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Xbox streaming box would have been too expensive, Microsoft says
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Microsoft has revealed itshelved plansto launch an Xbox streaming box because it couldn’t get the price low enough to make it an attractive proposition for consumers.
According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, whoconfirmed the existenceof the ‘Keystone’ box earlier this year, Microsoft was unable to hit the target of a $100–$130 streaming-only media device.
In an interview onThe Verge’s Decoderpodcast, Spencer said the prototype the Xbox team has built was more expensive to kit out than Microsoft was comfortable with selling it for.
We would assume this means there wouldn’t be enough of a price gap to make this a viable device up against theXbox Series S, which also offers cloud connectivity, as well as all of the tech required to play games locally. Not just those within the Game Pass library.
Spencer says: “It was more expensive than we wanted it to be when we actually built it out with the hardware that we had inside. We decided to focus that team’s effort on delivering the smart TV streaming app.”
ThatXbox app has rolled out for Samsung smart TVsinitially, enabling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to enjoy hundreds of games thanks to powerful cloud infrastructure.
Microsoft isn’t ruling out the future launch of a Keystone game streaming box in the future, but the idea of a launch in 2023 doesn’t sound realistic at the present time. “With Keystone, we’re still focused on it and watching when we can get the right cost,” Spencer says.
The comments from the Xbox chief come a few weeks after it was confirmed that the streaming box would be delayed indefinitely. He told theWSJ Tech conferencethe idea had been put on the back burner for now.
He said: “Giving people choice – whether they want to play on their tablet, on their smart TV, on Xbox, a PC – we think that’s really critical to where we’re going. Will we do a streaming device at some point? I suspect we will, but it’s years away. I still have the prototype – it sits on the shelf behind my computer.”
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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA. …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
