Even before Sony lifted the curtain on the PS4 Pro, its mid-generation hardware upgrade pegged for launch in November, speculation was rife that the Xbox One Scorpio would be vastly superior in terms of raw performance considering Microsoft’s new console touts six teraflops of computing power.
We learned back in September that this is indeed the case, after Sony revealed the technical innards of the Pro model. But one crucial, potentially make-or-break facet that Microsoft is yet to reveal is the actual price of the Scorpio. As a 4K-capable, VR ready machine, it’ll obviously hail from the higher end of the pricing range – for perspective, Pro will retail at $399 on November 10 – and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer told NZGamer recently that it’ll be priced as “a premium console.”
Designed in tandem with the Xbox One S, Spencer noted how both the Scorpio and its sleek brethren allowed Microsoft to gauge certain design aspects and which demographic they’ll appeal to. And though he doesn’t disclose an exact figure, it’s a safe bet that the Xbox One Scorpio will be tethered with a relatively high price tag by holiday 2017 – possibly in the $400-$500 range.
“So I think you will feel like it’s a premium product, a premium console. And not something, anything more than that. So I wouldn’t get people worried that this thing is going to be unlike any console price you’ve ever seen. We didn’t design it that way.
“That said, the opening price point for the Xbox One S, and the different hard drive sizes, that is a critical part of this whole product. When I think about it as a product line, you should expect the pricing to kind of be in line with that.”
Xbox One Scorpio is currently without a firm release date, though Microsoft’s beefy hardware is expected to arrive in the latter stages of 2017. The Xbox One S, meanwhile, is available right now and has already brought about a significant spike in hardware sales for Microsoft – up 1000%, according to early figures.
