Xbox One S All-Digital Edition officially revealed, and it’s out in May

The rumours and leaks were right. Microsoft have officially revealed the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition (or Xbox One SAD Edition if you’re feeling mean), and it’s coming out on 7th May for $249.99/€249.99/£199.99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBDSMNE3_oQ

The Xbox One SAD comes with digital copies (obviously) of Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3 and Sea of Thieves.

It really is exactly what we expected it to be, an Xbox One S with the 4K Blu-ray drive ripped out of it, and with that cost saving measure then passed on to the customers with a lowered RRP – the Xbox One S RRP is $299.99/€299.99/£249.99, meaning there’s a $50/€50/£50 saving here. It does lead to an odd looking device, and from initial teardowns, it’s got identical components and internal layout with a big empty space where the drive used to be.

Now, before you hop into the comments and start crowing about how you can already get an Xbox One S with bundled games for around about the same price, remember that those are store and retailer driven discounts. A few months from now we can expect to see similar discounts to the Xbox One SAD, because the bottom line price to retailers will also be lower.

Source: Xbox

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7 Comments

  1. Tempted by one just for Game Pass.

    • Yeah, definitely a good shout for Game Pass, but not at RRP. Either buy a similarly prices One S with the Blu-ray drive, or wait for the One SAD to go on sale closer to £150.

      • Oh yeah absolutely. To be honest if I’d seen a One S at £150 with a few games I’d have gone for that already. But I’m probably being a bit greedy :D

  2. I’m not sure you can really say it’s £50 cheaper based on the RRP. Unless you subtract the RRP of the bundled games from that £249. (Or less from your preferred retailer. Even MS themselves are selling them for £229 at the moment)

    And no, you can’t do a similar thing with this new version. Since all those games are included with Game Pass, and it appears to be pretty much designed to go with that.

    So, a terrible price, unless it drops or gets discounted. I’d be tempted at £150. (Although I’ve got more important things to spend £150 on at the moment). And what were they thinking with that name? Or why weren’t they thinking?

    • But… it is £50 cheaper based on the RRP. The standard, non-discounted price of the 1TB One S (with a bundled game) is £249.99 and the 1TB One SAD (with bundled games) is £199.99. That’s a £50 difference.

      Game Pass is as an option.

      • Ok, it’s cheaper if you fall for the RRP marketing bollocks. Which may have applied back in 2013 when the original XBone launched at a silly price.

        But now, over 5 years into the current console generation, you can ignore that RRP stuff and look at the actual price you can buy them for.

        And as the SAD is clearly meant to be used with Game Pass, you can get it for £200 with effectively no bundled games (ok, some things preloaded that you’d get with Game Pass anyway). And the standard S is around £210 with actual games you could sell for £30 if you weren’t interested, or which are worth more if you wanted them.

        So it’s pretty bad value.

        I’m wondering if MS really wanted to do it at all. Was an XBox 2 this year the plan, but didn’t quite make it in time? Possibly because Sony and MS are playing a cunning game of chicken with launch dates and specs? Can’t launch that this year, better rush something out quickly. Rip out the disc-drive and knock a few quid off? Nobody will realise.

      • RRP is RRP. It simplistically shows that Microsoft have the value of the One SAD at £50/$50/€50 less than the One S. It doesn’t matter what individual retailers (Microsoft themselves) are doing with discounts, because those change and generally don’t come into play until a little after a product has been released.

        So right now the RRP is £50 different, even if you can find a One S with a game bundled for not far off the same price point. A few months from now, the picture will be different. That’s not what I’m talking about though.

        Game Pass is an option, so is buying games you want digitally from the Xbox Store, or grabbing digital game codes from Game or Amazon. Again, it’s not really part of the basic equation when comparing RRP, and for a hell of a lot of people, ease is an overriding factor, not jumping through hoops and flogging a bonus copy of a game on eBay.

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