Some surprising news from Microsoft today…they’re discontinuing the XBox One X. The upgraded XBox One was released with massive hype in 2017 as the most powerful console on the market, introducing features like 4K support to consoles for the first time. Suddenly, it’s been dumped…and it’s not alone. The XBox One S All-Digital Edition will meet the same fate, and it’s barely been available a year. Its acronym SAD has never felt more apt.
The XBox One X is not to be confused with the XBox SERIES X, the name of their new console coming this holiday season…but some consumers definitely would get it confused, which could be one reason why the One X is being removed. Alternately, they could have given the Series X a less confusing name, but we’re not in charge of this.
Why ARE they doing this anyway? According to a Microsoft rep who spoke with The Verge, “as we ramp into the future with Xbox Series X, we’re taking the natural step of stopping production on [these consoles]. Xbox One S will continue to be manufactured and sold globally.” Traditionally, it’s the most powerful model of a unit that stays on the market after obsolescence…the New Nintendo 3DS is the most recent example. This is not a “natural step” at all.
You might be thinking, “I better run out and get one before they’re all gone!” They’re already gone. Merchants both physical and web-based have had a difficult time keeping game consoles in stock ever since the pandemic made home amusements a higher priority. There’s a chance you might get super-lucky, but most of us will probably never see an XBox One X on a store shelf again.
The silver lining here: Microsoft has pledged to continue support for the XBox One for the next two years, and by that they mean all their major games will come out for both systems into 2022. “We won’t force you to upgrade to Xbox Series X at launch to play Xbox exclusives,” they say. No matter what you own, or can’t own, you won’t be missing out.
