Microsoft Xbox One Officially Discontinued

Does this mean that Sony has already won the console war, Nintendo Switch notwithstanding? Eh, not exactly. Before you go ahead and dig a grave for Microsoft’s foray into console gaming, today marks the official death of only the original Xbox One, at least in the United States and Canada.

The original Xbox One, which was first launched back in 2003, has been discontinued. If you go to the Microsoft Store (US), you’ll find that the original Xbox One isn’t even listed anymore. The same is true with the Canadian storefront, as far as I can tell, though Microsoft UK is simply showing the 500GB Xbox One as “out of stock.”

You can still find some refurbished models while supplies last, but it looks like this is the end of the first Xbox One (not to be confused with the first Xbox). We got the slimmer Xbox One S (from $249) last year and we’ll be getting the new Xbox One X in November. Yes, it’s not confusing at all that the acronym for the Xbox One X (to be priced at $499) is XBOX. In any case, you’ll have to choose between the “S” and “X” variants moving forward.

The Xbox One S introduced the smaller body, the white color scheme, 4K support for Blu-ray and some streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Video. The Xbox One X is targeted more at “hardcore” gamers who want 6 teraflops of graphical processing power, 326GB/sec memory bandwidth, and the ability to stream and record clips in 4K at 60 frames per second. Whether that’s worth twice the price is up to you to decide. Or you can get a PS4/PS4 Pro.

And since Microsoft and Sony are reportedly in talks about cross-play between their consoles, maybe it won’t really matter as much any more which you get. In the meantime, I’ll just keep playing Mario Kart on my Switch.