Microsoft Slashes Xbox One To $279 Clearing Inventory Ahead Of Xbox One S Launch
It appears that Microsoft isn’t finished with its Xbox One price cuts. Just two weeks ago, the software gutted the price of the base Xbox One console from $349 to $299 in an effort to spur sales ahead of E3 (and to likely make some inroads on Sony’s nearly 2:1 sales lead with the PlayStation 4).
Microsoft is once again pulling out its pricing gun, dropping the price of the entry-level Xbox One by another $20, taking it to $279. Microsoft says that this is a promotional discount that will last until October 1st.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Microsoft is trying to clear out inventory of the “porky” Xbox One before the slimmer Xbox One S makes its appearance in August. That console will be available beginning in August with a 2TB hard drive for $399. Microsoft says that the 500GB and 1TB SKUs, which will be priced at $299 and $349 respectively, will launch soon after. Given the early October time frame for this current promotion’s expiration, it would stand to reason that the 500GB and 1TB SKUs will likely bow sometime in September.
The new Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than current console, and ships with a revised wireless controller that includes Bluetooth connectivity. The Xbox One S also picks up an IR blaster, gains the ability to support 4K movies and games, and ditches the dedicated Kinect port (not that anyone will actually miss that).
As we reported earlier today, the Xbox One S also ships with a more potent CPU and GPU, which developers will be able to take advantage of to make their games perform better. Looking further out into the future, Project Scorpio will deliver and even more impressive Xbox One gaming experience with support for virtual reality gaming and 6 TFLOPs of computing power in late 2017.
