whilst upping prices, and trying to force digital gaming to gain even more profits and control.
For me, enough is enough. I'm not being milked by these greedy companies any longer.

@whmchrish Well what else do you steal that has gone up in price? Nothing else except entertainment? Make a real statement and steal from the other industries so you can support those that work to bring joy in your thieving life.

Are people on here those that never goes out? Small venue concerts are $60, large are over $100 a ticket.. movies are $12 or higher, a good restaurant trip for two will cost $80-100.. But a game you play 100 hours, that had many talented people working on it's for years, no thats an outrage to pay $60-80... unreal

@Max_the_German I only paid $60 USD + Tax. Also, most RPGs of the era I got pre-owned, complete on Box, for like $40 each - including FF6 and Earthbound. Sounds like Europe is more used to this than Americans.

@TheBigK Pretty sure that was down to the GameCube not selling well at all

@ChakraStomps Actually, I go to local shows all the time, and they usually cost $10-20. I'm not sure where these $60 "small venue" shows are that you're talking about.

People who have Game Pass don't need to worry about price increase on Xbox / "Xbox PC" games as all Xbox day 1 games release there.

@ChakraStomps You are quick to attack someone personally when they simply made a statement about potentially seeing an uptake in piracy.

@SabreLevant I can't find TheBigK's original comment, but I got a GameCube for like $90 brand new direct from retail lol. I know it wasn't doing well at the time, but still.

And I still hear "Five-Hundred Ninety-Nine US Dollars" echoing in my head, and remembering how angry we all were at this at the time. When did the gaming scene all become such suckers to capitalism?

@SabreLevant Yeah, I expect a huuuuuge uptick in piracy this Gen. It's the same as the music industry in the 2000s. The prices were unfair and unrealistic, and unfriendly to the consumer, so the market responded by turning to P2P and torrents. Then Spotofy came along, offered a flat rate for nearly every song ever, and piracy dried up. The combo of affordability and convenience won out in the end. Until the gaming industry does the same, expect sole dark days for gaming profits, and a ton of people flying the skull and bones.

@Toastmaster A GamePass-like has to be the answer, full-stop. Not even per-platform. Everything in one place. Including every retro game, all licenses sorted out. Nothing enters or leaves, a permanent complete library. I'd consider throwing ~$50/mo at such a service.

@jfp in Europe where? at least in Italy and UK, teachers have very low salaries - which is why there are too few of them.

@BirdoDidNothingWrong thanks! you said what I wanted to say but with better words.

@abe_hikura I think someone from Microsoft saw all the “DROP THE PRICE” comments in the Switch 2 chat and realised they could help make it seem relatively less expensive.

@HeadPirate Aren’t Xbox consoles also manufactured in México or is that just for their discs?

@Banjo-
Why don’t they just import the consoles straight from China to Europe.
Europe should not have to share the higher costs of Trumps Tariffs.
It’s just also a lazy excuse to increase UK and Europe prices and spread the tariff costs outside the USA

@Spider-Kev That’s one game at $80. And nobody is complaining about the MINIMUM 1 game at that price on Xbox (and PS/PC when it comes). And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that Xbox wants to release games on Switch 2, so those games may be $80 on Switch 2!

@RainbowGazelle Well, one of the reasons games don't come down in price as much is more companies are moving away from manufacturing companies that use slave labor in China. BTW, I mean that as a good thing.That does make the production price go up. Hey, it's your choice and what you want to buy is up to you.

@pikachupikachup

Nordics is $120 for the full game... And that's not counting the updated version that is about to come out.

@FirMatt And for 120 DM I got a 50 Hz version, i.e. it was running at 16.7 fps. But it was a revelation nevertheless!

@Ryu_Niiyama well, that's not going to happen. Nintendo is the easy villain for the industry.

@Spider-Kev Which game? (FYI I’m in the US, so I’m talking about USD)

@pikachupikachup
I'm in the USA as well.
Missouri

@pikachupikachup
Ys Nordics

@michellelynn0976 But with PCs, you can buy the parts and assemble it yourself.
With pre-built PCs, they can only charge so much before the convenience factor is lost.

