All we know about the first disclosure on Xbox One, scheduled for May 7, for $ 249

The Xbox One S All-Digital edition will be the first major home console of the era of multimedia discs to be delivered without an optical drive, confirmed Microsoft. The new system, which will be launched May 7 in the United States, has a similar resemblance to the existing Xbox One S that they share an identical outer shell and motherboard, but only with a plastic blocker at the location of the reader.

In an interview with Ars Technica, GM, Jeff Gattis of Microsoft's platform and devices, confirmed a MSRP of $ 249, which includes the Discless console (currently only in "bright white" mode), an Xbox controller One corresponding, an internal hard drive of 1 TB and three software provided. Game download codes: Minecraft, Sea of ​​Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3. This model will be launched "in most Xbox One markets" on May 7, announced Microsoft, and all existing Xbox One accessories will be compatible with the All-Digital edition, because of its identical motherboard.

Gattis explained that this price would depend on the removal of the disk drive for the client. However, I asked him how he was taking it into account, because at the time of going to press, most retailers are listing existing Xbox One S offers (with at least one pack-in game) for $ 249.

"I'm terribly aware of it," said Gattis, before suggesting that "right now, if you enter retailers like Best Buy, [the existing Xbox One S] is a $ 299 product. "At press time, however, Best Buy and the Microsoft Store list offer attractive packages for Xbox One S 1TB at $ 249.

Still, Gattis explained Microsoft's intention to maintain a "50 € delta" between the Xbox One S disk drive (which supports the 4K Blu-ray format) and the XB1S All-Digital Diskless Edition: "Over time, these deltas of the same price will be transferred to the all-digital edition, it's about keeping the price gap, it's $ 50 less, and I think these ratios will be maintained once the all-digital edition will be on the market. "

Gattis hinted that this $ 50 delta was also among the top sales promotions like Black Friday: "I do not confirm [All-Digital Edition] $ 149 price [during Black Friday]but there will be a gap of $ 50 between the two products. But Gattis did not explain how this $ 50 price delta will emerge on May 7 and currently seems to benefit retailers.

"Would it be nice if it was smaller? Sure"

While the Xbox One S was already an impressive reduction of the original Xbox One, Gattis explained that Microsoft had decided to skip this new hardware revision, although the Blu-ray player of the XB1S (at 47, 9 square inches) occupies 18.6% of its volume.

When asked why Microsoft chose not to further reduce the all-digital version, Gattis emphasized the "value" of this XB1S model. "By reworking the motherboard and the chassis, we could get a smaller form factor, but this engineering time and cost would make it less attractive from a consumer value point of view," he told Ars. . "Some people may think it took less than 10 minutes, but we had to go through a new cycle of testing, quality control, etc."

When asked if Microsoft's product design team was perhaps too busy building a brand new console – the one already announced by Xbox's CEO, Phil Spencer – Gattis simply recognized "another generational console". He then added: "At this stage of the generation, we thought it was the right thing to do to not invest a lot of time in redesigning it. [Xbox One S]& # 39; form factor. Would it be nice if [the All-Digital Edition] was smaller? Sure. Our market research indicates that there is a demand for this new product as is. "

"Do not try to advance the digital agenda"

Curiously, the 100% digital version does not contain a set for the Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that allows Xbox One owners to download and play a wide selection of games, provided they pay their subscribers. The existence of this console seems absolutely ready for something like the Xbox Game Pass, which leaves enough games in the hands of those who pay to make them pay to eventually make them forget this disc player.

Asked about the lack of a Game Pass bundle, Gattis explained that "when you group something like that [in a console purchase], it does not get absorption and conversion "- perhaps because new subscribers do not need to enter their credit card information when they use a free coupon code. Digital Edition XB1S will be presented with a first-subscriber offer form for the Xbox Game Pass, which normally costs $ 10 / month, but currently includes a $ 1 first-time price for the first three months.

Gattis says that the offer of this new console will be "richer" and that "we will experiment". But he refused to offer more details.[[[[Update: A few minutes after the release of this article, Larry "Major Nelson" of Xbox, Hyrb, confirmed that the new owners of XB1S All-Digital Edition would receive a three-month Xbox Game Pass offer for $ 1.]

There was no news for Xbox fans who might want to transfer their old disk-based games to a diskless console. When asked about an alleged exchange program for older games, Gattis had no solid answer. "You can guess that we are well aware of this and that we want to find a way to solve this problem," he told Ars. "We still have nothing to share."

For the moment, Microsoft intends to sell this model alongside the Xbox One S and Xbox One X. "It's additive," Gattis told Ars. "We are not trying to put a digital agenda in. We have seen a segment of customers preferring to buy [its] digital content. In the end, it's a matter of choice. "

The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition comes close to 10 years after Sony has tried to overhaul a system, although it's done with the PSP Go notebook. This material revision turned out to be smaller than its predecessor, although this resulted in a tighter control situation, which was important to us at the time. Today's news also reminds us of the 2011 revision of the Nintendo Wii, which removed its GameCube ports and Wi-Fi chip while only slightly lowering the price.

In his opening notes on the new console, Gattis suggested that market research included comments from a "Generation Z audience" who asked aloud, "This is not going to Does not it cost more than the One S thanks to the added convenience? " But it is difficult to hear. This new Xbox One model removes some major amenities, such as playing disc-based movies, supporting games on disk whose digital versions have been removed from list due to license expiryand the benefit of being able to trade or sell a game once you're done.

And without hardware revision slimming the volume, the only benefit we get in exchange is a "$ 50 delta" that retailers are currently enforcing, not Microsoft's.

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