Xbox fans, wait no more! Tighten your seat belt and get ready to pre-order the Xbox One X this Sunday. Ever since Microsoft unveiled the One X at the E3 show, consumers have been wondering when they will be able to place pre-orders for the world’s most powerful console. The company had already revealed the price ($499) and launch date (November 7th), but it was quiet on the Xbox One X pre-order date for a long time.
Pre-orders to go live on Sunday
Many were expecting the Redmond-based company to reveal the Xbox One X pre-order date at the Gamescom event on August 20. In a Twitter interaction with fans, Xbox chief Phil Spencer promised to share the pre-order details on Thursday, August 17th. Meanwhile, The Verge editor Tom Warren revealed that the pre-orders would go live on Sunday, August 20th.
We'll share more info on this tomorrow.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 16, 2017
Xbox One X preorders will go live on Sunday after the Gamescom press event
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 17, 2017
Warren said the pre-orders should open after Microsoft’s Gamescom press event. The Redmond company’s media briefing is scheduled to begin at 2 PM Central Time on Sunday. The event should last an hour or two at most. So, we can expect the pre-orders to go live after 3 PM or 4 PM Central Time. Microsoft has not confirmed the timeline, so we should wait for the official confirmation.
Previously, there were speculations that Microsoft didn’t open pre-orders soon after the E3 event in June because the console hadn’t received approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC approved the console last month. The Xbox One X will go on sale in key markets across the globe on November 7th, in time for the holiday shopping season.
Should you order the console on Xbox One X pre-order date?
If you want to get the console in your hands before Christmas, it makes sense to pre-order rather than wait until the launch. Nintendo Switch has proved that demand can exceed the supply for a long time. Nintendo launched the Switch in early March, and the hybrid console is still out of stock at most retailers despite Nintendo having doubled the production capacity.
If you place an order on the Xbox One X pre-order date itself, you’ll be one of the first to get your console when shipments begin. Consumers will not be charged until the console ships, which means you can cancel your order anytime you want.
Xbox One X is a gaming beast
Microsoft has positioned the Xbox One X as an ultra-powerful console for hardcore gamers. The positioning is reflected in Microsoft’s statements, product pricing, and its capabilities. The console offers 4K and HDR gaming experience at 60 fps. It comes with 12GB RAM, six teraflops of GPU, a custom octa-core AMD processor, 326GB/s memory bandwidth, and a huge 1TB of built-in storage.
Despite being incredibly powerful, the One X isn’t bulky in any way. It’s even smaller than the Xbox One S, which itself was 40% smaller than the original Xbox One. The One X is far more powerful than its closest competitor, Sony’s PS4 Pro. However, Sony’s console is more affordable at $399 than the Xbox One X’s $499 price tag. By the time Xbox One X hits the store shelves, the PS4 Pro will be about a year old.
Industry experts believe that Sony could slash the price of its console to $299 or $249 by the year-end to eat into Xbox One X’s sales. Microsoft can’t afford to price its console below $499 because even at that price tag it is selling the console at a small loss.
By the time Xbox One X goes on sale, nearly 100 games will have received the Xbox One X Enhanced support. It means they will be optimized to take full advantage of the new console’s beastly capabilities.
Crackdown 3 pushed back to 2018
Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis announced that the highly anticipated Crackdown 3 would not launch with the One X. The action game was supposed to release alongside the One X on November 7th, but now it has been pushed back to the spring of 2018. It means Microsoft will have few exclusive titles to debut with the One X. Shannon said the company wanted to make sure that it delivered the “right game, with the right quality.”
