Microsoft Is Raising Xbox Console Prices by $100 to $150 and Killing the 2TB Model

Microsoft just told Xbox players to reach deeper into their wallets. Effective August 1, 2026, every Xbox console the company sells is going to cost more, and one configuration is being pulled from the lineup entirely. The Xbox Series S 512GB climbs by $100, every 1TB model climbs by $150, and the 2TB Galaxy Black Series X is being sunset with no replacement announced. Microsoft framed the move as a response to a global components crisis, but to anyone who pre-ordered GTA 6 last night at $79.99 and is staring down a fall of $99.99 Ultimate Edition launches, the timing feels surgical. A console that used to live in the impulse buy range for holiday shoppers is about to cross the line where it competes with a used car payment, and the official XBOX tweet announcing the change is already a top post of the day.

The exact numbers

Microsoft's post on Xbox Wire lays out the increase without region-specific numbers yet, only the $100 and $150 deltas and the August 1 effective date. Last October Microsoft already pushed Xbox prices up by $20 to $70 in the U.S., and on retail floors a current Xbox Series X is sitting at roughly $573 in deals at Walmart and Target. Add $150 to that sticker and the new floor for the 1TB console lands somewhere in the $720 range before tax, and the 512GB Series S stops being a sub-$300 impulse buy for the family that just wanted a way to play Minecraft with the kids. Microsoft is also offering four make-it-easier programs to soften the landing: Buy Now Pay Later through Microsoft Store, 0% APR financing for up to 12 months on Amazon, a previously played console program with retail partners, and Certified Refurbished Xbox consoles at up to $100 off MSRP. That is a lot of financing help for hardware that just got more expensive, and it tells you Microsoft already knows the optics are bad.

Why now, and what is breaking

Microsoft is pointing at the components crisis that has been squeezing consumer electronics for two years. The company says console storage and memory prices have gone up by more than 2.5x and it expects another doubling by fall 2027, which would put a 1TB NAND module at roughly five times the price Microsoft was paying when the Series X launched. Apple raised prices on most of its hardware earlier the same day and cited the exact same memory demand, so the headwind is not invented. The problem for Xbox is structural: Microsoft has said for years that consoles are sold at a loss, with the gap made up on software, services, and the cut Microsoft takes from third party game sales on the platform. When the bill of materials goes up and the install base of paying subscribers is also contracting, the math stops working. Killing the 2TB model removes a configuration that probably never sold in volume anyway, and pushes every remaining buyer into a more expensive 1TB SKU. The result is a smaller lineup, a higher average selling price, and a faster path to the next generation of hardware that Microsoft clearly wants to ship.

The room is on fire

The official XBOX tweet announcing the change has 2 million likes, 249 million impressions, and 808 reposts within hours of going up, and the reply section is the kind of place where the ratio is doing all the work. Klobrille, the long time leaker, summarized the four mitigation programs and pulled 248 likes and close to 10 million views on the same news, which is a lot of engagement for what amounts to a paragraph of bullet points. Wario64 was already posting the pre-increase $573 deal prices for the Series X at Walmart and Target an hour after the announcement, which is the kind of timing that tells you retailers were tipped off before the press release went out. IGN framed the move as Microsoft blaming a components crisis, and the tag #IGNSummerOfGaming is now adjacent to a story about price hikes in the middle of a sales event. The shorthand from the community: thanks for the financing, can we have the old price back.

The CriticalPixel take

Hardware price hikes in 2026 are not news on their own, but Xbox just did the worst possible version of one. Adding $100 to a Series S kills the only reason a budget buyer ever gave the platform a shot, and a $150 jump on the 1TB model turns a fall stacked with $99.99 Ultimate Editions into a no-win affordability story for households that were already stretching. Microsoft is offering financing instead of cutting into its own margin, which is the kind of move that protects the next quarter and torches the brand at the same time. A platform that told everyone for a decade that it was the affordable, friendly alternative to PlayStation just did the exact opposite on a Wednesday afternoon, and the response under the official tweet says it all without a single person in the replies typing a positive reaction. We will be watching the August 1 price tags at retail very closely, because the second someone finds a $549 last year Series X in stock, the deal community is going to gut the new pricing for Microsoft in a single afternoon.

What to do before August 1

If you have been waiting on a Series X or a Series S, the next five weeks are the window. Wario64's deal list still has $573 Series X inventory at Walmart and Target as of right now, and Certified Refurbished 1TB Series X digital editions are already sitting at Microsoft Store with up to $100 off MSRP for anyone willing to skip a retail box. Game Pass and the next generation of Xbox hardware are both coming, but neither one is going to make a $770 entry fee feel reasonable for the player who was planning to grab a console for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Halo: Campaign Evolved. Microsoft is not bluffing about the components pressure, and Apple moving the same day makes that part of the story easy to believe. What Microsoft has not earned is the benefit of the doubt on whether this is the only price hike coming, or just the loudest one of three more before the next console generation lands. Either way, the new Xbox math starts on August 1, and it is not in your favor.