For the fourth time in little over eighteen months, Microsoft has reduced the asking price of the Xbox One in the UK, officially bringing the console down to £299.
Alas, it appears that the company has no plans to implement a similar retail strategy in the States, but already retailers are beginning to undercut Microsoft, with Amazon advertising the entry level model sans Kinect for £287. In a statement provided to Eurogamer, a spokesperson from the Redmond-based giant revealed that slashing the price point is a matter of timing.
“This is a UK-only retail promotion,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer, “and offers great value for fans looking to buy an Xbox One ahead of the launch of 2015’s highly-anticipated games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Batman: Arkham Knight, along with Xbox exclusives such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Motorsport 6 and Halo 5: Guardians.”
When it hit the market for the first time back in the later stages of 2013, Microsoft’s current-gen console was tethered with a somewhat lofty £429 price tag. Since then, the company has slowly but surely won back the hearts and minds of the community through the removal of controversial features and by reducing the asking price itself to reach parity with Sony’s PlayStation 4.
And though Quantum Break bowed out of 2015 due to a recent delay, there are a myriad of notable titles releasing for Xbox One — titles that will look to kickstart this generation in earnest — including Rise of the Tomb Raider and 343 Industries’ hotly-anticipated sequel, Halo 5: Guardians.
