Xbox Series X And S To Get Price Increase In One Of Its Most Difficult Markets

Summary

• Xbox faces challenges in Japan, including a 12-17% price increase due to currency fluctuations.
• Microsoft's Xbox business is struggling, with lower hardware sales and a backlash against Game Pass changes.
• The company is also dealing with issues like decreased revenue, lack of advertising, and the death of Xbox 360 Marketplace.

Over the past few weeks, there have been a few key indicators as to how the Xbox business is performing, with a variety of issues breaking into the mainstream. These have ranged from price increases and value cuts to falling sales.

Thanks, Xbox, I'm Never Subscribing To Game Pass Again

Game Pass doesn’t live up to its USP of good value for day one, first-party exclusives anymore.

Now, amidst what is a difficult time for the company, Microsoft has announced a price increase in one of its most notoriously difficult markets.

Microsoft Confirms Price Increase For Xbox Series S And X In Japan

In a press release on its Japanese website via Famitsu, Microsoft confirmed that its latest consoles would be seeing the following increases:

• Xbox Series X: 59,978 yen (£319.44/$406.65) → 66,978 yen (£356.72/$454.11)
• Xbox Series S 1TB (Black): 44,578 yen (£237.42/$302.24) → 49,978 yen (£266.18/$338.85)
• Xbox Series S 512GB: 37,978 yen (£202.27/$257.49) → 44,578 yen (£237.42/$302.24)

This equates to a roughly 12 percent increase for the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S 1TB and around a 17 percent increase for the Series S 512GB model.

It's an interesting move, given the Japanese market has typically been the biggest that Microsoft has failed to crack. Current estimates put the Xbox Series of consoles at around 600k units sold since launch versus around 5.6 million for the PlayStation 5, meaning that Sony's console is selling at an almost 10:1 rate of Microsoft's.

A key factor of the increase is likely to be the strength of the Japanese Yen. The currency is currently at its lowest rate versus the US Dollar since around 1990, over 30 years, meaning Microsoft is effectively making less money per console sold in Japan.

The Xbox's Ongoing Worries

Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has had a litany of concerns, this increase being just one.

Early last month, Microsoft hit the news cycle by announcing an increase in Xbox Game Pass prices and the creation of a new "Standard" tier. The Game Pass changes were slammed by fans as "Confusing" and "Absurd," and by the FTC, which labeled the increase as "Product Degradation," essentially meaning that customers are getting a worse deal for their buck.

These increases were then followed by Microsoft's financial results, which confirmed that revenue from the company's hardware sales had dropped by a whopping 42%, with the latest console series' sales trailing behind the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that the company admitted it doesn't advertise as much as PlayStation does in Europe.

While not a financial concern, Xbox was also in the news cycle recently, thanks to the death of the Xbox 360 Marketplace.

Xbox Series X

Launched in 2020 in conjunction with the Xbox Series S digital-only console, the Series X is the disc version of Microsoft's premier gaming platform.