Everyone’s excited about the Xbox price increases, boys. Except they aren’t. If you actually thought they were, then you’ll believe that I’m slender with washboard abs. So, as you may know, if you checked out my video from a couple days ago, Microsoft is increasing the price of Xbox hardware, games, and accessories. I’m not going to go through the full list again. Sorry, bird. I’m not going to go through the full list again, but a couple examples that stick out to me. The one terabyte Xbox Series S is going from $349 to $429. And the two terabyte Xbox Series X, the 2 TBTE Galaxy Black version, is going from $599 to $729. Let that sink in. that is $30 more expensive than a PlayStation 5 Pro and it’s just the base Series X. Microsoft never came out with like a Series X Pro. So, you’re paying more for Microsoft’s console that’s now 5 years old because it’s prettier and has more storage and it’s no more capable than the launch Xbox Series X. And Microsoft is in a distant third place when it comes to console sales. They’re at 32 million in change and they’re increasing prices. I can’t. Oh god. Well, anyway, the internet has reacted to these price increases and uh no one’s happy and they think it’s a really bad sign for things to come in the gaming industry. Daniel Ahmad, who is the director of research and insights at Nico Partners, keep in mind he analyzes the video game industry in Asia and the Middle Eastern North Africa region. So, he knows what’s going on. Well, anyway, this is the thread that he had on Twitter. This is what he had to say. Xbox is increasing prices globally. This is due to Trump’s tariffs and the global macroeconomic environment. Here’s why. One, Xbox consoles are manufactured in China and subject to 145% tariff when entering the US. Number two, the global price increases are to soften the actual price increase in the US, which is Xbox’s largest market, as well as due to currency fluctuations. Three, package games are increasing from $70 to $80 for this same reason and because they’re partially made in Mexico. Four, this is what you really need to pay attention to. I need to stress what you’re seeing here is just the beginning. Sony will be impacted by the same tariffs and we’ve already seen them raise prices elsewhere to offset the impact. Five, Nintendo did not raise prices as its manufacturing is in Vietnam, but could if tariffs increase. So essentially, he’s warning you like this is just the beginning. It’s not just going to be Microsoft. And I agree. I think that Sony is going to increase prices again and there’s a decent chance that this Switch 2 and current Switch hardware could increase in price. Like could you imagine the Switch, the original one gets more expensive and it launched in 2017. But here we are now. Paris, who is a creator for kind of funny and gamer tag radio said this about the price increases. these Xbox price increases. Fiveyear-old console going up in price and costing $600. Welcome to the new reality of $80 games. This is supposed to be, and this one hit me, this is supposed to be a hobby for everyone to enjoy, but we’re quickly seeing people being priced out. That is so true. And here’s what Paul Tassy had to say. He’s a tech journalist over at Forbes. Xbox went first, but it seems pretty unlikely that Sony and Nintendo will be able to avoid doing this too with the tariffs in place. I repeat, the tariffs, the $80 games thing is separate and just lurching toward the inevitable new industry standard now as the dominoes start falling. which contrasts what Daniel Amad said about game pricing, but I hate to say it with Mario Kart World coming out and it’s going to cost $80 if you don’t get it with the uh limited edition Switch 2 bundle. $80 is going to be the inevitable future of game prices. So, buckle up for that one. And this one really stuck out to me from Shinobi 62. God, I remember using him as a source for stories ages ago. He’s another industry insider. Uh, and he’s showing prices of what consoles used to cost. This should depress you. Uh, this feeling like another lifetime ago. He posted and look at these pictures. This is the GameCube. 99 bucks. Well, that’s when Nintendo was struggling to sell them and they really wanted to get one in your home, so they made it cheap. Uh, the PS3. Yes, I understand inflation is a thing, but still, even when these consoles were relevant in the main consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, it still felt a lot more affordable. The PS3, the slim model, many argue this is the best uh PS3 version. The super slim sucked. Uh starting at 249 bucks. If only you could get a PS5 or Xbox Series X for that price, but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen again. a base PS4, not the PS4 Pro, with one terabyte of storage, 299 or 300 bucks, and an Xbox 360 bundle, which comes with the headset, 250 gigabytes of storage, Fable 3, and Halo Reach, $199 or 200 bucks. Man, it was a different time. Now, let’s just start and discuss how Microsoft is an absolute lunatic for doing this. You are in a distant third place. The last numbers I checked here, the most current ones I could find, is the PlayStation 5 has sold over 74 million units, and you’re sitting at Microsoft in a distant third place compared to Sony and Nintendo at 32 million units and change. The reason why for this, in my opinion, the hardware from Microsoft is not bad. The Series X and S, I know it’s had people say it’s held back the ninth generation, but there was a time that the Series S, especially when the consoles launch, was a fairly good deal. But there’s no incentive to own an Xbox Series X or S. Put aside the price increases. You have your games going to multi going multiplatform. You’re bringing your games to the PlayStation 5. You bring all your games to the PC. People could play games and stream them to their smartphones and other devices. So, how do you incentivize people to buy the Series X and S? And now on top of it, while you’re in a distant third place, you’re increasing prices on hardware that’s now almost half a decade old. And and then they’re saying Microsoft’s, oh yeah, we’re definitely coming out with the nextG system. Who the hell is going to buy it? And what the hell what is the price of that nextG system going to be? I fear to know the number that they’re going to come out with and what price it’s going to be when they launch it, man. if they launch it. I I I just I feel like this price increase may be the death nail for hardware from Xbox. Not Xbox as a whole. I definitely see Xbox becoming a multiplatform service, game service, I mean to say, but there’s just no reason to own an Xbox console anymore at all. You want Game Pass, you get it on PC, and there’s other ways you could play the games. But yeah, it’s amazing what an awful, awful business move for Microsoft to increase the prices. I understand the tariffs are a thing, but Microsoft has plenty of money in the bank and they can make the money back with game sales. So, you increase the prices and make the consoles that you have out on the market even less appealing. Okay, that’s a decision that you made. And then with these game prices going up, who the hell is going to be able to afford gaming, that that was one of the things. I mean, yes, six, even when games were $60 or there was a time $50. Yes, that was a thing. Okay, that’s still a decent amount of money to put out, but you got a lot of value out of that game. I’m kind of using the word of Nintendo’s book, but it was like, okay, I’m spending $50, but I can afford that. and the amount of replay value I’ll get makes this hobby fun makes this hobby worth it. But if you’re going to price things to a point where people just are like, I need to keep my lights on. I need to pay my rent or my mortgage. I can’t afford this hobby anymore. No one’s going to be buying your consoles anyway. You’re making something that everyone could afford and the price to entry was something that was manageable to now it’s just like for me to get a console in a game is pushing me to like 600 700 sometimes even higher. I mean if you’re insane and go out and buy that two terabyte Xbox Series X the console alone before tax is 730 bucks. that’s not an affordable hobby anymore and a lot of people are just going to walk away from it and that sucks. And that in turn means that more game studios are going to shut down because less people are going to be buying games and less people are going to be buying hardware and the industry is going to contract even more. This could be the thing that brings on the crash, the gaming industry crash that everyone’s been talking about on and off for years. And I think we’re at a tipping point here. Again, I have never seen ever consoles get more expensive as they get older. It’s usually the reverse. It’s not a good sign. This is Richard tomorrow signing out. Have a good one. Hey, if you watch the whole video, what the hell are you doing? You’re not subbed yet. Click that sub button. I live stream here all the time. We have a good time. Make sure to become a subscriber. It’s free. Click the button now and hit that bell, too. Be a man.