Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S release date and price finally revealed

Xbox Series S And X Together
Xbox Series S And X Together (Image credit: @_h0x0d_)

What you need to know

  • Xbox Series S console design finally leaked.
  • We can confirm the Xbox Series S is $299, and the Series X is $499.
  • Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X will launch on November 10, 2020.
  • Microsoft has since partially confirmed our report, unveiling the Xbox Series S with a $299 price tag.

Update, September 8 (3:18 a.m. ET) — Microsoft unveils Xbox Series S with $299 price tag

Microsoft has responded to recent reports, officially unveiling the Xbox Series S with a $299 retail price in the U.S. The company states the next-generation console comes in its "smallest" footprint to date, with more details to come "soon."

Update, September 8 (12:38: p.m. ET) — Microsoft confirms our launch date.

Microsoft has officially confirmed our November 10, 2020 launch date at the end of the Xbox Series S launch trailer, which you can view below.

Update, September 9 (7.58 a.m. ET) — Microsoft confirms Xbox Series X $499 price.

Microsoft has officially confirmed our previous leak on the Xbox Series X price, clocking in at $499. Additionally, pre-orders will open on September 22, ahead of the November 10 launch.

It has long been rumored that Microsoft is working on two Xbox consoles for next-gen, aiming to claim both ends of the market. And now, we can confirm indeed that the pricing scheme should be very familiar, matching that of the Xbox One X and Xbox One S of yesteryear.

We can confirm via our sources that the entry-level Xbox Series S will cost $299 at retail, with a $25 per month Xbox All Access financing option, which Microsoft is planning to push hard via various retailers and a large global rollout. The more powerful Xbox Series X will cost $499, with a $35 per month Xbox All Access financing option.

Both consoles will launch on November 10, 2020.

The Xbox Series S just leaked (via Brad Sams), giving us a glimpse at Microsoft's entry-level next-gen SKU. The Xbox Series S is small enough to fit inside an Xbox Series X, and we expect it to be around 4TF RDNA2, making it roughly around as powerful as the Xbox One X, perhaps geared towards 1080p monitors with better frame rates. We don't have further details on the console's capabilities beyond that, but we expect NVME drives, and many of the newer "next-gen" features like fast resuming multiple games, and ray tracing.

The Xbox Series X is a 12TF beast of a console that will boast 4K resolution and 60 FPS as standard, with some games, like Halo Infinite, going all the way up to 120 FPS in multiplayer.

The prices Microsoft have put forward for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X put them firmly in-line with the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, and it will be interesting to see how Sony prices the competing PlayStation 5 in response. Microsoft has committed to bringing the entire Xbox One game library, including backwards compatible Xbox 360 games forward to the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, and your best Xbox One headset and all of your other accessories "will just work" on the next-gen systems as well.

Microsoft will push Xbox All Access financing far more broadly than it did this gen, which was seen as a bit of a pilot program. We're expecting Xbox All Access to roll out to far more markets than it did previously, and we also expect the Xbox Series consoles to gun for a global simultaneous launch in all existing Xbox markets, rather than the slow rollout we saw for the Xbox One in 2013.

Xbox Series X/S

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Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden is a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter (X) and Threads, and listen to his XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!