Xbox’s new boss has issued a warning about the rising cost of gaming hardware components, which could reduce the production of new consoles in the short term.
Asha Sharma took over the reins of Microsoft’s gaming arm Xbox earlier this year after the departure of long-time CEO Phil Spencer. She has since been trying to improve the fortunes of the platform, which has struggled to attract as many gamers as rivals such as Nintendo and Sony in recent years.
Outlining the next 100 days for Xbox in a blog post, Sharma made clear the difficulties faced by the firm in acquiring the hardware needed to manufacture new consoles.
“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,” she said. “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...