All this week we’ve been telling you about
Microsoft’s Yukon project, the follow up to the Xbox 360. It sounds great. Well, except for those plans about pulling backwards compatibility a few years in.
Anyway, I’m sure everyone is wondering how much can we expect to pay for Microsoft’s next console, and when will it arrive.
It seems like there was still a debate going on within Microsoft when these documents were created. In some places it suggests a retail price of $399, in others, $299. In fact, they bring up the phrase “$2000 PC in a $300 box” multiple times.
I also questions whether or not Kinect v2 will be included, and how this will affect the price. Everything in the planning for the next Xbox suggests that Kinect v2 won’t just be another peripheral, but an important part of the system’s functionality, whether games make much use of it or not. Although I’m sure marketing wants it to hit shelves at the cheaper $299, that might be hard to pull off as a package, console, Kinect and all.
Either way, it looks like they are trying to avoid the slow start Sony had with the PlayStation 3. Top of the line technology or not, people have trouble justifying $600 for a videogame system.
Similar to their plans to drop backwards compatibility,
they already have a rough outline of the price-drop schedule for the console, for both $299 and $399 starting price points. Either way, don’t expect to see a price drop before its third year on shelves, and then only by $50. The plans stretch out for the full proposed ten-year lifespan of the system.
But when will this thing actually drop? If I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath for news out of E3. Not anything concrete anyway.
The documents strongly suggest the official unveiling of Microsoft’s next console will happen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 2013. A quick search around the internet reveals that one date hinted at in the documents, January 6, is the date of “The Official Press Event of the International CES“, or the big official press conference day a couple days before the show officially opens.
Actual boxes on shelves aren’t expected until the somewhat vague “holiday season 2013.” In other words, somewhere between September at earliest and mid-November at the latest. After all, gotta have them ready to go for Black Friday.
Kinect 2: four players, two cameras
Hardware back-compatibility dropped after 3 years, 10 year life-cycle
Blue-ray drive built in, support for augmented reality glasses in the pipeline
Announced Jan 2013, released holiday 2013 costing $200-$300
