Xbox chief warns of the next-gen price hike that now feels inevitable
The annoying memory shortage could make the next Xbox more expensive
The news has been pretty good for Xbox fans since Asha Sharma took over the gaming division. Things seem to be moving in a positive direction, as the company looks towards the successor to the Xbox Series X games console.
The price of Game Pass has gone down, there’s been a big refocus around the Xbox brand and there’s even been talk of giving loyalists back their exclusive games ahead of the launch of the next-generation Project Helix console.
However, the good news does not come without caveats and, as expected, Sharma is now warning users of the inevitable price increase that’s going to come with the new console. And, it’ll all come down to those pesky memory costs.
In an interview with Game File she said: “Memory costs will impact pricing, will impact availability. As we think about being where the world plays, we will take that into consideration. So we’re not ready to share a launch timeline right now. The world’s pretty dynamic.”
Sharma says she’ll be focused on “what’s in our control” in the meantime, but all recent indications are that we’ll be looking at a pretty substantial increase in price when the next-generation rolls around in the next couple of years.
She added: “My number one focus, though, is to focus on what’s in our control, build a great console to play great games, including your PC games.”
It’s all down to the largely unwanted AI drive is consuming RAM chips faster than they can be made. Thanks for that Silicon Valley.
Chris Smith
