The Xbox Series X is on the way this year, and we already know plenty about the specs, release date, and games.
Microsoft is betting big on the Xbox Series X, the next-gen console set to launch later this year and rival the PS5.
While Sony has mostly played coy about its console’s specs and design, Microsoft has been bullish about giving gamers what they want: we already know the specs, design, controller, many of the games, and even how specific details like backwards compatibility will work on the new hardware.
Here’s everything we know so far.
Microsoft has confirmed that the next-gen Xbox Series X console will ship “Holiday 2020”, which means we could be waiting until the end of the year to get our hands on it. It’s not surprising as the Xbox One had a similar release window, and that’s also what Sony is aiming for with the PS5.
The console might be aiming for a Thanksgiving release – 26 November – according to a banner found on some international versions of the Series X product page on Microsoft’s website.
It appeared on the site in the UK and some other regions, but not the US. Once it was picked up online Microsoft quickly moved to replace the images though, and on Twitter Xbox Live’s director of programming Larry Hryb (better known as MajorNelson) described the listing as ‘inaccurate’.
Unsurprisingly, this far ahead of launch Microsoft has remained tight-lipped regarding pricing.
There were some suggestions of $600 as a ballpark figure, but that was widely panned as that sort of pricing would not be competitive at all.
A more realistic price would be something close to the Xbox One X’s RRP of £449/US$499. There is a feeling Microsoft would consider a lower-specced device for those reluctant to spend so much on a console, similar to the Xbox One S, but we’ll probably have to wait until 2021 for that.
While it might end up retailing for more than the RRP of the Xbox One X, we’d estimate a launch price might be similar to Microsoft’s current-gen consoles.
Xbox head Phil Spencer told The Verge that unlike with the Xbox One, this time around the company “will not be out of position on power or price.”
We’re also still expecting Microsoft to reveal a cheaper Xbox Series S variant – codenamed Lockhart – which might drop the disc drive to keep prices lower.
On 16 March 2020, Microsoft revealed full specs for Xbox Series X on its website. The big news is the custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, which is combined with a 12 teraflop,52 compute unit GPU.
