Xbox Series X Price Leaked By Pringles, and it is Higher Than You Think

Seven days into September, less than 3 months away from the Xbox Series X rumored launch date, and Microsoft has yet to unveil the official price of the machine.

The delay by both, Microsoft and Sony in revealing their the price points for both of their next gen systems, has opened the door for all types of rumors and leaks to spring up. Some have been credible, and some not so much.

The newest leak, somehow manages to find itself within both categories, as it comes from a known brand of snacks, and the leak also presents an astronomically high price (for a home console).

Pringles (Yes, the those crunchy tasty chips) has some sort of competition going on in South Africa. A twitter user, saw the fine print of consoles being given away and the total of value in money (given away by the company).

After some math by Forbes (and some currency exchange rate calculations) the total estimate per console is that of – hold on to your seats – $815.

Consoles haven’t been that expensive since the days of the 3DO in the 1990’s. It is unlikely that the Xbox Series X will retail in America (or Europe) for such an astronomically high sum. Microsoft would not sell more than a couple of thousand units at that price point, especially considering that Sony’s PlayStation 5  will probably launch at $499.

Still, Microsoft’s silence on pricing matters, and the system’s specs do lend some room to speculate, and perhaps it is important to stress how the Xbox Series S plays into all of this.

The new leak has made me reconsider my original Xbox Series X pricing prediction which was about $499, to a new price point of $599. It isn’t just the leak that has made me shift my expected price point, it is the actual existence of the Xbox Series S, and the fact that it is rumored that this console will launch along side the Series X come November.

The existence of a budget console at launch is a bit unprecedented. True, the PS3 had two models at launch back in 2006, but the only difference between both systems at the time was their hard drive space. The situation here between the Series X and Series S is more akin to the pricing situation between the Xbox One S and the premium Xbox One X.

At the zenith of both current generation Xbox Consoles there was a $200 gap between the systems. The difference now, is that Microsoft is offering both options at launch, hinting perhaps, that the company might have been worried about how expensive the Xbox Series X would turn out to be. Suddenly a $399 Xbox Series S, and a $599 Xbox Series X doesn’t seem that far fetched.

The Series X offers 3 times as much GPU power, and And almost twice as much RAM as the inferior Series S console. To put things in to perspective an equivalent computer rig that could match (but still fall short) of the Xbox Series X specs, could easily run you $700-$800 dollars on CPU, and GPU alone.

Obviously, console manufacturers have certain advantages (in terms of cutting costs) that the average PC maker does not, but still, it is important to consider how powerful the Xbox GPU is ( 52 compute units, and 16 GB of GDDR6 RAM) when assessing its possible pricing.

There are rumors that Sony will unveil the PS5 price point on September 9th (this week). If such rumors prove to be true, it will give us a clearer picture of what Microsoft will do in regards to their own console. Remember, Microsoft’s end goal seems to be to get gamers to subscribe to its Game Pass service, and an unreasonable price (over $599) would not help matters.