Microsoft officially announces its disc-less Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. The console is expected to cost $249, and it’ll be available on May 7, 2019. The original Xbox One S and Xbox One X will continue to exist. The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition will just be another model that you can select.
Perhaps the main selling point of the new console is the “All-Digital Edition” portion, which means no Blu-ray drive that allows the company to drop the price console price around $50.
The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition has the same hardware as the Xbox One S, including the 1TB internal storage, but it comes with three games pre-installed, including Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3.
The only difference is that the new model doesn’t ship with a 4K Blu-ray drive.
The $249 starting price is for the recommended retail price, which is the same, and sometimes even more, of the price that you’ll usually see for the original Xbox One S ($299 retail price) when offered as bundled with discounts. However, sales are always part of the marketing strategy to push sales, which means that to make the All-Digital Edition more compelling, the company will have to provide similar discounts to keep the consoles $50 a part.
The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition along with the Xbox Game Pass monthly subscription to access more than 100 game titles, and the upcoming xCloud gaming streaming service are just pieces of the puzzle for the Microsoft vision of its digital-only gaming ecosystem.
The new Xbox One S All-Digital will launch on May 7, but you can start pre-ordering now at the Microsoft Store.
