"It was more expensive than we wanted it to be when we actually built it out with the hardware that we had inside," said Spencer. "We decided to focus that team’s effort on delivering the smart TV streaming app. It was really just a direction, 'Okay, we’re going to focus our effort on our partnership with Samsung and where that app might continue to show up in different places over time.' With Keystone, we’re still focused on it and watching when we can get the right cost.
Phil Spencer Wants Xbox Streaming Device to Hit $99-$129 Before Releasing It - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 16 November 2022 / 3,272 ViewsMicrosoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with The Verge's Decoder podcast was asked about the Xbox streaming device and said the device works and is complete, however, it is too expensive to make sense to release.
"When you have Series S at $299 - and during the holidays you might see some price promotions - and you obviously have Series X higher, I think in order for a streaming-only box to make sense, the price delta to S has to be pretty significant.
"I want to be able to include a controller in it when we go do that. It was really just about whether we could build the right product at the right price, or if we couldn’t, how could we focus the team’s effort? We decided to go do the TV app with Samsung, and we’re really happy with the results there."
Spencer wants the price of the streaming device to be around $99 to $129 with a controller included.
"I don’t want to announce pricing specifically, but I think you have to be somewhere around $129, $99 for that to make sense in my view," he said. "We just weren’t there with a controller. I love the effort. The reason it’s on my shelf is because the team rolled up their sleeves and in nine months they built that thing. A bunch of us took it home and it worked. It worked really, really well.
"When you are building new products, it’s always about, do you have the right design? Do you have the right user interface? Do you have the right customer proposition? That customer proposition includes the price, and I think all of us knew that we were a little out of position on price."
He added, "This is why we will get there. It’s different when you have your own power source. Not to go into the hardware design, but if this thing is standalone, it’s not living on the power source and the integrated circuits that are already in the TV. You have to do everything bespoke. We made some decisions to make it easy. When it is turned on, it looks like an Xbox with the user interface and everything works. Some of the silicon choices we were making at the time of designing just didn’t let us hit the price point that we wanted.
"I love when teams go off; it was kind of like our back-compat team back in the day. I applaud when teams go off and take a crazy mission of, 'We’re going to build a streaming console and all try it at home, and the experience will be really good.' I love when teams take risks and deliver. I think it’s fantastic."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
11 Comments
so when the time comes it will be $129.99
I'd probably be a buyer at about $60 without a controller. I don't have any interest in controller, but I might be willing to pay $99 with a controller. Wouldn't make sense for me to go beyond that, as it would really be a tertiary xbox device for me.
For a handheld device it is a pretty good target I think, for a HDMI based device a $25 raspberry pi 3 model A+ should be enough with a native app for 1080p streaming.
I was about to say. This is just a streaming device maybe the size of a usb flash drive. Theres zero way this should cost above $50. And thats pushing it.
It's because he wants to include a controller. They should have that be an optional bundle imo
I agree that a higher price than that would make it a pretty poor option, even with a controller, but honestly think it would be smart of them to also make the device purchaseable without a controller, since people who already use an Xbox Controller for PC gaming (like yours truly) would almost certainly rather get the device cheaper than an extra controller if they are interested.
PS (Vita) TV was a streaming capable device that hit that price point.
But did it come with a controller? that seems to the problem with this device he wants to cost this much with a controller
Controller itself likely costs 15-30 bucks at most.
It do makes sense.
Essay Pro