Microsoft has officially confirmed the name and price of its smaller and cheaper next-generation Xbox console, following a series of leaks hinting that such a product was in the pipeline.
The Xbox Series S will be available for £249 ($299 in the US) and won’t have a disc drive, instead depending on users purchasing and downloading or streaming games over the internet.
According to Windows Central, the console could also be available within a $25 a month plan (UK price is unavailable) known as Xbox All Access, which will include Xbox Live and Game Pass – a subscription service offering a library of games to download or stream.
A leaked video posted to Twitter compared the Series S with the main Series X console, which is expected to retail for $499 (presumably £449 in the UK), showing the difference in size.
The Series S is the smallest Xbox console to date, Microsoft has said.
The leaked video lists its technical specs as including support for 120 frames-per-second gameplay at 1440p resolution, 4K upscaling for games, 4K media playback, support for DirectX raytracing, and 512GB of storage.
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Both new Xbox consoles are expected to be released on 10 November, according to Windows Central – although this has not yet been confirmed by Microsoft.
The company has only said that it plans to launch the new consoles at some point in November.
Microsoft has said it will reveal further details soon.
The Series S will have a weaker GPU performance than the flagship Series X, and probably a little weaker than the existing Xbox One X – although unlike the One X, it will be able to play next-generation titles, The Verge reports.
Microsoft has previously announced the Xbox Series X would be released in November and will feature twice the processing power of the current generation Xbox One X.
Microsoft said there will be “thousands of games to play”, spanning four generations, when the new consoles are released – but marquee launch game Halo Infinite has been until 2021.
Rival Sony also plans to launch two models of its next-generation console, the PlayStation 5, at the end of 2020. No date or price has yet been revealed.