If you don’t yet own Microsoft’s Xbox One console, now could be the right time to take the plunge. Retailers are preparing to drop the price for one week on models and bundles of the Xbox One, as part of a stock clearance in preparation for Black Friday sales.
Starting yesterday, and running through this week, the Xbox One 500GB and 1TB versions, as well as the 1TB Elite model, all have seen price drops in the UK. You are able to pick up a 500GB machine plus a selected game for £179, and the two 1TB versions for just £199. The Elite version also comes with an Elite wireless controller. The model usually retails at £299, so a price reduction of 33% is quite a surprise to many.
The forthcoming release of the Xbox One S may be something to do with these discounts. Microsoft is keen for their more powerful version of the Xbox to be their main seller come Christmas, so stores may have been advised to clear stock of the older models, giving the new console a larger share of sales during the festive period.
Price drops on older machines aren’t new, Sony dropped the price on the original PlayStation 4 to £149 prior to the arrival of the PS4 Slim. Phil Jones of console-deals.com commented on the price change saying, “It will be interesting to see what effect this has on November’s market share which is a key month in the battle between Xbox and PlayStation.”
Before the end of the month, both Sony and Microsoft will have released their newer, more powerful models of their consoles. The PlayStation 4 Pro arrives in stores tomorrow. And even with many of their titles having already received updates to make them “forward compatible,” consumer fears of being left behind in terms of owning an obsolete machine should be considered unjustified. This is backed up by a statement from Xbox Services General Manager Dave McCarthy where he states, “On our devices, all of your games are going to work. Period. We made that promise today: those games will work across the whole line-up. They have to work across the whole line-up.”
The Xbox One S is available for purchase now, with the 1TB version retailing at around the £289 mark. Perhaps when the next generation Microsoft console, labelled “Scorpio” approaches, this too will see prices slashed.