Catching pretty much everyone off guard, Microsoft went ahead and confirmed the leaked pricing. Here we are with the Xbox Series X Price confirmed by Microsoft.

Once again, proving the leaks to be 100% on the money (Ha ha, very Pun-ny)! There was no time wasted in going ahead and having the Xbox Series X Price confirmed by Microsoft. As shown above, that’s a reasonable $499-00. With Microsoft’s cards all on the table, even worse, on the day of PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary, it’s over to Sony to have a response to the full-on attack from the Xbox team. Add to that, Xbox Series S and Series X will both be releasing on November 10th. It is finally done.

Now that we have those details out of the way, and all seeming like great news all round, I take a huge turn off the highway and into Rant-Ville. Xbox South Africa has also confirmed the price of both Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. My fellow South Africans, you may need to sit down for this.

Starting with the Xbox Series S at a rather reasonable R6999. Yes its still pretty expensive but taking a look at the cost of Xbox One S 1TB, which costs $299 in the US costs R6999 in South Africa. So that price is bang on and around what I expected. Now we get to where my rant truly begins. The Xbox Series X price in South Africa. Let’s take a step back to the launch of another $500 console, the Xbox One X. At launch a couple of years ago, it was R7999. And the price before the console was discontinued very recently, R8999 (non-bundled console only). So if by yours and my calculation is that Xbox Series X would cost exactly the same, you would be horribly mistaken.

For reasons beyond logic, this $500 console costs R11999. So how is it that the $300 console price is the same but the $500 console has a massive increase in price. Don’t tell me about import tax, or shipping costs. Then the previous Xbox One X console would also cost R11999. This is a straight up inflated profit margin by local Xbox Distributors. Keep in mind, the Rand is currently stronger than when I purchased my Day One Xbox One X at R7999. If you think it’s just me ranting for no reason, do yourself a favour and read comments on Xbox South Africa’s Twitter feed.

Xbox Series X price of $499 in US is bang-on in terms of the value you will get out of the power of the box. I sadly cannot say the same for South African gamers with a price of R11999. What remains to be seen is the PS5 pricing and what that translates to in South Africa. Make no mistake Sony, all eyes are on you now!