Eh, I don't even care with their current XBOX so.... whatever they did.
They will keep shooting on their feet.

@MrCarlos46

Final assembly for almost all Xbox consoles is done in the US, according to MS's discloser, with the remainder assembled in China. They do source parts from Mexico and have a large production facility in Guadalajara which used to be the final assembly facility for the 360 and the original Xbox.

I have no idea what's being made there today, nor is it's clear from any official MS discloser that I've seen, although traditionally it has been used for outdated consoles with low production runs.

@KingMike That still costs money and they easily overcharge for them. I don't own a PC because I know what a rip off these companies do. I don't mind companies making a profit, but this is ridiculous.

@FirMatt Understandable, though I made it through the Switch generation only playing games scored cheap from the Great Deals section, and I'm having a blast. No need to keep up with trends because the truly great games will float to the surface after a couple of years anyway.

@Spider-Kev That’s $59.99 USD on steam (can’t check other platforms atm)

Super obvious this was going to happen. Sony will be next, GTA 6 is going to be at the very least $80, big third parties will follow as well, at least on their premiere franchises. If you thought this was some "greed" exclusive to Nintendo, you were kidding yourself lol.

I'm finding it frustrating that these articles keep referencing the tariffs, when Nintendo themselves officially stated they had priced their games without regard to said tariffs.

@ChakraStomps judging from your comments, I assume you're generally ok with the price increase we're seeing. That's fine, you do you.

I never said that I am going to turn to piracy. On the contrary, my very first sentence was that I'll turn more towards Steam for my gaming needs. I said I assume piracy will go up, and I stand by that assessment.

We knew that enabling Nintendo to do this would pave the way for others to do it as well.
God I hate Nintendo this gen.

Yeah MS fans! Just buy a Switch 2! Games are better and at the same price!

Nice marketing Nintendo

@Cathalm I mean, yeah. Always?

@LikelySatan I'm American too. XD But I'm not familiar.

What a ***** week this is. First donkey kong was redesigned to this new abomination, and now my second favorite video game company increase prices following the example of my favorite one. this sucks. They priced me out of this hobby I love. Every video game company is completely anti consumer now. Remember kids, companies are not your friends. Miyamoto and Spencer will never care about you. Im out.

@Mariotag because they raised the price just happens when the tariff's were about to kick in. Yeah sorry I don’t buy it!

No one should be surprised by these price increase. We have inflation and now tariffs. It was going to happen sooner than later. XD

@Cathalm they are two separate things dont pretend one doesnt influence the other. We certanly are living in stupid times but the tariffs, the rising cost of development are all excuses. Microsoft reported Record breaking profits just two days ago. and now this? And Nintendo announce Mario kart at 80$ before they knew about the tariffs. this is a trend someone had to start for the rest to follow. If economy was that bad Microsoft wont be getting earnings, and nintendo wont be building theme parks and producing movies. This are Multi billion dollar companies trying to squeeze every penny out of your pocket.

@Maxz It was the neighbourly thing to do right Xbox?.

@Dazman Okay but you do know that statistically, education has been having a decreasing effect on earnings for some time now? The cost of education no longer is guaranteed to be covered by the increased pay. You're better off in the trades or something than school.

@jikflet

You need to be careful when informing your opinions with headlines. There is a lot going on under the surface which is more important.

If you take a look at MS's P/L in it's entirety, you'll find a company mitigating a crisis. The profits are only there because they slashed investment in US data centers, slashed their external investment in AI, and made massive cost saving adjustments to payroll.

Profits do not mean a company is doing great and it's all smooth sailing. Profits means management is doing their job to ensure that for every dollar they are losing on the top line, they are slashing a dollar from the bottom line. Even in a case like Microsoft, which saw growth overall, you need to look at the details and see if that growth is due to sustainable expansion, or was simply the result of unsustainable spending. That's what's happening over at MS .. the growth is only there because they pumped a TON of money into some verticals, but the profit is only their because they have already stopped spending that money.

The stock price, which is more closely tied to outlook and a consensuses on how healthy the company is over all, is down quite a bit from the $450 it was at before tariffs.

