Finally, after all kinds of rumors about the Xbox One’s official price in China, Microsoft has made an official announcement. The console’s price will “start at” RMB 3699, or $600, in China. It’s not immediately clear whether that’s the price for the Kinect-less console or for the whole shebang, but either way it’s not as low a number as most gamers were hoping for.
The console will launch officially on September 23.
The Xbox One does come with a couple of “free” games: Neverwinter Online and Powerstar Golf, although both games are free-to-play in other regions already, so this doesn’t represent a particularly enticing value. It also comes with a free Xbox Live Gold subscription, which is good through March 2015. After that, the service will cost RMB 199, or about $32 (though it’s not clear how long a subscription that’ll buy you).
It does sound like Chinese gamers will be getting a break on the games, though. Games will be priced from RMB 99 to RMB 249 ($16-$40), meaning they’ll be significantly cheaper than new games in most other regions. And speaking of games from other regions, some of Microsoft’s partners are advertising that the Chinese Xbox One isn’t region-locked and will be able to play games from other regions, although that isn’t something Microsoft has yet confirmed.
And how do China’s gamers feel about the price? Surprisingly, the reaction seems to be somewhat positive. Although it’s higher than many hoped, the reports that it won’t be region-locked have pleased a lot of people, and on this story about the pricing (for example), the most popular of the 8,000-plus comments that have been left there already reads:
Upvote this comment if you can accept the launch price.
Your move, Sony!
(via Netease Games)
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