Microsoft have officially revealed the price and the release date of their upcoming Xbox One games console. The system will see a world wide release during November 2013 (the exact date still to be confirmed). Price wise, the system will be on the shelves for $499 (US), £429, and €499.
Phil Spencer, the Corporate VP of Microsoft Games Studios announced these details today, at Microsoft’s E3 press conference.
The launch of November had been heavily hinted at and rumored, but it is good to see it finally confirmed. There is still no word as to yet on the exact release date we’ll be seeing the console pop onto the retail shelves however.
Regarding the price of the Xbox One – sources had rumored that this would be Microsoft’s price point. The subscription model which had been rumored (where buyers would pay a lower price for the console, but be tied into 2 years of Xbox Live) is absent. Perhaps later introduced, or has been scrapped. Another possibility of course is that it never was actually in the pipeline at all. Regardless, the price point is perhaps a little higher than some would like. We’ll know soon enough if Microsoft are undercut by their rival, Sony with their own Playstation 4.
A famous example of Sony undercutting at the last moment happened when Sony reduced the price of the Playstation at the very last minute, when the PS1 was just being announced to the world. During this time, Sony were about to go to war with Sega for control of the 32 bit era, and Sony reduced the price of their system to get a jump on their rival. Sega’s system couldn’t be reduced in price (due to expensive components) and therefore, were at a disadvantage. We’ll have to see if Sony can pull out a similar trick here!
