Update, 7/26/2016, 12:22pm PDT: Microsoft announced 500 GB and 1 TB Xbox One S bundles, which arrive on Aug. 23. For $349, you can get a 1 TB Xbox One S along with a copy of Madden NFL 17. The Halo Collection Bundle includes Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5: Guardians. The games are available on the 1 TB or 500 GB variant, and the bundles will cost you $349 and $299, respectively.
Original Story
Microsoft revealed at E3 that a smaller version of its Xbox One console called the Xbox One S would come to market at some point in August. Now we know that August 2 is the exact release date, at least for the new 2 TB console.
The Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One but features more storage capacity. It also includes an integrated PSU and an IR blaster (which Microsoft says allows for “increased accessibility”). The company also boasted that the console could also play Blu-ray movies and 4K video with high dynamic range (HDR), a feature that expands the contrasts between darks and lights.
The Xbox One S also comes with the new Xbox Wireless Controller. The updated peripheral has a textured grip, and its wireless connectivity has twice the range compared to previous Xbox controllers. It also comes with Bluetooth support, but Microsoft noted that the feature is only available on Windows 10 devices running on the Windows Anniversary Update. You can also buy the controller as a standalone product for $59.99.
The 2 TB Xbox One S will cost you $399 at launch. It will be available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
Microsoft also has plans to launch a 1 TB ($349) and 500 GB ($299) version of the Xbox One S at some point in the future, but the company didn’t provide an exact release date.
PS4 Neo being late to this game will hurt sales for sure. The advantage lies in timing when it comes to 4K and HDR. This time the advantage seems to be in MS's court. Much to my dismay since I like the PS4 much more than XBOX One, but no harm in owning both :)
Nope.
1) We are still quite a ways away from 4K home theater Blu-Rays being common in households. Have you priced the movies? They run $30-$40 a pop (US $). When Blu-Ray movies first came out, they were $20-$25. The only similarity is the relative price of the 4K players to current consoles, which was the same as the first Blu-Ray players and the PS3. So yes...many would rather just buy a console than a stand-alone 4K BD player.
2) Plenty of PS4 users, my PS4 friends included, are planning on selling their PS4s and upgrading to the Neo. I will be holding off because I do not see 4K as truly worthwhile, specifically with HD programming options and the amount of money and GPU power it takes to run it for PC gamers. By the time 4K programming on cable and satellite becomes more common and available, the PS5 will be out. Mark my words now: there will be a flood of used PS4s on the market when the PS4K comes out.
The NEO has neither. The specs leaked earlier today.
There are not many on the market yet and you can get one for $280 on amazon. There are supposed to be a slew of cheap ones by xmas. They will be much cheaper in 3 months and far below xbox. While it's good they're including HDR, it's kind of self defeating to attach features that only work on win10. That kills it for me if I was even pondering a console again and I'm not, at least not from sony/msft/nintendo. Maybe nvidia for android on rev2 of their shield tv console and just to get a great android experience (or streaming from pc gpu) on tv. Consoles offer nothing vs my pc other than VERY few exclusives. I hope NV's rev2 includes at least a bluray drive or a much bigger unit for 80-125w power (slap two 14nm socs in there this time NV! with HBM2 or GDDR5x etc and I'll buy! BEAT current consoles). I would buy for either of those options or both :) I have no need for 4K disc player for a while anyway if ever. I'll buy one when I can burn a disc for under a buck I guess (just for the extra room and less discs to store rips). I can get the content without the disc already (netflix etc), so no point in buying for THAT feature IMHO yet. I would NEVER buy a movie for $20+ and that's what they seem to go for...LOL. Discs to me aren't worth $5 these days. Storing them is a real PITA (learned from my dvd days...LOL).
I'd pay $350 for an xbox sized superpowered android box, but I'll pass again if it isn't over 75w. I want a real 1080p android vulkan box that competes with xbox1/ps4 easily. That's the only console in my future. It should be easy to do with new mem tech, die shrinks etc compared to what current gen started with and their upgrades aren't for the game side (no exclusives they said for those new boxes). If they go low-end again I'm out until rev3...ROFL. I don't think the new console will spur sales of xbox much just for a HDR player. They made a mistake not making it more gaming capable. Of course if you wanted one to begin with, it's clearly an upgrade, but sony has sold 4x so I'd think most will wait to see their rev2 shortly as far more gaming devs will aim there first with that many more users. If NV puts out a comparable android box for xmas I think xbox is over, as most have clearly opted for sony this gen (80% of the market) and many want a different side (android/vulkan) like me since PC gets most of what consoles have already and PC gaming is already #1 by far and growing fast. IE, 2yrs ago 61% of NV's revenue came from their top end gaming gpus and it's obviously more now since 1080 is the fastest selling top end gpu ever. No doubt 1070 sells just as well or better.
As an example of people moving to high-end, AMD 480 sold 2000 on day one at OCuk. GTX 1080 sold 1000 on day one. Not sure what they sold of 1070, but it is hard to believe 1080+1070 likely equal the 480's sales. Unfortunately AMD went for low margin product first yet again. I expect a crappy quarter despite the new gpu in a few days. All of the current gpus in those 480's were sold before this Q ended so it will be a bad sign for AMD if they don't make a profit with all of them on it. These consoles aren't helping AMD much either unfortunately as far more people seem to get that things are far better on a PC (as gpu sales trends show, people are massively buying above $300). AMD needs 50-60% margins, not 30%. I expect another $50-100mil loss. A new xbox won't help that. :( Vega and Zen should have come first! Both probably got pushed off because of a new xbox shrink design needed to be done (for paltry 10-15% margins no doubt again). Management needs to go yet again at AMD. They need someone who will go HIGH MARGIN FIRST, and always. They got rid of Dirk, the only guy who seemed to get this at AMD for the last decade and they ditched him because of it...LOL. They've been diluting their shares for a decade too, now up to 793mil outstanding. Ouch.
40% smaller -> that's not hard to achieve considering the original is bigger then a BETAMAX
built in power supply -> well yeah 9years ago we had consoles with built in power supply sony anyone
bluetooth controller -> well 9years ago we had console with bluetooth controllers
a bit late to the party Microsoft, don't be foolled they have Scorpio version to come out soon and they are closing every 1st party game studio, they want to turn the xbox brand into a shit computer running windows 10 you watch and see
I may be wrong but I dont see this being a good seller.