This is not a justification of MS actions. And while you're right in your assessment that companies only exist to make money, the hardware price increase is absolutely tied to tariffs. They have NOT increased prices in SEA, the only market that is insolated against the current tariffs, nor have the increased prices on other hardware that is exempt from tariffs.

As for the software price increase, that's been in the cards for a while. While Nintendo was the first to pull the trigger, Sony was actually the first to suggest they might be selling games for $80 by 2025, all the way back in 2022.

Oh, what a surprise! It’s like the entire gaming industry is pushing for a price hike and not just one company.

Told ya it would be the new industry standard.

@Cathalm ignorance to the maximum. Clearly this Trump things make havoc in all things including gaming. F Trump

@jikflet just don't play gaming anymore. You can go camping, go cycling, go hiking as a your new entertainment. No need to always staying inside your home anymore. Go outside. Gaming is not the only entertainment

@LikelySatan Acting that way about these situations isn't going to make them any better. At this point, all you can really do is take the good with the bad, and see how things turn out whilst still living your life.

@Jemae That's what I was thinking when I first heard about the price spikes. As fun as these games are, we've got to remember they're just games. And experiencing life with the game console turned off is much more important.

I think people forget PS5 and XboxS(don't recall if they are even made in the US anymore) is made in China and that is the problem alot of poster tend to forget on here. That's why the price spike for NA markets get hit at. If PS and XBox diversified like Nintendo did then they could've less some of the tariffs. China Nintendo Switch 2 is for the rest of the world and Vietnam is for NA(US/Cananda) market. But soon Nintendo will mostly likely move the NA hardware side out of the tariff zone to reduce the cost as well.

Just remember Nintendo championed this price increase this time

@Jemae I live outsie. im a seafarer, Gaming is my escape from being utside working 14 hours per day on a vessel.

I've been stuck playing Minecraft Allthemods 10 lately and have been putting several hundreds into it, more than any recent game that has come out.
These newer games capped at $80+ just don't appease to me anymore.

@Jester676

As it's been stated by me and dozens of others in the comments, almost all Xboxes are assembled in the US, with parts from China. That's reason the price increase is happening outside of the US. Microsoft imports parts from China to assemble in the US, and has to pay a tariff on those parts now, skyrocketing the production cost.

Microsoft has already said they are looking to ramp down the US assembly factory and move assembly to either Mexico or India, just like how Apple has moved all assembly out of the US and to India already.

Nintendo has no plans to move production to the US, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because just like Xbox they would still have to pay tariffs on the parts they get from China. China and Japan have a free trade agreement, so it's always going to be cheaper for Nintendo to make their consoles their. That's why the Japanese Switch costs $320! The international Switch, made in Vietnam, is almost twice the price (in Japan).

Intel is the only chip maker to make the majority of their chips in the US, so if you want to make an electronic device, you have to import from China, Korea and Japan, and you pay tariffs on all your imports. There is no "magic" way to just set up a factory in the US and start cranking out consoles using US parts, because you can't get the parts you need from the US.

@HeadPirate That's why the Japanese Switch costs $320!
This is the JPN console Region locked-Only for JPN. Your giving misinformation here.

@Jester676

That's what I mean by "Japanese switch" vs. international Switch. And regardless, my point that you can sell a switch for profit at $320 in Japan because manufacturing costs in Japan are so much lower is not impacted by a region lock.

I honestly enjoy discourse and I'm very happy you replied, but in the future, please reply to the post as a whole or not at all. I'm not a huge fan of Strawmen and generally don't reply to them.

@HeadPirate huh....Now your talking about selling Switch 2 for 320 JPN your comparisons doesn't match here.

This will be the nail in the coffin for them. Nobody was buying Xboxes to begin with!

@Jester676 but Japanese gamers still need to buy Switch 2 at ¥50,000. That's more than Switch 1 at ¥30,000. They also need to pay higher in their Yen

@Jemae So where are are these figures shown at?

@pikachupikachup
Does that include all the DLC?

Idk they said videos games should be 80 I feel like they just want to make games that prices to get more out of people. but I don’t think they really need to after oblivion R, expedition 33, and split fiction, around 50 which two of them could run for GOTY really shows that the games shouldn’t be 80.

