Xbox Series X launches on November 10 for $499, pre-orders to open on September 22

It’s finally official, Microsoft will launch both the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X on November 10. The company already announced the $299 pricing for the Xbox Series S yesterday, but the Xbox team has just confirmed that the Xbox Series will be priced at $499, a piece of information that also leaked yesterday, but hasn’t been confirmed until now. The Xbox One and the Xbox One X also launched at $499, but the Xbox Series X should offer a true generational leap with an ultra-fast NVMe SSD, and a 12 teraflops GPU that supports 4K at 60FPS, 120 FPS gameplay, as well as 8K.

Microsoft also announced today that both of its next-gen consoles would be available with an Xbox All Access subscription that will include an Xbox console and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The $299 Xbox Series S will be available starting from $24.99/month for 24 months, and the $499 Xbox Series X will be available starting from $34.99/month for 24 months. Xbox All Access is also coming to 12 new countries this holiday, with more to come next year.

The Xbox Series X was announced back in December 2019 at The Game Awards ceremony, and Sony didn’t strike back with its PS5 announcement until early 2020. As of this writing, the Japanese company has yet to announce pricing details for the PlayStation 5 and its discless Digital Edition variant, and we expect the official prices should be revealed pretty soon. In the meantime, pre-orders for both the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X will open in two weeks on September 22.

With the $299 Xbox Series S and Xbox All Access subscriptions, Microsoft is making sure that the transition to next-gen console should as painless as possible for most consumers. Overall, the company seems well-positioned ahead of the beginning of a new console generation, though the company has yet to clearly explain why gamers should choose the more powerful Xbox Series X. So far, the company failed to really demonstrate the console’s power advantage over the PlayStation 5, though the good news is that the company still has 2 months left to do just that.