Microsoft has been forced to raise the price of its current gen consoles in Japan, with concerns that other regions may be next.

The current worldwide financial situation is affecting video games just as much as any other industry, with sales down and the cost of components rising, which looks set to adversely affect the launch of the PlayStation VR2.

Last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer made it clear that, sooner or later, there would be price rises for Xbox games, consoles, and subscriptions and it seems the first evidence of hardware being affected is a console price rise in Japan.

Starting from February 17, the Xbox Series X will see a £31 price rise to ¥59,978 (£374). At the same time the Xbox Series S will increase in price by the equivalent of £36, to ¥37,978 (£237).

The Xbox brand has never been successful in Japan but there were signs that the current generation consoles, particularly the Xbox Series S, were making some inroads.

This was primarily because of the unavailability of the PlayStation 5 though and since stock of Sony’s console has become easier to get hold of in Japan, demand for the Xbox has dipped significantly.

Last week sales of the Xbox Series X and S totalled just 945 in Japan, for a yearly total so far of 3,736. By comparison the Switch has already sold 77,219 consoles and the PlayStation 5 has managed 18,857.

A statement released by Microsoft Japan, via Famitsu and Gematsu reads as follows:

‘After carefully evaluating the market condition in Japan, we have decided to change the suggested retail price of Xbox consoles in the country. We regularly evaluate the impact of local pricing to maintain reasonable consistency across regions. This price revision affects our customers and was a difficult decision to make, but going forward we will continue to provide the ultimate Xbox experience that our customers expect.’

There’s no guarantee that the price rises will be mirrored in the UK, or that they’d be by the same amount if they did apply here, with Spencer’s warning last year being purposefully vague.

However, Sony has already raised the prices of the PlayStation 5 in all regions except the US, so given that and Spencer’s previous comments a Xbox price rise in the UK does seem inevitable.

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