Microsoft’s Xbox head Phil Spencer stated that the company has no immediate plans to increase the cost of its flagship systems, but he did not completely rule it out either. Customers are speculating as to whether Microsoft would increase its prices in response to Sony’s decision to increase the PS5’s price last month in response to growing production expenses. In a recent interview with CNBC, Spencer said that although the IT company doesn’t currently have any intentions to do so, those plans could change.
“We’re always evaluating our business going forward, so I don’t think we can ever say on anything that we will never do something,” Spencer said.
“I can definitely say we have no plans today to raise the price of our consoles. In a time when customers are more economically challenged and uncertain than ever, we don’t think it’s the right move for us, at this point, to be raising prices on our consoles.”
Value for money, according to Spencer, is the foundation of the Xbox business strategy.
He cited the success of the digital-only Xbox Series S as evidence. The cheap hardware, a competitive alternative to the Xbox Series X, currently makes up more than half of Xbox sales.
Microsoft will probably want to hang onto that lead and hope that the global chip scarcity that Sony has highlighted as justification for the PS5 price increase doesn’t upset it. Since its processor is less powerful than those of the other current-generation consoles, the Xbox Series S has so far shown to be less susceptible to production shortages than those consoles.
The Xbox Series S is one of the most cost-effective gaming hardware alternatives currently available when combined with Xbox Game Pass, the value of which only increases when you purchase a membership at a discount. An increase in price would be a serious error on Microsoft’s part, seriously damaging the console’s main selling feature.
That is especially true if Nintendo maintains the same price for the Nintendo Switch, as president Shuntaro Furukawa promised to do last month to Nikkei. Sony is currently the outlier. Microsoft will be eager to take advantage of it for as long as they can.
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