Xbox Series X price and release date confirmed

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the Xbox Series S, a less powerful next-gen alternative to the Xbox Series X. With that reveal, Microsoft surprised us by announcing both the pricing and release date details for Xbox Series S. With the Xbox Series S dated for November 10th, we figured it probably wouldn't be long before we had a release date for the Xbox Series X, and it turns out we were right, as today Microsoft officially let the cat out of the bag.

The Xbox Series X will be launching alongside the Xbox Series S on November 10th. While the Xbox Series S will cost $299, the Xbox Series X will run a not-insignificant $499. $500 is indeed a lot of money to spend on a new console, but we're not quite in the realm of the unprecedented yet – Xbox One, for instance, cost $500 when it first launched, and of course, the cheapest PlayStation 3 model was $500 when it released, with the 60GB model famously priced at $599.

So, in terms of pricing, the Xbox Series X isn't the most expensive console we've seen yet, but it's definitely up there. In a post to Xbox Wire today, Microsoft announced that both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will be up for pre-order on September 22nd.

The company also revealed that it's expanding the Xbox All Access Program to include Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. Xbox All Access, for those who may have forgotten, is a program that allows players to pay for an Xbox console over a 24-month period rather than paying for everything up front. The console is bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes subscriptions to Game Pass on both console and PC, Xbox Live Gold, and soon Project xCloud and even EA Play.

For Xbox Series S, you'll be paying $24.99 for 24 months, which works out to $599.76. Xbox Series X, meanwhile, will cost $34.99 per month, which comes to $839.76 over the course of two years. At $14.99 per month, two years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would run you just a hair under $360, so in the case of the Xbox Series S, you'll save about $60 with Xbox All Access over buying everything separately, while purchasing the Xbox Series X through All Access will save you about $20.

In any case, now that Microsoft has revealed pricing and release info for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the ball is firmly in Sony's court. Recent rumors hinted that Sony was lining up a mid-November release for the PlayStation 5, but it was waiting for Microsoft to make the first move. Now that Microsoft has, we'll hopefully see Sony make similar announcements soon, so stay tuned.