Microsoft is currently set to release its next-gen console, the Xbox Series X, sometime later this year. A few details regarding the system have been shared, but we’ve yet to get a full picture on exactly what the Series X’s party tricks are, a full breakdown of its capabilities, and what games we’ll be playing on launch day. On top of that, the Xbox Series X price and release date have yet to be revealed, and these are the two big pieces of information fans are desperate to find out.
As such, we decided it’d be fun to sift through what information we do have so far, and try and predict the Xbox Series X’s price point when it releases (likely) this holiday season. So, without further ado, let’s hop to it.
Ray-Tracing Hardware
One thing Microsoft has made perfectly clear in its teases for the Xbox Series X thus far is its vast amounts of graphical horsepower.
It’ll be based on the same AMD Zen 2 chip that the PS5 will run on. This architecture is capable of 8K visuals, so there’s certainly a significant boost in the horsepower of both of these systems.
On top of that, both systems will be able to utilize ray-tracing technology. This essentially means the Xbox Series X will be able to calculate the exact path of each ray of light, its reflections, and the way they pass through transparent objects to offer a different level of visual fidelity entirely.
Right now, the best price we could find on Amazon for an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card capable of running ray-tracing tech sits at $379.99. Prices do fluctuate around that, but this should give you an idea of roughly how much those Xbox Series X innards will set Microsoft back.
It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that Microsoft will no doubt get some discount on these parts due to economies of scale, and likely have some sort of deal in place. The more they buy, the cheaper they can mass-purchase, in turn enabling them to lower costs. We’ll return to this point later.
SSD
If you’ve got a fairly modern PC or laptop, chances are it may well have a Solid State Drive (SSD) inside it. These are basically flash drives with massive storage and ridiculous read/write speeds. It also has no moving parts, making the SSD far more reliable than your standard hard drive which has a needle moving at incredibly high speeds.
Integrating an SSD into the Xbox Series X has already been confirmed, and we’ve been told this, combined with GDDR6 RAM will result in near non-existent load times, or at least they’ll be drastically reduced.
The good news is that the price of SSD’s has dropped considerably over the past couple of year. In fact, they’ve dropped so low you can now pick up a 1TB SSD for under $100.
Right now, we’re not entirely sure how big the SSD will be inside of an Xbox Series X, but 1TB seems like a safe bet. With the ever-increasing install size of video games nowadays, anything less than that would likely fill up far too quickly.
Xbox Series X Controller
Microsoft hasn’t really spoken a whole lot about the Xbox Series X controller, and honestly, it’s probably because it’s not going to change a whole lot from the Xbox One’s.
That’s not a bad thing, though. Outside of the size and shape being refined to make the Series X controller even more comfortable for a wider audience, the Xbox One controller was near-perfect.
It felt comfy in the hand, the buttons were nice and had satisfying clicks, the analog sticks had a good amount of travel, and the feedback in the triggers was a nice touch. The Series X controller’s only significant improvement that we’ve been told of so far is a new ‘Share’ button. We imagine this will work in a very similar way to how the DualShock 4’s Share button works on the PS4.
With the Xbox Series X controller not packing in a ton of fancy new tech that we’re aware of, we wouldn’t expect the price to be too high. We’ll say the standard $50-60.
4K Blu-Ray Player
The 4K Blu-Ray player could be an interesting component of the Xbox Series X. Not because we’ve never seen it before — both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X have one — but because if the Series X does end up having two SKUs, it could be play a part in the price disparity.
Cutting right to the chase here, this disc drive allows you to watch and enjoy 4K Blu-Rays, which are different from normal Blu-Rays that only display at 1080p.
With this already being in the Xbox One S and One X, it’s unlikely that this is going to factor into the cost of the Xbox Series X, or at least it’s not going to make a massive difference.
We’d say this could add up to perhaps $50 difference between the Xbox Series X that does have a disc-drive, and the rumored all-digital SKU, if it’s even a thing.
Xbox Series X Price Prediction
Predicting the price of the Xbox Series X is quite a bit harder than the PS5’s. Not only has Microsoft kept its Series X cards closer to its chest than Sony has with its PS5 hand – in spite of showing what it looks like – but its also got a point to prove.
The current-gen predicted sales for the PS4 and Xbox One have Sony’s system leading by about 40 million units. That’s massive, and having seen the impact Xbox head Phil Spencer has had since taking charge in 2014, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s going to want to put up a better fight on launch date.
While we’ve priced up the above components of the Xbox Series X at being around the $550-600 mark (give or take), Microsoft will be keen to keep that price as low as possible.
Economies of scale for a company like Microsoft will help to massively reduce component cost, not to mention that manufacturers tend to take a loss on hardware, with accessories, games and digital content being the big profit drivers.
As such, we’d actually predict the Xbox Series X to come in a little cheaper somewhere around $499. But even then, this price point went down like a lead balloon when the Xbox One went on sale at this price, compared to the PS4’s $399.
With that in mind, we’re going to make our final Xbox Series X price prediction of $399. Microsoft will want to go all-out on being competitive with the PS5 and getting a better start this generation.
What do you think the Xbox Series X’s price will be? Join in the discussion in the comments below.
Published: Jan 29, 2020 10:54 am