Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has slammed Microsoft's decision to raise the price of its Xbox consoles for a second time, suggesting that the hikes can't be blamed on "the tariff excuse."
Last week, Microsoft confirmed its second Xbox Series price increase in five months. The new price for its most expensive console, the Xbox Series X 2TB, is now $799.99, up from $599.99 at the start of the year. Granted, this is a smaller increase than the first, but it still jumps the price of that console from $730 to $800.
The first jump in price was blamed on the USA's new tariffs, which saw several hardware manufacturers adjust their prices to absorb the cost of shipping their products to America. According to Ybarra, however, the reason for this second hike has very little to do with international trade.
"Console price increases are not tariff issues, they are profit issues," he says on Twitter. "And the reason why profits are not where they should be is a far, far deeper issue vs. the tariff excuse."
Xbox has had an undeniably difficult few years, made most apparent by the cutting of thousands of jobs in four different rounds of layoffs since the start of 2024. The latest of those, in July, also forced the cancelation of the Perfect Dark remake and Rare's mysterious survival game, Everwild. But Ybarra is taking no prisoners when he explains his position further.
"Tariffs went up once so that does justify the single price increase," he says while referring to the initial spike in cost. "An excuse to continue raising prices, with no new increase in tariffs, is simply a different problem and they are going to make consumers continue to pay for those problems."
Since leaving Blizzard, Ybarra has been quick to comment on continued goings-on at Xbox, passing judgement on everything from its consumer practices, to Call of Duty, to Oblivion Remastered. As you might be able to tell from his latest tweets, it's not uncommon for that judgement to be harsh.
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