XBOne 21st May reveal for next Xbox, $500/$300 price tag?

[Martok]

The latest rumours circulating about the next Xbox suggest that Microsoft will reveal its next-gen console at an event on 21st May and that it will launch in early November.

The new console will just be called "Xbox" and will retail for around $500 with a lower priced $300 model available with some sort of subscription.

The rumours continue to suggest that the new Xbox will indeed have an "always online" component, though it is still not clear exactly what this is and how it will work.

It also seems that originally there was to be an Xbox version, code-named "Yumo", that was to be for entertainment apps rather than games, but this has been cancelled.

A new budget-priced Xbox 360 model, code-named "Stingray" is also due for release later this year, costing $99. This may mean that the next-gen Xbox won't play Xbox 360 games.

The rumours seem to have originated from Mike Thurrot, a seasoned Microsoft analyst, who spoke on the What the Tech broadcast. You can listen to this in the video below (skip to 54m 44s for the relevant bit on Xbox).

Sources: Eurogamer, VGA247 and The Verge

 

[ColSonders]

That's a price tag that means business! If that's true we could see some very competitive pricing of these new consoles from the off, great news for us!

People aren't gonna drop this "always online" component thing by the looks of it, even though it's present in every other device these days, including our PS3/360's.

My guess that they'd call the new system 'XBOX' looks to be bang on, I think they are trying to make 'XBOX' the sort of brand that 'Playstation' became very quickly.

Interesting that they have a lower priced model, I really don't think Sony can hope to match that, although if I can get both new systems for £200 each i'll be a very happy man indeed.

I'll actually seriously consider getting a PS4 as well as the new XBOX if those price points are accurate!

 

[Jkrohn1]

Yeah I might be swayed to get both of these but it all depends on build quality actual performance and if it does everything we need. The xbox 360 although it is pay to play online has a much greater chat system and easier to join friends etc compared to the ps3. I hope Sony has fixed this and with the dev input for the ps4 it might be an all round winner. Only problem I have had is several 3shitys all rrod or other problems, on the other hand my PS3 has been flawless since I got it other then the couple of HDD errors, wish it had the OS on a flash on the Mobo rather then everything on the bloody HDD. Let's hope the reveal is better then the Sony ohhh look a controller :-\

If the spec is true from the rumours the ps4 is a better machine as long as it performs as it should. GDR5 vs DDR3 with Esram should be a good competition

 

[Slaine]

I was going to type something myself, but I thought this report was so spot on I wouldnt be able to put it better......

Why the next Xbox won't be always online or block used games

Don't believe everything you read

I don't like predicting the future. I particularly don't like predicting the future when it comes to games consoles, because the old rules no longer apply. When the Xbox 360 launched, games were (mostly) the preserve of young men, digital distribution was for tiny arcade titles, B-list titles made a profit and you could waste billions on hardware development secure in the knowledge you'd make it back on software sales. None of that's true any more, and lots of games publishers died finding that out.
All of that means I don't like making sweeping statements about anything. However, I am going to stick my neck out and say that today's rumour - that it will be always online, and not support pre-owned games of any kind - is inaccurate. There's a germ of truth in it, which I'll get to, but releasing a console with those two requirements would be totally counter to what Microsoft needs it to do.

I'm not saying this is something I've seen and can confirm - the details of the next console are still formally unannounced, protected by the sort of NDA that lists your child's school and blood type - but it's what makes sense, based on the state of the industry in 2013.

I'll start with the basics: Microsoft is, in all likelihood, going to be launching at the same time as PS4, a console that will apparently and unsurprisingly not be making the same technical or commercial mistakes that dogged its predecessor for so long. These consoles are going to be sat next to each other in stores, next to each other in extremely expensive TV spots, and jockeying for any possible advantage in a marketplace that will still be marked by austerity. The next Xbox needs to be amazing, and affordable, and something that you want to love and hold possibly forever - the ultimate living-room device from which all entertainment springs. To do that, it needs to appeal to absolutely everybody - gamers in the first instance, but kids and grandparents as well. And always-online and no second-hand would be poison to that.
Let's start with the "always online" bit. You don't have to imagine what this would be like, because we already know: Blizzard and Ubisoft have both introduced always-on DRM to their PC titles. In doing so they enraged their fanbase, caused no end of problems for legitimate buyers, and didn't actually stop piracy. Ubisoft eventually gave up on the whole thing.
That happened in the PC market - an audience that builds and debugs its own hardware, and treats the occasional total failure as par for the course. The next Xbox is going to be Microsoft's big push into the home: a connected entertainment device that needs to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Having something that works perfectly straight out of the box is crucial to that - I refuse to believe Microsoft is going to craft a shiny bit of hardware that'll simply lock up and not play anything because it's not online. Half of the UK's online infrastructure is still built out of twigs and string; relying on it utterly would mean that 40% of Xbox 720s would be returned the weekend after purchase because people just couldn't get them working.

