The price of Xbox consoles and related services such as Game Pass, will rise in price in the short termThe head of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, hinted at WSJ Tech Live last night.

“We have to look at the economic return on our business, the cost of doing business”Spencer said. “We’ve kept the price of our console, we’ve kept the price of our games and also our subscriptions. I guess we can’t do this forever. I think at some point we will have to raise some prices on some things,” he stressed.

White and bottled. The American media assumes it the price of Xbox consoles will increase. It should be recalled that Sony already raised the price of the PlayStation this summer, and everything indicates that Microsoft will follow the same path and increase the current prices of the S series (300 euros) and the X series ($500).

Also rumored (as well as consoles without official confirmation). price increases for prepaid services such as Game Pass. Spencer says that while the Game Pass subscription on PC has experienced a “incredible growth”service slowed down on consoles “mainly because at some point we have already reached the maximum number of users who want to subscribe”Spencer said.

The boss of Xbox promises it, of course prices will be maintained this holiday season as well. «As we entered this festive season, we felt it was very important to maintain the prices we have.”Spencer said. “Consumers are more uncertain now than they have been in a long time, and we want our gaming platform to be something they find appealing”.

If you’re thinking of buying Xbox consoles, next month’s Black Friday season might be a good opportunity before prices go up. If you’re able to find affordable units because that’s another one… Production/distribution of the latest generation of Microsoft (and Sony) consoles is still an absolute disaster, making gold for tech mobsters, speculators and bootleggers.

For the rest of what I have to tell you that you don’t know. Just as we were beginning to see the light after the COVID pandemic, Putin arrived and invaded Ukraine. Inflation is breaking records, while wages are not growing at that rate. Rising interest rates will put serious pressure on mortgage holders and the overall economic outlook for 2023 is pretty bleak.

Also. The technology market has its own problems such as a token shortage that penalizes several sectors. And as far as services are concerned, we have to remember that Apple, Netflix, Spotify, Disney or YouTube raised prices at least in part of the subscription fees, while Microsoft kept them. The price of Xbox consoles and their services is only a matter of time, and everything indicates that this will happen in the first quarter of 2023.