Costco isn’t looking like the place to go for Xbox products this holiday. Ahead of the 2025 holiday season, Costco stores have been removing all Xbox consoles, gift cards and products from their shelves across the US. This comes directly after Microsoft’s recent announcement that it would be raising prices on the Xbox Series consoles in response to “changes in the macroeconomic environment.”
This is almost certainly due to the US’ aggressive tariff policies, which have put a strain on companies like Microsoft that outsource the creation of their products to other countries. Earlier this year, Nintendo came under fire for increasing the prices of its upcoming games for the new Switch 2 system to $80, including Mario Kart World and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Switch 2 edition. The “macroeconomic environment” is definitely making things difficult for game companies this year, but Costco’s latest move paints a grim picture for Xbox fans in particular.
Costco Has Already Removed Xbox Games, Systems and Products From Its Physical and Digital Stores
Costco is known for a fairly customer-forward policy when it comes to pricing on its wholesale products, allowing consumers to buy in bulk at discounted prices. For gamers, buying gift cards at Costco has always been a steal, because they often offer bulk gift cards that go for a cheaper price. For example, they still sell a set of four Nintendo eShop gift cards that are $25 each for the price of $90. Buyers can effectively buy $100 of games for 10 dollars cheaper just by buying the gift cards at Costco.
This kind of bulk gift card deal was previously available for the Xbox Game Pass as well, up until now. For reasons that are still not entirely clear, Costco has begun removing Xbox products from its shelves and online website for shoppers in the US. Typing “Xbox” into the search bar on Costco’s website will now yield absolutely zero results. Upon a visit to my local Costco, I found all but two straggling Xbox Game Pass gift cards removed from the shelf, and the signage for Xbox gift cards was entirely missing. There were also two large displays for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, but nothing at all for the Xbox Series.
This is an experience shared by gamers across the country. Users on Reddit have even claimed that there have been no Xbox products at their local locations “for a very long time”, and that “They only had Switches and PlayStations at my Costco seems like forever.” One user even claims their local Costco’s manager said “they were just told ‘Pull all Xbox stuff off the shelves immediately’” and that “they have no idea if anything [Xbox related] will be returned to shelves” anytime soon.
Xbox’s Rising Prices Are Unprecedented Historically
The rising price of video game systems and products is far from exclusive to the Xbox Series, but it’s nonetheless troubling to see. Ordinarily, a system that’s nearly 5 years old would start going down in price over time, but the Xbox Series just continues to rise in price. Despite the Series X coming out for $500 at launch in 2020, the console currently runs for $600 as of late September. This is prior to Microsoft’s announced October 3 price hike, which will undoubtedly send prices even higher.
Costco hasn’t commented on the removal of Xbox products from its stores directly, but the timing is very telling. Given Microsoft’s announcement that Xbox’s prices will begin going up starting October 3, Costco’s decision to completely remove the system from its shelves is almost certainly in response to those rising prices.
It’s possible Costco sought to make a deal with Microsoft to continue selling Xbox at lower prices for its customers, but Microsoft turned them down. Xbox has also been seeing poorer sales numbers in comparison to both systems, so Costco may just see less value in continuing to sell the consoles at even higher prices when they were already seeing weaker results than PS5 and Switch 2.
That doesn’t mean Xbox is entirely doomed, though. Microsoft just announced that this past year was its biggest investment in Game Pass yet, so the company clearly still has big plans for their flagship gaming platform’s future. Instead, it’s the present that looks most concerning for the gaming giant’s fans. Whatever the reason, it’s a concerning outlook for Xbox’s 2025 holiday season, and only gamers will end up paying the price.
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