It was the first of May, 2025, and the console industry was shaken with an unprecedented announcement: Microsoft’s five year old Xbox Series X and S would be getting a price increase.
The shock and backlash from the market was immediate. It wasn’t just that this flew in the face of console market tradition, it’s that it flew in the face of historic technology trends. The famous Moore’s Law might not have held as much merit as it once did, but the expectation was still there: Technology would always get cheaper to produce over time. Consumers were long accustomed to getting the same performance and capabilities for less money, or better performance and capabilities for the same money as years went on. Suddenly, this bedrock of the tech industry was starting to show cracks.