@SabreLevant which is why it's super funny that Microsoft is going in the opposite direction

I remember when people were like, “60 DOLLAR GAMES!” 😡 This was going to happen, sooner or later. My question is, what makes people want to spend money on an Xbox? I know there's Game Pass. But Microsoft doesn't seem to produce must-have titles. At least, it seems to be rare. And everything else is on other consoles. But they're great at showing off fancy trailers, with a TBD release date!

Ow it's ok don't like sh@+% box any way😁

@FirMatt Yeah, but there are no way Sony or Nintendo would put games on Game Pass or anyone elses sub.

Today it's impossible. Maybe in 10 years.

@Dazman The great news is the world is exactly as simple as you say it is

@HeadPirate
The Japanese Switch 2 only looks cheap to us westerners because of the significant devaluation of the Japanese Yen over the last 3 years. Japanese consumers still have to pay ¥50000-53000 for the Switch 2, a 50%+ increase over the ¥32000 Switch 1.

@westman98

I get what you're saying and you're not wrong, but it's not relevant to any of the points I'm making.

I think the two best ways to process the price of the Japanese Switch are as follows:

Global - If you look at the price in USD, that is the price that a system could be sold in USD while still being profitable. The exchange rates cancel out. So my point isn't about it's affordability in Japan, it's about it's manufacturing cost when converted to USD. The Switch that is being manufactured in Japan (The JP locked version) is cheaper to make then the Switch being manufactured in Vietnam, because of how the supply lines work and Japans favorable trade relations with China.

Internal - If you are going to talk about the system's affordability in Japan, you should look to compare it to other systems, not the original Switch. It is currently 25,000 Yen cheaper then the digital PS5, 20,000 Yen cheaper then the Steam Deck. Compare that to the US, where the Switch 2 is $50 more then the PS5 digital or the Steam Deck.

I'm not saying the system is cheaper in Japan because of exchange rates ... My wife is literally paid in Yen. But it's much cheaper then the other options in Japan, and even more so if you compare it to the relative differences outside of Japan.

The statements "Paid in Yen, the JP Switch 2 is insanely cheap compared to other gaming consoles" and "Paid in USD, the JP Switch 2 is insanely cheap compared to the international Switch" are both true, so I would argue that the general statement "The JP Switch 2 is insanely cheap" is also true.

@HeadPirate
There are no Switches manufactured in Japan, rather they are manufactured in China, Vietnam and Cambodia (mostly China). The Vietnam/Cambodia units are shipped to the USA to avoid the 145% Trump tariffs on Chinese imports, while the Chinese units are shipped to the rest of the world.

Nintendo is choosing to subsidize the Japanese market because the Yen is super weak and they don't want to price out the Japanese market, which is a very important market for Nintendo. On the other hand, Sony/Microsoft have increased the price of the PS5/XBS in Japan multiple times as the Yen has weakened over the years, but since PlayStation and especially Xbox have a relatively small presence in Japan, they can get away with pricing out the Japanese market and not hurt their global gaming business too much.

@westman98

I few points:

The Switch JP is manufactured Chania is assembled and packaged in Japan. I should have been more clear on what I meant by that. Nothing is manufactured in Japan. Regardless, the core point is "The one in Vietnam costs more to make" ... which shouldn't be that contraveral. The labor cost in China are much lower as are the cost to transport parts.

The Switch 2 is not "subsidized". It is being sold at profit. I personally love the narrative that it's just Japan doing Japan and putting customers before profits, and initially I pushed that narrative. But from Nintendo's internals it's looking like that isn't the case. NOA and NUK have chosen a higher mark up, and the manufacturing costs of the JP unit are lower.

Beyond that, while I again don't disagree with you on any given point, I'm not 100% on what your core argument is. That's probably my bad, and I apologize. If you were simply trying to correct the error I made and generally inform my opinion, then thank you!

@Jester676 official Nintendo Japan

@Zufolobelisk nope. Sorry bud, but I'm not letting any of this slide with the people that got us here. Not giving an inch.

@Yoshi3 Did Nintendo need to raise prices to $60 or $70 before MS did it? Nope.

Did Nintendo raise their system price? Nope. Microsoft and Sony have multiple times though.

