£670 for a Series X? Xbox's UK Price Hike Is Brutal

£670 for a console that launched at £449. That's where the Xbox Series X with a disc drive now sits in the UK, after price increases that went into effect on August 1. Microsoft confirmed the US hikes back in June, but the full European and UK numbers only became clear once retailers updated their listings, as first reported by VGC.

Every Xbox console has been hit. The 512GB Series S jumped from £300 to £430, a 43 percent increase. The 1TB Series S went from £350 to £520. The digital Series X climbed from £450 to £620. And the disc model, the flagship, went from £500 to £670. In Europe, 1TB models saw a flat €200 increase, while 512GB models rose by €150. In a statement back in June, Xbox blamed "the current components crisis" and said console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x, with another doubling expected by the fall of 2027.

I get that the memory shortage is real and industry-wide. Sony raised PS5 prices in April too, pushing the PS5 Pro to $899.99 / £789.99. But Xbox is in a uniquely bad position to be asking customers to pay more. The brand just cut 3,200 jobs across its gaming division, including at Bethesda and Id Software. Revenue from Xbox content and services dropped 10 percent last quarter. Asking UK buyers to spend nearly £700 on a Series X, a console approaching its sixth birthday with no successor announced, is a brutal sell. As one Resetera commenter put it: "There is no way in 2026 I would be paying nearly £700 for a Series X with a disk drive." I struggle to disagree.