Load the Game

Xbox One discount is no longer available, will gamers still find it appealing?

• Egon Kilin
• January 5th, 2015

The Xbox One discount which helped Microsoft sell millions of consoles these last couple of months is now over. This is of course not surprising as the company announced a while back that this was just a temporary promotion. Back in early November, the company decided that it would be best to temporarily sell the console for only $350, a full $50 less than what the PS4 goes for. Needless to say, gamers who were thinking about getting a new console but didn’t know which one, immediately opted for the Xbox One since it was now cheaper. Add to this the fact that Microsoft also bundled the console with big hitters like Assassin’s Creed Unity and it’s not hard to see why people were pushing and shoving to benefit from the promotion.

But as mentioned, all good things must eventually come to and end and now the Xbox One is back at its former price of $400. Still, the console continues to be cheaper than it was one year ago. Microsoft initially launched the console for no less than $500, a price which wasn’t exactly very appealing for most customers. Granted, the Xbox One originally came complete with the Kinect sensor and unfortunately there was no way of buying a version of the console which was Kinect-free for a while. Things changed early last year when Microsoft finally came to the conclusion that gamers didn’t really want the sensor and the company decided to offer the long-demanded Kinect-free version.

The sales have improved quite a bit since then, although the recent price-cut and various other promotions definitely helped as well. Now, the Xbox One is in a pretty good spot all things considered, however, it’s still lagging behind rival PS4 by a few millions. It’s unclear if people will still find the console appealing now that the promotion is gone, which means that Microsoft may have to announce some more exclusive titles if they want to keep gamers interested.