Sony has slashed the price of its consoles by $50 across the board during its Days of Play event. As a result, the base Series S is only $20 less than the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. While the equivalent Series S 1TB is actually $30 more than a PlayStation 5. That means you can get a PlayStation 5 and a 24-pack of Mountain Dew for less than the price of an Xbox Series S. The per-dollar price delta is even worse in other markets, such as the UK and EU.
Which begs the question. Microsoft, with all the money you're making, why was this allowed to happen?
Now, it's important to understand that the PlayStation sale is only temporary and ends on June 11th, but this comes only weeks after Microsoft raised the price of their consoles in response to the ongoing tariff war. With one raising prices and the other lowering them, it's challenging to understand what's happening.
Sony has been pushing this sales event hard, with ads appearing across Reddit and other forms of social media. As for Microsoft, official sales on its consoles have been few and far in between, and its marketing for consoles has been even more anaemic.
On May 1st, Microsoft made the announcement, tucked sneakily tucked away on a help page, "We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration given market conditions and the rising cost of development. Looking ahead, we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players."
As a result, the prices of their SKUs increased. Now, thanks to the PlayStation Days of Play event, Xbox's new pricing is getting absolutely wrecked:
- Xbox Series S (512GB): $379.99 — Xbox Series S (1TB): $429.99
- Xbox Series X (1TB): $599.99
- Xbox Series X (2TB): $729.99
- PlayStation 5 Pro (2TB): $649.99
It should be noted that stock issues appear to continue for Xbox. As none of the Xbox Series X console models were available at the time of writing for Best Buy.
Not to mention, with the Switch 2 arriving next week at $450, this will also spark massive competition against Nintendo's launch.
There are several different angles from which to approach this when analyzing the two strikingly different positions these companies are holding.
When looking at Microsoft, you have to account for their push on "This is an Xbox" in terms of how they view their hardware. At the end of the day, they don't necessarily care where you play their games, just that you're playing them like their recent announcement that DOOM: The Dark Ages managed to hit over 3 million players.
On the other hand, PlayStation's business model has always been, first and foremost, its consoles. PlayStation launches its games, sometimes day and date, on Steam, but this is early in its ever-growing ecosystem.
They're not the ones launching every exclusive across their own console and Windows PC simultaneously. Not to mention, they're also not the current console manufacturer launching some of their premium, exclusive titles on other platforms, such as Gears of War and Forza Horizon, among others that are sure to follow, given they're all best sellers.
So, I fall back to this: Microsoft, what exactly are you doing?
To me, it seems like you're intentionally reducing the value of your console while significantly increasing the cost of entry into your ecosystem. The only one who's presently offering the easiest form of dedicated hardware entry to play some of your games is Sony. Is that what you wanted?
With Tariffs mostly paused but not at pre-2025 levels, it's hard not to wonder if Microsoft could have delayed its price increases. Sony did, and now they're lowering their prices before a potential increase, as per their earnings report. The tariff question was also thrown into further turmoil today after a U.S. judiciary panel decided Trump's tariffs were beyond the scope of the President's authority. The Supreme Court may have to step in to resolve the impasse, too.
In that universe, what does Microsoft do with its Xbox consoles, whose prices were increased in response to those tariffs? This is before we get into the $80 games threat, too.
Microsoft's attitude to its hardware pricing could undermine its biggest console ecosystem opportunity in years.
With so many people hyped about the last Grand Theft Auto VI trailer and reaching peak hype-train status, now would've been the perfect time to cash in on having the Series S as the potential easiest entry point. But if Microsoft continues letting Sony have the power and the value, we're looking at another Xbox One 2013 scenario where users don't see a good reason to step into the Xbox ecosystem.
A few weeks ago, I was ready to write a piece on the Series S being the lowest price point for potential PC players, just looking to tide them over until it launched on Windows. Now, I have no reason to. Even after the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition goes back up to $449, it'll only be $70 more for a base console edition, not the somewhat underpowered workhorse that is the Xbox Series S.
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