The Xbox Series X, more accurately referred to only as the "Xbox", is still shrouded in a fair deal of mystery. While everything about its specs is still under scrutiny, there is another aspect that needs to be addressed: the price.
While the Xbox Series X has not yet been released to the public, details and speculations are still coming in hard and fast for the future Microsoft console. The question of load times has been raised, among others, but only now is a figure emerging as to how much that technology may actually set buyers back, and it is quite a figure.
In a series of tweets, analyst Daniel Ahmad explained that, after examining the Bill of Materials for the console, a single Series X console must be somewhere in the ballpark of $500 to manufacture. The CPU/GPU and memory alone would make up around half of that price, and that's not even counting the cost of the assembly itself. While the design might allow the Xbox Series X to run as quiet as a mouse, it is clear that the phrase "spared no expense" was applied quite liberally and literally in the console's construction.
Keep in mind that while this can be considered an accurate analysis of the prices of individual parts, no definite price of console construction or retail price has yet been released, and knowledge of the Xbox's system's specs, though extensive, don't paint the full picture.
What this means for the retail price is anyone's guess at this point. Microsoft has a history of selling its consoles at a loss and making up for it with extras, such as subscription fees and game transactions. Even so, such a price of assembly could see players paying a bit more than they are comfortable with, and enormous asking prices don't tend to go over well for consoles.
There could be some troubling implications if these figures are accurate for what the console will cost to make. In order to offset the cost, Microsoft could very well establish additional costs in other places to cover what they'll lose with the console. Incidentally, there's still no established price on Project xCloud yet.
That said, with all the features that the Series X will be bringing to the table, it may well be worth almost any pricetag for some fans. The stated backwards compatibility is going to mean a lot to a lot of people, as will the vastly reduced load times touted by Microsoft. Only time will tell if one really can put a price people are willing to pay on a console that seems to be all that and more.
The Xbox Series X is set to release in the holiday season of 2020.
Source: Twitter/Daniel Ahmad via GameRevolution