Report: Microsoft is Raising the Price of Xbox Development Kits by 33%

The price to pay to join the Xbox ecosystem is becoming more expensive for everyone, including game developers. According to a message to developers seen by The Verge, Microsoft is raising the price of its Xbox Development Kit (XDK) from $1,500 to $2,000, which represents a 33% increase.

“The adjustment reflects macroeconomic developments,” Microsoft said in the announcement seen by The Verge. “We remain committed to providing high-quality tools and support for your development efforts.”

The Verge said that the price increase isn’t US-only, as game developers in Europe and other regions will also have to pay more to get the Xbox dev kits. Anyway, this is probably not going to help make the Xbox ecosystem more attractive, as Microsoft already raised the price of its Xbox Series X|S consoles twice in the US this year. Earlier this month, the company also made its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription 50% more expensive.

While price increases aren’t an Xbox-only thing, Xbox Development Kits have always been more expensive than regular Xbox consoles as they include special tools for game developers, as well as a display and five programmable buttons on the front. The latest version of the XDK is said to include 40GB of GDDR6 memory (the Xbox Series X only has 16GB) and additional compute units to give game developers more headroom.

While most game developers can probably swallow the Xbox dev kit price increases, this is probably not going to reassure Xbox fans looking for some good news. The recent launch of the Xbox-branded ROG Ally and Ally X suggests that the future of Xbox may be Windows-based, but it’s too early to tell how this is going to impact the Xbox developer ecosystem in the long run.