Those are some strong words.
The reasons to get an Xbox Series X have only plummeted for me in the past few years. Xbox Game Pass is just as good on PC as Xbox for the most part, and yet the console is more expensive than it’s ever been. In the last year, Xbox consoles have seen two different price hikes, with the latest (set to go live October 3) being attributed to «the macroeconomic environment».
As noted by GamesRadar, this second price increase would bump the 2 TB Xbox Series X all the way up to $800, which is $200 more than it was in January this year. Ex Blizzard president Mike Ybarra weighed in on this change on his X account.
He says, «Console price increases are not tariff issues, they are profit issues. And the reason why profits are not where they should be is a far, far deeper issue vs. the tariff excuse.»
A user argues that Ybarra is linking ‘missteps’ Microsoft has made in the market to consoles underperforming, and that tariffs are a good way of making up the lost cost. The post says, «Microsoft is just passing the costs to the customers to maintain their margins.»
In response to this claim, Ybarra says, «Yes. And tariffs went up once so that does justify the single price increase.
