The Xbox Price Hike Is Now Live: Series X Costs $799.99, and the 2TB Model Is Gone

If you were putting off an Xbox purchase, the window just closed. The price increase Microsoft announced back in June officially took effect on Saturday, August 1, and every current Xbox console in the US now costs at least $100 more than it did on Friday.

The headline number is hard to ignore: a 1TB Xbox Series X now sells for $799.99, up from $649.99. That is $300 above the console's $499.99 launch price from 2020, a 60 percent climb over its lifetime, and it happened without a hardware revision. Same box, new sticker.

The new prices, model by model

The increase lands as a flat bump by storage tier: 512GB models are up $100 and 1TB models are up $150, worldwide. In the US, that works out to $499.99 for the 512GB Series S (previously $399.99), $599.99 for the 1TB Series S, $749.99 for the 512GB Series X Digital, and $799.99 for the flagship 1TB Series X.

There is also a quiet casualty. The 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition, the biggest and prettiest Series X, is being discontinued entirely rather than repriced. If you wanted the most storage you could get in an Xbox out of the box, that option no longer exists new, so the remaining stock on shelves is the end of it.

Why it happened and what you can do about it

Microsoft's explanation is the same one rippling through the whole electronics industry right now: memory. In its announcement, the company said console storage and memory prices have "increased by more than 2.5x" and that it expects another doubling by the fall of 2027. It also reminded everyone that consoles are typically sold for less than they cost to build, which is Microsoft's way of saying the old prices were already subsidized.

To soften the landing, Microsoft is leaning on payment programs rather than discounts: buy now, pay later options, 0 percent APR financing for up to 12 months, console trade-ins, and certified refurbished units at up to $100 off the new prices. That refurbished route is genuinely worth a look now, since $100 off a $799.99 console stings a lot less than it did at $649.99.

Our honest read: nobody should rush out and panic buy hardware, but the direction of travel matters. Microsoft is openly forecasting that the components inside these machines get more expensive through 2027, which means waiting for a price drop is probably waiting for something that is not coming. If you already own a Series console, this changes nothing, and the stacked Game Pass lineup keeps doing the heavy lifting on value. If you were shopping for new hardware, it might also be the moment to widen the search, because Valve's Steam Machine is suddenly competing against a much higher bar.