At $149.99, It’s the Xbox All Digital Editions Last Stand

Since the debut of the Xbox One X All Digital Edition, there has been one large problem with the console, the price. With an MSRP of $249.99, the console was not a good value when you consider that games can only be purchased digitally.

This week for Black Friday sales, the console is being offered for $149.99, a $100 price drop which makes it the most affordable way to buy the current generation Xbox. And if this price point does not move units, it may be the end of Microsoft’s digital experiment.

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This version of the Xbox comes with Minecraft, 2000 V-Bucks, Legendary Rogue Spider Knight Outfit, and 2 Style Variants that unlock as in-game challenges are completed for Fortnite, and Sea of Thieves.

If you have been thinking about picking up an Xbox, this is about as cheap as it will get as we run up into the Scarlett release which should happen in about a year. Of course, you will be able to find used consoles for less but for a fresh box, $149.99 is a good price for this version of the console.

And frankly, this is about the price it should have launched at earlier this year. Coming in at $249.99 never made sense and tarnished the release of this type of console. While it’s clear that digital game purchases are the future and that disc-based games are slowly going away, that future isn’t quite here yet.

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Conversation 16 comments

  • StevenLayton

    27 November, 2019 - 9:39 am

    <p>I never got the whole disc-less console idea. Yeah, I understand the move to digital downloading of games, but the console will typically sit under the main TV in most households. Households that still have dozens of DVD/Blu-rays that the kids and family still watch. An Xbox with a Blu-ray player reduces the number of boxes and cable clutter you need under the TV. It does no harm keeping the optical drive, but it does reduce options by removing it.</p>

    • darrellprichard

      27 November, 2019 - 4:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492525">In reply to StevenLayton:</a></em></blockquote><p>It's a low $$ option for customers – get them into the Xbox ecosystem at the lowest price point possible. But yeah, I wouldn't buy a console that didn't include a BD player. </p><p><br></p><p>On a side note, the BD drive adds a significant cost to the production of the console. Not only for the hardware, but for the codec licensing. (That's why the BD player SW needs to be downloaded – so that MS isn't paying licensing for drives that will never see a disc.)</p>

  • ezraward

    27 November, 2019 - 9:47 am

    <p>This seems like the entire purpose behind this device. There was a lot of confusion when it was released about why it had the MSRP it had, but it was obvious it was released for sales like these. $149 – $199 is the right price for this.</p>

  • nbplopes

    27 November, 2019 - 10:18 am

    <p>The future is here, customers are ready for this approach to consoles, as you so well described, just look around. Yet MS is not.</p><p><br></p><ul><li>No family share of digital foods. Me as a parent with two kids …</li><li>No game transfer between users, or at least a market place trading licenses, the counterpart to “analog”. Games are not priced like music and movies, much higher, yet more than one person can listen and watch at the same time … you know. MS could well have a slice of the trade as well as publishers.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The console price is the least of the limitations compared to a more “analog” approach. It’s even more wall guarded than the digital music and movie space as I explained.. Compared to to these, digital distribution and trade is in the stone ages. Courtesy of MS, Sony and Nintendo wall guardens.</p><p><br></p><p>So it’s mostly limitations for the convenience of using your bandwidth for game downloads. I thought we were in the digital era not something less convenient and cost effective than “analog” copies.</p><p><br></p><p>Cheers</p>

    • ecumenical

      27 November, 2019 - 10:56 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492537">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Microsoft had plans for digital sharing and transfer before Xbox One launched and got crucified for it. So I don't think you'll see anyone try to push that kind of stuff again anytime soon.</p>

      • nbplopes

        27 November, 2019 - 11:18 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#492549">In reply to ecumenical:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>MS pushed a bunch of foggy uncertain if not unofficial statements. It got crucified for that. Nothing more. Not what I so clearly stated and would back up has a customer.</p><p><br></p><p>The real MS intent is exposed with the all digital version and its being crucified again.If they wanted to do what I described they could have done it already for digital downloads. So it was rightly crucified back than as it is now!!!! Yet now no one notices how much the consumer suspicions around the actual agenda were correct because no one cares for this stupid approach to all things digital.</p>

      • anthonye1778

        27 November, 2019 - 1:22 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#492549">In reply to ecumenical:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yep, I have always had the (unpopular) opinion that the Xbox One as originally envisioned in that infamous 2013 keynote would have been the best console ever released. And yet MS was, as you say, 'crucified' senselessly and their ideas summarily destroyed by so-called 'fans' and the tech news media. Make no mistake, we would have much more freedom now if many (NOT all) of their original ideas had been given room to grow. </p><p><br></p><p>A shame, really. THAT was the future, and it had to be put off by at least 10 years because of people's stupid reactions.</p>

        • nbplopes

          27 November, 2019 - 6:23 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#492593">In reply to AnthonyE1778:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>If that's the actual case with no hidden agenda why didn't MS deployed such vision already with games purchased and downloaded digitally? What's blocking them? You know, starting with family share like every other more diversified and open software publishing platform supports (iOS App Store, MacOS App Store, Google Play, Steam). Do you believe it is the support of downloading games out of BR disks that kept them from doing it? Really?</p><p><br></p><p>Of course that is not what kept from doing with! Simply put that was not the actual agenda. What you have now in the form of all digital version is what was an it's all about. That was rejected then and it's rejected now. Go on and buy it, more than one, give it as gift to the all family as they are so non expensive … Gillet Style.</p>

        • Vladimir Carli

          Premium Member
          27 November, 2019 - 7:25 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#492593">In reply to AnthonyE1778:</a></em></blockquote><p> huh? people's stupid reaction? I am not sure what you are referring to but that launch was a disaster and it was all microsoft's fault. Blaming the "stupid" users is absurd. If I remember correctly they babbled something about games playable only if connected to the internet, that caused the reaction and it was completely justified.</p>

  • Bats

    27 November, 2019 - 1:15 pm

    <p>I just have one question….</p><p><br></p><p>Is the Xbox Game Pass……….popular?</p><p><br></p><p>I am not an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, but on the Playstation side, there are tons of excitement within the entire community of PS Plus subscribers when free games are announced. It's not like that on the Microsoft side? If there was, I would imagine there would be far more interest in this version of the disc-less Xbox, than there is now, which is practically…..nonexistent?</p>

    • Jonas Barkå

      27 November, 2019 - 9:46 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492590">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>Game Pass is not the equivalent of PS Plus, it is closer to PS Now.</p><p><br></p><p>My impression is that both Game Pass and the cheaper PS Plus like Xbox Gold is fairly popular. </p>

    • maethorechannen

      Premium Member
      28 November, 2019 - 5:34 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492590">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>If the XBox related subreddits are anything to go by then yes, GamePass is very popular.</p>

  • ommoran

    Premium Member
    27 November, 2019 - 3:27 pm

    <p>Whither the apostrophe? In your title, it should be "Edition's" not "Editions".</p><p><br></p><p>There was only one Digital Edition, after all.</p>

  • tripleplayed

    27 November, 2019 - 7:57 pm

    <p>I'd be interested in a cheaper digital only Project Scarlett Xbox, but I am not in the market for a Xbox One. I suspect there are a lot of people like that. I have never used the disc drive on my Xbox this gen. </p>

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