{"id":1346,"date":"2026-10-27T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2026-10-27T12:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T12:54:12","slug":"is-the-xbox-series-x-still-worth-buying-four-major-drawbacks-to-consider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/?p=1346","title":{"rendered":"Is the Xbox Series X Still Worth Buying? Four Major Drawbacks to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six years into its hardware lifecycle, the Xbox Series X remains a capable machine that can provide solid value under the right circumstances. However, prospective buyers need to understand the changing landscape of Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem before making a purchase. <\/p>\n

This generation has presented notable challenges for Microsoft, marked by polarizing developments such as steep Game Pass price increases, high-profile studio closures, and persistent hurdles stemming from early software missteps like the infamous Halo Infinite<\/em> "Craig the Brute" memes. While an Xbox Series X can still last for years if properly maintained, the broader market context makes the decision to buy one today far more complicated than it was at launch.<\/p>\n

Considering that the console has never been more expensive to acquire, that it is heavily outperformed by rival hardware like Sony\u2019s PS5 Pro, and that a vast majority of its current-generation software library is readily accessible on Windows PCs, the timing presents distinct disadvantages. To make an informed decision, buyers must carefully weigh several negative market and ecosystem factors.<\/p>\n

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The Price Has Gone Up Dramatically<\/h2>\n

Market forces that have driven up component costs globally have severely impacted the financial appeal of the Xbox Series X. When the console first shipped in November 2020 at a retail price of $499, it offered compelling value. It arrived as a compact, 4K-capable box running at 60 frames per second with hardware-accelerated ray tracing support. Compared to the rocky, DRM-heavy launch of the Xbox One in 2013, the Series X initially appeared destined to follow a straightforward trajectory toward sales success.<\/p>\n

Years later, however, broader economic pressures\u2014driven in large part by the massive demand for memory and high-capacity storage from artificial intelligence data centers\u2014have altered the hardware pricing landscape. Average retail prices for the Xbox Series X now range anywhere from $725 to $900 depending on storage configurations and edition. The standard 1TB disc-based model generally sells for around $799, while the digital-only "Robot White" variant commands roughly $750.<\/p>\n

For consumers with significant disposable income, the hardware investment may still hold merit, as the Xbox Series X remains the second most powerful console on the market and a remarkably capable gaming machine. Yet, in the current economic climate, a roughly 60 percent price increase makes it a much harder sell, particularly for hardware that is entering its sixth year on the market.<\/p>\n

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Xbox Game Pass Isn’t as Good a Value as It Once Was<\/h2>\n

The subscription service that once defined the modern Xbox value proposition has undergone significant structural and pricing changes over the years. When Xbox Game Pass launched in June 2017, it cost $9.99 per month and granted access to a library of over 100 Xbox One titles, alongside a selection of backward-compatible Xbox 360 games. The higher-tier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate followed in June 2019 at $14.99 per month, before the subscription costs began a steady upward climb.<\/p>\n

After incremental price adjustments pushed the monthly fee to $19.99 by July 2024, Microsoft moved to set the price of Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 in October 2025. Following six months at that higher rate, widespread consumer backlash prompted the company to adjust the monthly Ultimate subscription to $22.99, which stands as its current price point.<\/p>\n

Other subscription tiers no longer mirror the broad accessibility of the original service. The $9.99 per month Game Pass Essential tier offers a stripped-down library of approximately 50 games. Meanwhile, the $14.99 Game Pass Premium tier provides access to over 200 titles playable across Xbox Series X and S consoles, PCs, and cloud devices. However, neither of these intermediate tiers includes day-one releases; subscribers must maintain an Ultimate membership to play major new titles like the upcoming Fable<\/em> reboot on launch day.<\/p>\n

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The Ultimate tier has also faced friction regarding its perks. Unlimited cloud streaming was eventually scaled back when Microsoft introduced time limits for game streaming. Ultimate subscribers are now restricted to 15 monthly hours of streaming, with lower tiers receiving even tighter limits and requiring additional hourly purchases for extended play. Despite these shifts, dedicated players who consume multiple major releases annually can still extract value from the service, particularly when avoiding standard $70 standalone game purchases for titles like Forza Horizon 6<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You Can Play All the Best Xbox Games on PC<\/h2>\n

For dedicated players, powerful Windows gaming PCs have long offered a compelling alternative to Microsoft’s dedicated living room hardware. In many ways, a high-performance PC currently serves as the premier platform for experiencing Xbox ecosystem games.<\/p>\n

Rather than paying inflated prices for aging console hardware, consumers with a capable gaming laptop or desktop can access more than 300 titles through PC Game Pass for $13.99 per month. This subscription level includes day-one Microsoft exclusives such as Gears of War: E-Day<\/em>. While the PC and Xbox Game Pass libraries are not identical, the catalog offers substantial variety, and true console exclusives remain rare. For titles unavailable through Microsoft’s subscription ecosystem, PC storefronts frequently feature deep discounts and extensive seasonal sales.<\/p>\n

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Xbox Series X Isn’t as Powerful as PS5 Pro<\/h2>\n

From a pure graphical horsepower standpoint, Sony\u2019s PS5 Pro holds a notable advantage over the Xbox Series X on the graphics processing unit front. Microsoft’s console features 12.15 TFLOPS of GPU power, compared to the PS5 Pro’s 16.7 TFLOPS, though both architectures support ray tracing utilizing custom AMD RDNA application-specific integrated circuits. In terms of central processing units, both systems rely on eight-core, 16-thread AMD Zen 2 chips, with the PS5 Pro operating at a slightly higher 3.85 GHz clock speed compared to the Series X’s 3.8 GHz.<\/p>\n

While the PS5 Pro possesses a distinct graphical rendering advantage that enables higher output resolutions in select software, the similarities in their CPU designs mean that open-world, CPU-intensive games rarely exhibit massive frame-rate discrepancies driven solely by processor power. <\/p>\n

The launch of highly anticipated software like Grand Theft Auto VI<\/em> has further complicated hardware demand, contributing to retail shortages and inflated secondhand market prices for Sony’s enhanced console. While Grand Theft Auto VI<\/em> is expected to benefit visually from advanced rendering techniques such as Sony’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, technical constraints across the industry suggest that demanding open-world titles will likely remain locked at 30 frames per second on current-generation consoles regardless of platform enhancements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years into its hardware lifecycle, the Xbox Series X remains a capable machine that can provide solid value under the right circumstances. However, prospective buyers need to understand the changing landscape of Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem before making a purchase. This generation has presented notable challenges for Microsoft, marked by polarizing developments such as steep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[1796,2106,2105,881,685,148,1428,2104,149,147,146,204,2103],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-technology-gadgets","tag-buying","tag-consider","tag-drawbacks","tag-four","tag-major","tag-packing-hacks","tag-series","tag-still","tag-travel-gadgets","tag-travel-gear","tag-travel-tech","tag-worth","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}