Aaron Greenberg, GM Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft has stated that the Xbox Series X will be released in November, narrowing the release window from “Holiday 2020” to a specific month. The console will, however, release without Halo Infinite alongside it, the game having been delayed to 2021.
Xbox Series X Launches this November with Thousands of Games Spanning Four Generations https://t.co/mVkdz7HaQV
— Aaron Greenberg ??♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) August 11, 2020
This probably isn’t quite the fashion in which Microsoft’s Phil Spencer had hoped to drop the news, though it does hold true to his statement in an interview with iJustine he said “I am encouraged to be able to talk more about our plans… Should be August. I think August we’ll have more to say.”
This also follows on from the leak of the Xbox Series S, by the updated Xbox controller, which found its way into the hands of the public this week. The Xbox Series S is expected to be a lower powered version of the Xbox Series X, keeping many of the same attributes, such as the ultra-fast SSD storage and Zen 2 CPU, but compromising on the GPU side of things. Where the Xbox Series X is expected to deliver a native 4K resolution, higher frame rates and ray tracing, the cut back “Lockheart” could sacrifice these to reach a lower price point for those buyers without a 4K TV or without as exacting demands from their games graphics, while retaining the minimal loading times and enhanced game worlds that the CPU could provide.
Though the release month has now been confirmed, the exact date has not, nor has the price. Microsoft and Sony are essentially playing chicken over who is going to go first and reveal the price of their console. Whoever it is will be at a disadvantage, both firms will have a number of prices in mind, from a low price that means they make a loss on each console, or a higher price where they break even, once one of them has revealed their price the other can juggle their numbers and see if they can make their product look more attractive.
The problem, of course, is that there’s no Halo Infinite on day one, meaning that Microsoft have lost one of their biggest and most appealing game franchises from launch.
Feels like August is going to be a looooooong month for the team in green…
Source: Twitter
Tuffcub
“Xbox Series X Launches this November with Thousands of Games Spanning Four Generations!” is absolutely the best PR spin on “Oh fuck we haven’t got any games for launch”
PRIME_Object
There’s one think I wonder…PS4 games library is much much much bigger than XOone’s. Doesn’t this mean that PS5 will launch with many more games avilable than XSX?
camdaz
I guess the price of the XSX has been lowered now, well it will need to if they want to sell a fair few consoles now that their biggest IP isn’t going to make the release window.
Starman
This is becoming one of the least anticipated console launches ever.