The Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition have been discontinued ahead of the Xbox Series X release later this year, Microsoft has confirmed.
Rumors that Xbox One consoles were being discontinued emerged last week when a Reddit post by an alleged Target employee claimed the company's internal database was listing both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X as being discontinued.
A more recent report by PressStart claims that sources at both EB Games and JB Hi-Fi told the Australian publication that they aren't expecting any more stock of the Xbox One X, with the console being deleted from their systems, and instead offering the Xbox One S and upcoming Xbox Series X.
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It also appears that Amazon is showing either "limited stock", "currently unavailable" and, in some cases, discontinued under many of its Xbox One X listings, while the Microsoft Store is showing its Xbox One X console listings as "sold out".
Now, Microsoft has confirmed these reports and put out the following statement: "As we ramp into the future with Xbox Series X, we're taking the natural step of stopping production on Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Xbox One S will continue to be manufactured and sold globally."
Just the Xbox One S?
While initial rumors claimed the Xbox One S was also being discontinued, too, a Microsoft spokesperson on Twitter has confirmed that the Xbox One S is "still very much available" and explained that the "discontinued" listings were down to a change in SKU numbers (via Pure Xbox).
Xbox One S is very much still available, we just changed SKU numbers. Amazon is just messy in how they show products.July 4, 2020
The Xbox One S is Microsoft's lower-cost console and is capable of 4K output, but does not play games in native 4K, according to our Xbox One S review.
An odd move
It could be that Microsoft is discontinuing its older Xbox consoles to encourage players to upgrade to the Xbox Series X – or perhaps needs to set aside some common parts for the next generation of consoles.
However, typically companies discontinue their older consoles a couple of years into the new consoles life-cycle, so we would expect Microsoft to continue production of the Xbox One X until around 2022. That, apparently, won't be happening.
In addition, Microsoft has prided itself on not leaving Xbox One gamers behind when the Xbox Series X arrives, with Smart Delivery and no Xbox Series X exclusives aiming to ensure Xbox One players aren't locked out of the next-gen experience – which now feels a bit confusing considering Microsoft is cutting off the Xbox One X from production.
We might hear more about Microsoft's decision at its upcoming Summer Showcase event on July 23, but the company has already said on Twitter that we shouldn't expect big hardware news concerning the Xbox Series X or rumored Xbox Series S.
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