New Xbox "Is Going To Be Expensive"

Get your wallet ready: the new Xbox, codenamed Durango, looks to be expensive.

Paul Thurrott, Windows blogger extraordinaire, spoke of Microsoft's future plans and pricing on the What The Tech podcast and declared that there would be a "subscription-based" console priced at $300, and the base console would be $500. He also confirms what Adam Orth "jokingly" seemed to confirm last week: the console "must be internet connected to use."

This is a one-two punch of bad news in the face of an already bungled PR campaign that hasn't actually started yet, and Microsoft's personal insistence upon saying absolutely nothing official about even the potential of a new Xbox is really hamstringing their ability to defend themselves here. In the podcast, Thurrott goes on to mention a late May reveal of the new Xbox, similar to Sony's reveal of the Playstation 4 last February, which could be playing into Sony's hands if rumors of a second PS4 event before E3 are true. This might be a play by Sony to get on the field before Microsoft does back in February, and immediately after the Xbox launch event in May, undercut or outdo announcements made by Microsoft. Or these schedules are all a weird series of coincidences, which isn't a rare happening in this industry.

Either way, Microsoft is facing a challenge here. A $500 price tag for a new console today isn't as crazy as it was for a brand new PS3 back when this generation started, but combined with last week's incident and this apparent confirmation of always-on functionality, it's been a bad week for their PR department.

Source: Gamespot