One of the most controversial aspects of Microsoft’s new ROG Xbox Ally device is the eyewatering price tag — particularly the X version, which comes in at a thousand bucks — and in a new interview with Variety, Xbox exec Sarah Bond says that it was largely manufacturer Asus that decided on pricing.
Bond says that Xbox “looked at creating multiple options for people” while partnering with Asus – but ultimately, “it [pricing] really was Asus, because this is their hardware”.
“We looked at, how do we create multiple options for people? And it [pricing] really was Asus, because this is their hardware,
That is all of their insight into the market, into the feature set, into what people want, to determine the ultimate prices of the devices.”
It’s worth noting, of course, that standard console prices are also going up – both Xbox Series X|S and PS5 systems have seen several price hikes this generation. Still, $1000 is a lot of cash, especially when Xbox once said that such a price tag wouldn’t grow the market. It probably makes sense that Asus determined pricing, then!
Despite the high entry costs, Bond went on to talk about “the overwhelming demand for the device”. She says that “we sold out on the Xbox Store. We sold really quickly at a number of other places around the world,” and that she “feels really good about the value that we’re giving gamers for the price, based off the reception to the hardware”.
Of course, we don’t have any numbers behind that initial sales burst, but the high-end ROG Xbox Ally X is looking quite popular at the moment, whilst the base $600 device is more readily available. That probably makes sense for a launch, given Xbox’s most hardcore user base will be attracted to the system during the early part of its life cycle.
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