For the past several months, gamers have been awaiting the price and launch dates for the upcoming next-generation consoles. While Sony has yet to officially confirm anything, a series (no pun intended) of leaks surrounding the next Xbox have prompted Microsoft to confirm dates and price, ahead of a planned event where they will go far more into detail.
As per the report by Windows Central today, The Xbox Series X and S will launch on November 10th, at $499.99 USD and $299.99 USD respectively with a variety of finance options available as well. While these prices have been either been leaked or estimated beforehand, this is the first time Microsoft themselves has come right out and confirmed not just the prices, but the release date as well. This puts the next-generation consoles within spitting distance of many high profile games that are expected to run significantly better on next-gen hardware, regardless of versions optimized for the higher-spec platforms. While many of those updates will be free, as is the case with Cyberpunk 2077, some Series S/X versions won’t be ready for this holiday.
The start of these leaks came from the Thurrott website via Brad Sams, where we got our first glimpse at the Series S, a lower-end version of the Series X, and a console that has been one of gaming’s worst kept secrets. This lower-cost Xbox Series S is still going to be a next-gen console and has been confirmed to contain the following specs/features:
Full digital console with no disc drive.
1440p with to 120fps
DirectX Raytracing
Variable Rate Shading
Variable Refresh Rate
Ultra-Low Latency
Custom 512GB SSD
4K Streaming Media Playback
4K Upscaling for Games.
Considering the price for the Series S, it’s no surprise that the console is going to launch without a disc drive as well as 4K upscaling as opposed to being a native 4K console as many gamers don’t even have a 4K compatible TV. The fact this console has Raytracing is going to keep it on par with the Series X from a visual standpoint, but it’s the 512GB storage via the Hard Drive that has me somewhat concerned considering most big-budget current-gen games are approaching 80-130GB a piece, let alone what next-gen games are going to install at.
For those that are wanting to part with as little cash upfront as possible, Microsoft has also re-introduced Xbox All Access to have you put away $25 per month for the Series S, and $35 per month away for the Series X. While you may likely end up paying more for the platform all things considered, they plan on detailing more of this program later on.
Now, the eyes are on Sony for detailing its plans for price and release date, and we’ll report that the moment those details go live.