Did Nintendo need to add DLC to their games for Microsoft to? No.

The reality is they're all going to raise prices. Sony and Microsoft just waited til Nintendo did because they likely knew people like you would pretend Nintendo is the reason.

I bet, Sony will have also increased their prices before July 1st of this year.

Doom: The Dark Ages on Steam, currently costs the same as Mario Kart World at EB Games, 120 Dollarydoos..

@fenlix Those prices are a thing since 2020 in Europe.

I don't see why you americans should pay less than us, especially when your currency is lower than ours so it make even less sense.

It's news like this that makes me think of the Latin phrase "panem et circenses," or "bread and circuses." Basically, people will forgive many things as long as they have their food and entertainment.

But with both food and entertainment now becoming unaffordable to many people (with some now having to take out loans to pay for groceries), I shudder to think what the future holds for modern society.

@RainbowGazelle

1) How are game cards a worse deal than the previous `code in a box` scheme?

2) Why is it Nintendo's fault that 3rd party publishers refuse to take on the cost of cartridges?

3) Why is Nintendo at fault when it is still the only company offering a portable gaming device with physical media capability?

4) Do you know of an alternative physical media that can store as much as SD Express, can run as fast whilst simultaneously being much, much cheaper? (hint: it doesn't exist hence why Nintendo had to create it).

@TanukiSan7x

1. Key cards are better than the code in a box rubbish, but still far worse than actual physical releases.

2. Nintendo is seemingly allowing for their bad behavior by even offering key cards to them. Although you're right, the 3rd parties are even scummier. I never said otherwise.

3+4. Put simply, key cards are yet another way for publishers to pass costs onto the customer. Couple this with the cost of the new express cards (and the Switch's laughably small internal memory), and it's a double blow to customers. Add to that the increase in first party game prices and accessories, and it's all far too much to justify.

I'm not saying I have a solution, but simply from my customer standpoint, I'm being offered worse quality for a higher price. And I refuse to accept that.

@Dr_Lugae did Sony or Microsoft use the “open world tax” as an excuse to raise games $10 dlls even above current gen games?
No? Then yes, Nintendo did it first.
Nintendo did it because they knew people like you will pay whatever excuse they throw at you. In this case it’s “hey! It’s open world! Pay $10 more!” 😉

I am sorry world. I tried to stop 47 three times. Sadly it only worked in 2020. And it will only get worse until he leaves office. That is why I am getting my switch 2 now before “keep the price” is the new online chant.

Well if everyone follows Nintendo's tactic, it won't affect Nintendo as much any more. Personally, I was quite surprised we had games at € 60,- for as long as it lasted. I rarely buy games day 1 and ALWAYS manage some type of discount. Except for Collector's Editions and I only buy those from a couple of series; Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles, Metroid and Zelda.

My advice to everyone is to just hold off buying games day 1 and be patient. Make sure you don't suffer from FOMO and have a backlog big enough to last way past your lifespan.

@DominionGamma
I doubt they'd have had the heads up.
Also, the pricing announced was not exclusive to America.

Is America great yet?

Good thing I have every console I need right now. The best thing to do will be to buy used. Sadly, this isn't going to stop people from buying anything. Sales will continue as is, proving that companies can raise prices, and it will stay that way. Even if tariffs go away, the prices will remain because people showed the corpos that they will bend over and take it.

@TanukiSan7x Once the Switch 2 servers shut down (they will) all the game key cards will cease to function. It's a code in a box with extra steps.

@Yoshi3 I’m not saying Nintendo is completely in the right, but I think that the only reason they made MKW $80 is to make the bundle seem better, to enhance early console sales. So it’s not an open world tax. Want any proof? Check out DKB. That’s their 3d Mario replacement, and it’s only $70. Nintendo stayed at $60 so long, and when they changed to $70 for ToTK, nobody blamed Sony or Microsoft, everybody just said ‘ok’. Now when Nintendo is charging $80 for ONE GAME that you can get officially for $50, everybody is mad at them. Yes, I am a Nintendo ‘fanboy’, but you’re a Sony/MS fanboy.

