It seems like yesterday that Microsoft decided to follow in the footsteps of Sony and The price of Xbox Series X has increased by 50 euros. It was a decision that caused quite a bit of controversy, as it caused the price of said console to rise from €499.99 to €549.99 almost two years after its launch. The reason was theoretically high demand and inflation at the time.

During the last months the situation has completely changed. Xbox Series Price In theory, they were temporarybut for weeks the price of this console remains almost a “permanent” supply that left her alone 419 eurosand I can confirm that I have seen it for 390 euros in refurbished versions with the same warranty as a new console.

We can also buy it right now on sale with Diablo IV for 439 euros, a price that not too long ago would have seemed too good to be true. On the contrary, The price of the PS5 remains at 549 euros right now, It was only on sale for a very limited time and units were available they sold out quicklywhich did not happen with the Microsoft console.

What’s going on with the Xbox Series

With all of this information on the table and the launch of the sales that the consoles of the current generation have accumulated so far, we can explain it in a simple, clear and well-founded way. The numbers don’t lie, Sony managed to double the sales of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, which means if we take the Xbox Series S out of the equation The difference is even greater in favor of the PS5.

This tells us that the Xbox Series well below Microsoft’s expectations, and the fact that its price has been at historic lows in recent weeks confirms that interest in the said console has dropped significantly. Microsoft has enough inventory for this console and can’t sell it, so it has no choice but to lower the price to make it more attractive to consumers.

Lowering the price as a strategy to drum up interest in a console that fails or doesn’t have the expected success, It’s nothing new. Consider, for example, what happened to the Saturn or the Dremcast, both from SEGA, which suffered price cuts so aggressive that the price was halved in a relatively short period of time. If I remember correctly, the Dreamcast arrived in Spain with a price of almost 40,000 pesetas, about 240 euros, and after the discounts it received, I bought it for 120 euros.

That’s what Microsoft is doing, and it seems clear that the company is willing to accept a slight loss for each Xbox Series X console sold in exchange for improved demand, as it can eventually offset this with sales of games and services. Based on consoles sold through November 25th PS5 approaches 49 million consoles sold, while the Xbox Series X and Series S sold out 25.37 million units.

How will this affect the future of the Xbox Series X, the expected generational change?

There’s no doubt that Microsoft will be the big loser this generation, and it’s a shame because the Xbox Series is the most powerful today. This defeat could affect the lifespan of both consoles, although not in a drastic way.

Microsoft can no longer win the current generation war and it is normal that they are thinking about replacing the early generation, something that according to the latest rumors could take place in 2026 and not in 2028 as originally expected. It’s not official information, but it makes a lot of sense, because the Redmond giant would not pay to launch an intergenerational renewal of the Xbox Series It didn’t even sell 20 million units of said console.

Introducing the successor to the Xbox Series an important temporary advantage and would allow you to turn the page before Sony launches the PS6console, which is expected in 2027 or 2028. As I said before, this will affect the life cycle of the current generation, although I do not think that the Redmond company will immediately abandon the Xbox Series X and Series S, because that might eventually be considered by its most loyal users for “treason” and it would almost be like shooting yourself in the foot.

In the event that this information is confirmed and if Microsoft decides to launch the successor to the Xbox Series X in 2026, we can expect that both generations coexist for at least one or two years to avoid this discomfort among users of the current generation due to “too early” retirement. However, during this period of coexistence, those from Redmond should release exclusive games that demonstrate the potential of their new console as soon as possible, otherwise they will lose that temporary advantage over the PS6.

What can we expect from the next-gen Xbox?

The generational leap will be important, that’s clear. We still don’t have definitive specs that are completely reliable, but I can share with you rough estimate based on what will be available in the market by 2026 and logical considerations taking into account the specifications of the current generation.

The next-gen Xbox is rumored to have a Zen 6 processor, but that architecture won’t arrive until late 2026, so I’m more inclined to think that it could arrive with a processor based on the Zen 5 architecture. Remember that the Xbox Series

The jump from Zen 2 to Zen 5 will mean a substantial improvement, although if Microsoft decides to use an APU we’ll see again cuts and edits which will reduce its actual performance compared to the Zen 5 PC processor, as already happened with the Xbox Series X, which brings a reduction in the L3 cache and at the FPU level, as well as a low operating frequency.

As for the GPU of the new generation of Xbox, I would bet Radeon based on RDNA 5or fail to do so a solution based on RDNA 4 with RDNA 5 features. It will all depend on AMD’s launch times and what it can or wants to offer Microsoft. In any case, it is important that there would also be a significant generational leap, both in terms of performance in rasterization and ray tracing, and they can be implemented improved versions of AMD FSR.

The remaining specifications of this console are not difficult to guess. By logic memory will most likely increase from 16 GB to 32 GB, to reunite and make the leap to the GDDR7 standard. As for the storage unit, we will have an SSD working at higher speeds with a capacity of 2 TB.

Rumor has it that the price of the next generation Xbox It will be lower than PS6something that also makes sense and that it has precedents, the most important of which is the Xbox 360a console that arrived before the PS3 and with a lower retail price, and which was Microsoft’s most successful console to date.