It is over, by jove, it is bloody well over. Here I was thinking 2020 would just be a prolonged mess that irritates neverendingly, but some of what has made it unbearable is now over! I just need Apple and Epic to sit down now and stop their corporate cockfighting with lawyers. Well, that and for the people yelling about masks to shut up and put one on. It has been a weird year, only exacerbated by the fact we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and global economic ruin, yet Sony and Microsoft still want to release plastic boxes of hatred that cost hundreds of dollars.

This is the tweet…

Xbox Series X: $499 (ERP)
Xbox Series S: $299 (ERP)

Release date: November 10

Pre-order starts September 22: https://t.co/Dz5bRsAuwQ | #PowerYourDreams pic.twitter.com/MadZl4OOKJ

— Xbox (@Xbox) September 9, 2020

However, after months and months of foreplay, Microsoft was the first one to jump after asking all the parameters. Of course, they did so in the hope that Sony would jump first. It is official, the Xbox Series X will be $499 for the hyped-up model they have promoting for the last year and a bit. This comes following the leak and the official announcement that the Xbox Series S is a thing and that it will be $299. However, it was only a day later that we’d not only get a pre-order date, but also the release of the two consoles.

The rumored release date of November 10th was confirmed, and a few things have also shifted to release on the 10th for the Series X and S. DIRT 5, as we covered yesterday, will now release on the 10th for the console, bringing the series that was Colin Mcrae Rally to the next generation on release. Even Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla will now be releasing a week early to get in on the release of the consoles. Though there is still little known about the architecture for the smaller S variant of the consoles, one hopes it doesn’t quickly become the Xbox One of the generation.

This is ignoring that the Series S is an all-digital console for $200 less. Now last I checked, a disc drive with all the markups from the consumer markets wouldn’t make a 4K disc drive that expensive. Now I seem to remember a company, I can’t remember their name, getting ring piece ripped from Southend-on-Sea to San Francisco for the pure gall of attempting to eliminate second-hand sales. Yet, the vocal majority of 2013 has dropped to the minority of 2020, as I now remember it was this small start-up company called “Microsoft” that attempted that. Where has the anger for that gone?

Yes, second-hand sales are a grey area that still sits somewhere within the law, but it is the reason many people find and explore new games. Buying a console at the end of its lifespan and picking up a couple of the staple titles is what the PSP and VITA were great for. Others found that with the Xbox 360. Ridding the world of second-hand sales won’t get rid of a problem, it will just shift people more into emulation and piracy. So why are we trying to eliminate a problem that is lacking in everlasting negatives? It is like recycling for games, and that’s a good thing.

With the mild rant over on the Series S, the pre-orders for both the Series X and Series S will be going live on the 22nd of September. With the Xbox All Access system in place, the former seems to be an interesting deal. At the time of writing, Sony has yet to do anything further than a promise that only their most favorite customers will get their pre-orders for a console with no release date or a price. One would assume there will be an announcement on the horizon (possibly in the next two months).

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