rewrite this title Xbox price hikes in Europe are wild and now I’m worried about Project Helix

Microsoft has just made Xbox consoles considerably more expensive across Europe and the UK, only weeks after announcing a similar increase in the US. The 512GB Xbox Series S now costs €499.99, while the 1TB model has climbed to €599.99. The digital Xbox Series X will set buyers back €749.99, and the disc version now carries an eye-watering €799.99 price tag.

UK buyers have not escaped the hike either. Depending on the model, prices have gone up by between £130 and £170. We are talking about consoles that launched nearly six years ago, and Microsoft is now asking considerably more money for the same hardware.

The increases follow Microsoft’s June 25 announcement in the US, where 512GB Xbox models became $100 more expensive and 1TB versions went up by $150. Looking at these prices, I am genuinely worried about what Project Helix will eventually cost.

The timing could not be worse

Microsoft says memory and storage costs have increased by more than 2.5 times and could double again by fall 2027. Project Helix will be well into development by then, since early hardware is expected to reach developers sometime next year.

The next Xbox will use a custom AMD chip and promises a significant jump in rendering and ray-tracing performance. More powerful silicon, faster memory, and additional storage will naturally cost more, even if Microsoft negotiates component pricing at a much larger scale than regular PC makers.

Samsung, one of the world’s largest memory manufacturers, expects the shortage to become even worse in 2027 and continue through 2028. AMD has also raised processor prices, while graphics hardware costs are expected to climb again.

Xbox is already struggling

To make matters worse, Microsoft’s gaming division is not exactly in great shape. Gaming revenue fell 10% year over year during its latest quarter, while hardware revenue dropped 13%. Across the full fiscal year, Xbox hardware revenue fell 29%.

The company has also announced a major restructuring covering around 3,200 Xbox jobs. Microsoft says its operating margins remain well behind PlayStation and Nintendo, while the current console generation has cost more to build and reached fewer buyers than expected.

Project Helix is supposed to lead in performance while remaining accessible. But when a six-year-old Xbox Series X already costs €799.99, I am struggling to see how Microsoft delivers both.