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The $299 Xbox Series S is R6999 in South Africa

Update: The price of the more expensive Xbox Series X has been revealed to be R11 999 in South Africa.

In the US this console costs $499 which converts to R8 316. As we discuss below when looking at the Series S, it’s important to know that the US prices usually don’t include tax. Factor that into the price together with South Africa’s customs and duties and the price difference makes more sense.

Both consoles will be available come 10th November, and pre-orders will open on 22nd September.

The original story focusing on the local price of the Xbox Series S follows below.


The Xbox Series S – a smaller, cheaper, all-digital version of the Xbox Series X – was revealed in the US just yesterday, and now we know how much it will cost in South Africa.

The Xbox South Africa twitter account has revealed the recommended retail price to be R6 999, which is both good news and bad news.

On the bad news front this is much more than the USD price. In the US this console is $299. At the time of writing that converts to just over R5 000.

The R2 000 price difference, however, isn’t there just as profit for the importers and distributors. It’s worth remembering that the US prices often times don’t include tax in public pricing, so that has to be factored into things, especially in South Africa with our high duties and charges on luxury items and electronics.

The good news here is that things could have been much worse. Coincidentally $299 is the exact same RRP of the Nintendo Switch in the US. Here in South Africa we’re paying a massive R7 999 for Nintendo’s console.

When the price increase for the Switch was announced distributor Core told us that it was due to the weak Rand which had suffered during the lockdown and the global pandemic. When the rand recovered the Switch’s price remained high and has not changed months later.

Because of this fears were aplenty that the new Xbox hardware would similarly be priced high, so it’s good to see that it’s at least below the older console from Nintendo.

All that in mind this is the cheaper version of the next-gen Xbox. No official local pricing has been announced for the Series X, but it will likely be around R13 500 based on leaks locally.

Overseas sources peg the Series X at $499, which is around R8 384 right now. If that R13 500 rumour is true the X will have a higher local markup compared to the S.

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