A new Xbox console is joining the ever-growing family of Xbox One consoles. Yesterday, Microsoft premiered its Xbox One S All Digital-Edition. The Xbox One S console does away with disc drives and instead relies on digital downloads at a relatively low price, and has the appeal of an online Xbox Game Pass subscription.
The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, which is priced at $249 and will be available on May 7th. This is a new model and will be sold alongside the original Xbox One S, and the more powerful Xbox One X. The big selling point here is that this All-Digital Edition will not ship with the Blu-ray drive, cutting the price slightly by $50.
Without the optical drive, Microsoft’s new game console won’t be able to play your existing game discs or Blu-ray movies. However, any digital Xbox content you own will be available on the All-Digital Edition. This seems mainly like a play to attract new gamers who don’t have a giant library of now-useless discs. It also ties neatly into the recently unveiled Game Pass subscription and xCloud game streaming tech.
With the new all-digital Xbox, gamers will be able to start with three digital games pre-downloaded on the console, including Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3. From there, they’ll be able to build their own library of digital games onto the 1 terabyte hard drive. All three are also part of the Xbox Game Pass’s value-heavy lineup, for which the All Digital appears to be especially well-suited.
Pre-order for the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is available now and will release on May 7, 2019.
In addition to the console reveal, Microsoft also released the following news, during the Inside Xbox update:
- We unveiled the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plan, which will include the full Xbox Game Pass library and all Xbox Live Gold benefits for the low-monthly price of $14.99. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is a convenient choice and provides a solution to easily manage your gaming memberships.
- In partnership with ELEAGUE, Xbox announced the ELEAGUE Gears Summer Series: The Bonds and Betrayals of Brotherhood – a six-part event series and live tournament focused on the stories and players behind the world of Gears Esports with the first episode debuting on TBS, Friday, June 14, at 11 pm ET/PT.
- We highlighted brand-new, feedback-driven features coming to Game bar, from Spotify integration to improved social experiences that enable you to see what your friends are playing, quickly text or voice chat, create memes to share via Twitter, and our newly announced Looking for Group (LFG) feature which enables you to quickly and easily find people to bring into battle with you
- We were happy to share that Ninja Gaiden 2 is now Backward Compatible for Xbox One, and that it’s joined by Fable 2, Fable 3, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent in getting enhanced for Xbox One X.