This week Microsoft officially announced the long rumored Xbox Series S and confirmed the price for both the Series S and Series X albeit, in a rather unceremonious series of events. And while the company opted to respond quickly and confirm the leaked details of both of its new consoles via Twitter, it now looks as if Microsoft had a bit bigger of a plan to make those announcements.
Quickly after a string of leaks at the beginning of last week, Microsoft took hold of the conversation by giving out concrete details on both the Series X and the newly revealed Series S over Twitter. Many commented on how unceremonious it was to announce a whole new video game console and the price for another with just a tweet, but Microsoft’s options were either that or be radio silent and let the leaks to rampant speculation.
But it appears that Microsoft did in fact have bigger plans for the announcements, as a prerecorded news briefing was leaked online by Twitter user @_h0x0d_. The video would have been roughly 30 minutes in length, and featured Xbox President Phil Spencer (who apparently had been hiding a Series S on his bookshelf all the way back in July), Sr. Director of Xbox Platform Marketing Cindy Walker, Head of Platform Engineering and Hardware Liz Hamren, and Head of Xbox Partnerships & Ecosystem Sarah Bond.
While obviously a lot of time, effort, and production value looks to have went into this presentation, Microsoft did manage to cover all of this information in just a few tweets and short videos. It could be Microsoft thought the point of releasing this video after the leaks rather moot. It sounds like it was intended to be part of the originally planned reveal for next week, so perhaps the company will release this video officially next week.
Regardless, Microsoft was smart to go first in this long-running game of chicken between it and Sony over the price of the next-gen consoles, as Microsoft has now managed to dominate the conversation unabated for a week. The incredible deal of the Series S, as well as the Xbox All Access payment plan has been the talk of the internet. Earlier today, Sony finally announced a PS5 showcase event that more than certainly has to have Sony’s response with its price for its new console. What fans will think of what Sony has to say after the positive reception Microsoft has received this week will be interesting to be sure.
The Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X will release for $299 and $499 respectively on November 10.