The Xbox Series S announcement that was made yesterday was definitely a shocker. Microsoft was forced to make things official, considering the leak revealed the design and price for the console. A leak of such a magnitude obviously had the company thinking of their next steps. But amidst all the chaos, Microsoft handled the situation quite brilliantly.
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Thurrot was the first to report the details for the console and showed the new Series S design and revealed the price to be $299. This immediately caught attention, and several major publications also posted the same. Considering the next-gen console was leaked, it was a moment of panic for Xbox.
Surprisingly, instead of denying or delaying any further, Xbox accepted the fact that there was no going back now. In response to the leaks, they posted a popular meme on twitter.
— Xbox (@Xbox) September 8, 2020
This was definitely an unexpected reaction from the company as the leak was a huge deal. Nevertheless, they were ready to acknowledge the situation and eventually took the decision to make it official.
Also Read: Is the Xbox Series S SSD a Little Inadequate?
👀 Let’s make it official!
Xbox Series S | Next-gen performance in the ˢᵐᵃˡˡᵉˢᵗ Xbox ever. $299 (ERP).
Looking forward to sharing more! Soon. Promise. pic.twitter.com/8wIEpLPVEq
— Xbox (@Xbox) September 8, 2020
Xbox Series S announcement
Even though console announcements are usually supposed to be huge, this was a win on Xbox’s part. Their handling of a potentially devastating situation was admirable, and this definitely got everyone talking about the console. Take a look at this Twitter thread from Jack Appleby to see the timeline of events that took place yesterday.
A major, major @Xbox leak was handled masterfully on social in the middle of the night.
Let's look at how Xbox made several viral moments out of a bad day thanks to some memes, quick thinking, & a big company that's agile enough for fast approvals.
Thread 🧵 // pic.twitter.com/QBbeYs3pBJ
— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) September 8, 2020
Xbox was quick to react to this situation and handled it perfectly. Even though they may have had plans for a big reveal, this leak was actually great publicity for Xbox. Their response was absolutely spot-on, and they definitely deserved all the attention.
The Series S’ specifications were also revealed in a video shortly after. Here are the hardware specs for the next-gen console:
- All-Digital
- 1440p at up to 120FPS
- DirectX Raytracing
- Variable Rate Shading
- Variable Refresh Rate
- Ultra-Low Latency
- Custom 512GB SSD
- 4K Streaming Media Playback
- 4K Upscaling for Games
The Series S can deliver great performance and play next-gen games. This announcement made things difficult for PlayStation as they don’t have a lesser, cheaper counterpart of the PS5. The ball is now in Sony’s court, and it’ll be interesting to see how they plan to tackle this situation.