This isn't a UK-specific problem. Last year at GDC, I sat in a fascinating presentation by EEDAR in which they stated, as a matter of statistical fact, that there just isn't sufficient broadband penetration in Microsoft's home territory of North America for it to be a requirement for any game or console. If you make your console online-only, you're going to lose a big chunk of the market. It's not as big a chunk as it used to be, sure, but it's a lot of people. And when you're launching your console head to head with your biggest rival, you don't want to gift them, oh, ten percent of the market straight out of the gate.

The idea of killing pre-owned doesn't fly either - at least, not the enforced blackout that people are assuming. Quite apart from the fact that blocking resale is on shaky legal ground, Microsoft likes pre-owned: it means there's a thriving market in software for its console and its service. A lot of good, cheap games, readily available, is another reason to buy an Xbox 720. If you go into a games retailer in 2014 - assuming they still exist - and see a pile of second-hand PS4 games and none for Xbox 720, you're going to buy a PS4. Microsoft knows this.
It does, however, want to keep you buying new games more than old ones. They're what pay for game development in the first place, and Microsoft takes a cut on every one sold. It also, possibly more than anything, wants you spending money on Xbox Live, because it takes an even bigger cut of that and it controls the whole service. The solution is something we've been living with for years: online passes. Which is where I can see this rumour springing from, because online is going to get a lot bigger than simple Team Deathmatch.

You can see this already: the free Spartan Ops extras for Halo 4; the extensive sharing systems of Call of Duty; Ubisoft's clunky uPlay "Achievements"; EA's ever-present leaderboards. These things are only going to expand and improve in the future - Bungie's already talking up the connected world of its next game, likely a launch title - and you'll need to be online to get them. I can believethat is something built into the next Xbox. Rather than publishers having to set up their own online services, with all the hassle that entails, there'll be online-pass tech built into Live itself.

This works for everybody. Buyers have an incentive to pick up a new copy, Microsoft gets to control another part of the service (and probably run it more reliably), and publishers get to build in extra features that add something new, rather than killing their dev teams trying to create still-higher-resolution textures. And second-hand sales will go on as they always have. As it is today, the £13 pre-owned copy won't be nearly as fancy as the brand new one. But you can still buy it and play it, and if you aren't online you haven't lost anything. This isn't a sinister totalitarian future, it's something that's already happened.
After that, we'll see. Eventually - in a couple of years, probably - there'll be a version of the Xbox without a disc drive at all. It'll be a bit cheaper, and a bit thinner, and a bit more fancy, and it'll rely on an internet connection so you won't be able to resell games anyway. And I don't think anybody who buys it will mind - not least because getting rid of physical discs will lead to the Xbox equivalent of Steam sales or Playstation Plus, where you get more games than you can play. But before that happens, Microsoft needs to get the new Xbox in every home on the planet, and scaring people off from the moment they release it isn't going to be part of that plan.

 

[Acegadgets]

I cant see either the xBox or PS4 being cheaper than £299 at release. I would expect them to be £350 - £400 .
If they are within my price range of under £250 then I will probably get a PS4 as i'm getting a bit bored with single player games and I cant get into the controls for FPS games on the PC.

 

[ColSonders]

I cant see either the xBox or PS4 being cheaper than £299 at release. I would expect them to be £350 - £400 .
If they are within my price range of under £250 then I will probably get a PS4 as i'm getting a bit bored with single player games and I cant get into the controls for FPS games on the PC.

Can't you get a control pad?


Regarding this news...when I watched the linked video it wasn't saying there would be a lower priced machine for $300 with subscription, it was saying that the console was $500 with a $300 subscription....which has got to be bull, but if that happens to be true then the new XBOX has been removed from the table for me.

 

[Plaxinator]

I've received an email from zavvi saying I can pre order the Xbox One with them for £399.99
No thanks was my answer to that.

 

[Slaine]

I've received an email from zavvi saying I can pre order the Xbox One with them for £399.99
No thanks was my answer to that.

That was nice of them.

 

[Jkrohn1]

That's not a bad price considering the new TV Box One has a device that senses movement and sound that comes with it.

I was expecting a £400 - £550 price tag for both next gens so I'm happy

(only getting one this time)