The Xbox Series X's price may be more expensive than you think, or at least that's what some new information from Microsoft suggests. The Xbox Series X is set to release this November, yet there's still no word of a price point, which means pre-orders are still not live. However, this should change in the coming weeks. Microsoft is running out of time to reveal the console's price, unless of course it's not actually releasing this year, but every time this question is directed at Microsoft, it has asserted the console will 100 percent be dropping in 2020.

Some recent rumors and reports have suggested that Microsoft is ready to eat the costs of manufacturing in order to lowball Sony and deliver the Xbox Series X at a cheaper price point than the PS5. Will this actually happen? Who knows. While rumors are suggesting the console will be a bit on the cheaper side, Microsoft hasn't suggested this at all.



This week Microsoft hosted a presentation at the Hot Chips technology conference. During this presentation, the Xbox Series X naturally came up. And during this segment, Microsoft hinted that it's been having trouble keeping costs down.

More specifically, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox Series X contains a staggering 15.4 billion transistors. For reference, the Xbox One has 6.6 billion. But that's not where Microsoft is struggling with costs. This struggle comes courtesy of chip manufacturing, which has gone up in cost.

Microsoft reveals that the Xbox Series X is working with TSMC’s “enhanced” 7-nanometer technology, which costs more than the Xbox One's 16nm tech. The yield rate of the 7nm process is also lower, which doesn't help.

For now, it remains to be seen just how this will impact the costs of bringing the Xbox Series X to market, and it may not even matter. Microsoft is sitting on a massive pile of resources that could allow Xbox to give away the console for free. That said, like every company, Microsoft isn't super fond of taking big risks and losing tons of money upfront, especially in a market where it hasn't always been successful.

The Xbox Series X is set to release sometime this holiday season, and the current expectations are it will cost somewhere between $500 and $600.



Posted: Aug 21, 2020 5:14 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-series-x-price-microsoft-chips/