The Xbox Series S will receive its second price hike in India in just six months, and third overall, just days ahead of preorders re-opening.

Media analyst Rishi Alwani posted on Twitter that Xbox Series S will get a price hike to Rs.39,990, approximately $485. In the US, the Series S retails for $300. Preorders start on January 10. Reasons for the price hike are unknown and could be a result of low sales in India or the waning power of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar. According to another report from Alwani, Rockstar opted not to release the Xbox Series X port of Grand Theft Auto 5 in India.

Back in August 2022, Xbox Series S had already received a price hike in India to Rs.37,990, around $462. Also in August, Sony raised PS5 prices across markets. Shortly after, Microsoft released a statement claiming that they had no current plans to raise prices on Xbox consoles. Clearly, this statement was not meant for India. In September 2022, Phil Spencer reaffirmed that Microsoft had no plans to raise console prices. However, in December 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be raising the price for first-party games from $60 to $70. Whether the increased prices in India forebode any changes in other markets is mere speculation.