As computer components continue to spike in price, Xbox has a bleak prediction about the cost of hardware in the near future.
The Future of Xbox Hardcore Manufacturing Costs Is Expensive
Asha Sharma took on the role of Head of Xbox just a few months ago in February 2026, but she’s already been moving quickly to change course and redefine the brand in a way that she feels better aligns with player demand and a realistic path towards profitability.
After lowering the price of Xbox Game Pass earlier this year and bringing back Xbox exclusives during the Xbox Games Showcase, she is now ready to outline the five realities that Xbox has to face in the next 100 days.
Among the other problems and opportunities she detailed in the memo, Sharma talked a bit about the increase in cost to product gaming and PC hardware. According to Sharma’s perspective on the situation:
“We are in a hardware component crisis. When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall. These costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory. While the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half decade. We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.”
Sharma did not go into solutioning in her post, so it’s unclear how exactly how hard this issue will hit gamers. She did explain that the company is unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, but she didn’t specifically call out any upcoming price increases for the current consoles or hint at affordability for the Project Helix launch SKUs.
At this point, gamers are going to have to wait and see what adjustments Sharma has in mind. The company has already raised the price of current-gen consoles this year, but given these sorts of statements it doesn’t seem impossible that the company might increase the price again.
It’s impossible to predict what the price of Xbox consoles might look like when the 2027 holiday season arrives, since the component price situation is dependent on a lot of volatile factors including the AI boom, ongoing wars, and other large-scale supply chain issues that impact the costs of goods.
Be sure to check back soon for more news and updates on all things Xbox.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are both available now. There is currently no release window confirmed for the upcoming console that is codenamed Project Helix.
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