@BinaryMessiah True but the point is it was the most user friendly option that Nintendo could provide to gamers whilst satisfying the demands of third parties.
People are pushing this issue as being an evil wrought by Nintendo while the truth is it was the best possible compromise to satisfy all parties.

@Spider-Kev Can’t tell, but I’m guessing no. I think I saw a deluxe edition for $100, but I doubt that only includes all of the DLC (at least I hope)

Ys X:
Standard: $59.99
Deluxe Upgrade: $24.99

Deluxe: $79.99

Ultimate Edition: $129.99
Ultimate Upgrade: $74.99

Attachment pack: $17.99
Costume Pack: $12.99
Sandra's Pack: $14.99
Starter Pack: $12.99
Advanced Pack: $34.99

Crimson Night: pre-order?
Mana Wielder: pre-order?
Rusveri Hearts: pre-order?

Freebie Set A: $0
Freebie Set B: $0

@SBandy1 keep telling yourself that.

@LikelySatan
So then that means you have an issue with the following people:
Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, obama, Biden as well as everyone that voted for them and worked for them.
They are the ones that sold out the US to foreign investors and got rid of our self-sustsaining industries!

And look at Nintendo's prices around the world, it isn't just the US that has these horrible prices! So you can't lay all the blame at just Trump!
You are actively looking for a boogeyman.

@siavm
You didn't do a thing to stop President Trump!
Anyone that watched the results could see with their own eyes that the election was stolen.

States were being called hours before polls closed, giant bumps in numbers for ONLY one delegate and zero for another.

@RiasGremory

Keep talking sense to myself and not be a sycophant?

Yes I will keep doing that ta.

What else is new, the high seas be calling mates.

@jfp "My personal solution for increased prices will be to bring buying games and actually playing them more into alignment. So long, backlog!"

Exactly. Buying way more games than you actually play has inflated the game industry for a long time. A lot of core gamers buy 8 games, some of them on sale, and only play one of them. Then they buy 4 more.

The industry will look a lot different when the vast majority of gamers only buy one game before playing it through.

I've also adjusted to a more game cleared kind of purchase habit. Once you see the credits roll, you've cleared the game in the developer's eyes. Any more game time is a bonus at best, and depending on your perspective, at worst it's only disrupting your ability to experience other games within your lifetime.

Inflation is real. 23% since the launch of PS5/XS. On that basis alone, $500 consoles from late 2020 should now be $615. And "wages not keeping up" doesn't change that fact. Yes, it's unfortunate wages aren't keeping up, but that doesn't negate the reality that inflation exists whether you like it or not, whether your wages have kept up or not.

Tariffs are also real. 145% rate has been levied against China in an effort to decrease dependence on a foreign communist regime. Which in theory is good. But what's not good is the price that must be paid for it.

Now. If the president does what's right and gives the revenue back to US citizens (enough revenue has already been generated to issue $50 checks to all 350 million citizens- by year's end it could be $500-1,000) it will more than offset any increased costs. However, if the president does not do what is right and does not funnel that tariff revenue back to citizens, we'll all be paying the price (literally).

Nintendo is the only one with the foresight to move some production to Vietnam beforehand, which can be used exclusively to supply the US. Yes, they're also affected by tariffs but not to the same extent. At worst, 32% (it was previously 46% but I think it was lowered to 32%, the 10% pause aside) of a $400 cost would be about $130. If they increase the price of the console to $529.99 and break even rather than turn a profit, we're looking at a $530 Switch.

But PS/Xbox are screwed. Their manufacturing is all in China. Which means even if a $500 PS5/XSX costs them $400 to make, the tariff alone would be $600. Meaning they'd have to raise prices to $1,000 just to break even. Meaning that $600 XSX isn't going to be enough to cut it. Not nearly enough.

And I just don't see how PS/Xbox competes under those circumstances. Their only hope is to lobby for an exemption.

@pikachupikachup lmao, I’ve been a Nintendo fanboy since before you were born. I was playing the OG Zelda on a NES at 5 a couple of years after release. Now that that’s out of the way, even as a fanboy I don’t have to defend questionable decisions from a company.

