“Unfortunately, the prices of memory and storage for consoles have increased by more than 2.5 times and we expect them to double again by the fall of 2027,” Xbox said, adding that the crisis in the hardware supply chain has hit the video game sector particularly hard. Xbox had raised the prices of its consoles twice in the past year, due to cost pressures caused by tariffs, strong competition and uncertainty in consumer spending. Rival Sony raised the prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles in April, following another increase implemented in August last year.
Meanwhile, Apple, the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company, raised prices of iPad tablets and MacBook laptops on Thursday, saying it could no longer afford the rising costs of memory chips and data storage, driven by the expansion of data centers for artificial intelligence.