Fans have waited with anticipation for more information about the next generation of gaming consoles. The Xbox Series X was revealed during the Game Awards on December 12, 2019, and the Playstation 5 was just revealed on June 11, 2020. For a long time after the reveals, many speculated that the two companies, Sony and Microsoft, were trying to undercut each other with their release and price information. Regardless of why they have waited so long to reveal release information, Microsoft has finally spoken up, but only because their hand was forced. 

On Sept. 7, an image of the Xbox Series S console leaked online along with the price tag of $299. The day was ripe with speculation and many people trusted the leak’s validity along with another rumor that the Xbox Series X would be $499. The following day, Sept. 8, Xbox posted a tweet on their official Twitter page that read “Let’s Make it official! Xbox Series S Next-gen performance in the smallest Xbox ever. $299 (ERP) Looking forward to sharing more! Soon. Promise.”  

With the confirmation of the Xbox Series S, the rumors of the Xbox Series X price tag being $499 seemed more credible. On Sept. 9, Microsoft officially announced the price of the Xbox Series X console to be $499, confirming the rumors, and the release date for both consoles was set to be Nov. 10. The pre-orders open on Sept. 22. The Series S has a package for $24.99 per month that grants you a console and Xbox Game Pass and, likewise, the Series X has a package for $34.99 that also comes with Xbox Game Pass.  

The Xbox Series S is a more compact budget model of the next generation series of Xbox. To cut back on cost, the Series S will be digital only and prioritizes performance, whereas the beefy Series X prioritizes 4k. 

According to Phil Spencer, Vice President of Microsoft and Head of the Xbox brand, both consoles will feature “faster load times and quick resume… frame rates up to 120 fps… Directx Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading.” Like the Xbox One the following console will also be backwards compatible with previous systems. 

Now that Xbox has officially announced the information for their next generation of consoles, it is expected Sony will follow and attempt to compete with their release information.