Yes it’s an open world tax. TOTK did it and we all know that game shouldn’t have had a price increase as it was mostly reused assets. But they sold us that idea “there’s a lot of content, it’s open world, it’s Zelda” and people fell for it. (They didn’t for BotW as they were just experimenting with the idea)
And they saw that they could get away with it, (remember that they promised the price increase was ONLY for that game), but not even 2 years later they did it for ALL games, but why stop there?
If they could for a famous and beloved franchise they could get away with it AGAIN with another popular franchise. Why? Because it’s now an open world and its “brimming with content”.

People are not complaining about DK because yeah, it became the new standard. But raising games from $60 to $80 in only 2 years just because now Mario Kart is open world (or in their words: including lots of content) is the worst excuse I’ve ever seen in my lifetime as a gamer.
By that logic Xenoblade Chronicles should have been $100 when it released on the WiiU, but funny, that wasn’t Nintendo’s greediest era like it is today, isn’t it?
Nobody blamed Sony/Microsoft because they entered in a new era with higher production values and budgets with the PS5 and Xbox compared to Switch games.

Ok, charge me $70… I understand that your production values are higher now…. What… you’re charging $80 now? For a Mario Kart? Why? Because it’s open world??!!! Loool, ohhh you silly Nintendo! 😂

“ Now when Nintendo is charging $80 for ONE GAME”
Curious that’s exactly the same thing people were defending TotK for 2 years ago isn’t it?
“It’s just for one game”
And look where we are now after ToTK

“that you can get officially for $50”
so you’re telling me that their profit point begins at $30? Wow they must be crazy to try to sell games at almost double then instead of keeping a $70 price tag like all other games… isn’t it?…… isn’t it? Ohhh you’re telling me that now Nintendo is calling it “variable pricing”? So you mean that they could charge $90-$100 if they feel like people will follow? Doesn’t it just sound lovely?

Making that last nail in the coffin an expensive one

Don't see those "Drop the Prices" calling this out???

The prices have been subsidized and effectively going down, with cheap Chinese labor and lack of environmental concerns, for some time now. It is ending, and we'll return to a normal economy, where we will have to do productive work also in the west.

@Spider-Kev bye!

@LikelySatan someone didn't like the truth!

@OldGamer999 Did you see the chart on Pure Xbox? It's more rigorous. So, the weird thing is that some consoles have a huge difference between regions and others don't, so pricing seems chaotic to a certain extent.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/05/heres-how-the-new-xbox-prices-compare-to-ps5-and-nintendo-switch-2

Examples:

PlayStation 5 Pro £699.99 $699.99 €799.99

But older graphic cards and processors always cost less over time in computers and laptops

@Oldstalk The tariffs have certainly thrown off some of the equations, but there's some logistical factors such as geography and population: shipping product is much cheaper by sea, but shipping product from southeast Asia to Europe is more likely to get heisted my modern day sea pirates. So it can be sold in countries with lower population (and thus lower sales projection).

@AussieMcBucket
I don‘t wanna make fun of it if it‘s really an issue but I gotta say it would make a good name for a rock band.

@SabreLevant yeah, trigger finger on this site. Shoot first , ask questions maybe later, maybe not. Piracy is pathetic. If you saw someone casually stealing from a store, from your house, from your bank and then acting like it's normal just because they feel entitled to whatever it is then you'd probably get sick of it as well

@Yoshi3 Reused assests? the game added two thirds of its world (sky and underworld) and massive new physics systems. The amount of stuff taken for granted by gamers is beyond spoiled.

@ChakraStomps I think you're taking this stuff a bit too seriously

@SabreLevant The reason I am is when things die they are dead. I've seen the damages of piracy on creative people's lived from the 80's till now. In games and music the most.

Look how adamant and loud people are on trans-issues the past 10 years while the well being of all creatives gets talked down as 'you taking it too seriously'. . I never say buy things you dont like or value but support what you do and protect all that create. And if a corporation abuses their workers call them out, but dont support stealing work.

Take care.

@ChakraStomps You are blowing this way out of proportion. Pirating isn't as big of a problem as you make it out to be - first and foremost when it comes to games it does not equal 'theft', not only because that implies something material taken away from someone else. Secondly, a pirated copy of a game =/= a missed sale necessarily.