Xbox One S Launch Date Announced; No Plans for India Release Yet

Announced at E3 2016 (and leaked earlier), the Xbox One S is a smaller variant of the Xbox One with some improvements in terms of frame rate and visuals. Now Microsoft has announced when it would be available.

"Last month, we revealed a new member of the Xbox One family, the Xbox One S. Today, we're excited to announce that the highly-anticipated 2TB Xbox One S launch edition will begin hitting shelves in select regions on August 2. That means that all pre-orders will arrive on August 2 and, for those of you that haven't yet, you can still pre-order a 2TB Xbox One S launch edition through microsoftstore.com and select retailers. Availability is limited and demand is high so you'll want to check with your local retailer for more information and pre-order your console soon," wrote Matt Lapsen, General Manager, Xbox Devices Marketing on the official Xbox website.

When the Xbox One S was revealed at E3 2016, Gadgets 360 asked Microsoft India if there were plans for India.

"Nothing yet - no updates on availability and pricing," a spokesperson for the company told us on email. And this indeed seems to be the case. We've requested Microsoft India for comment again though it's unlikely we'll hear anything different this time.

(Also see: The Xbox One S Plays Games Better Than the Xbox One)

Lapsen lists the countries slated to receive it: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, and the United States.

As for other markets, he claims that the "Xbox One S will also be hitting store shelves for additional markets later this year."

The 2TB Xbox One S is priced at $399 (around Rs. 27,000) and will be available from the aforementioned August 2 release date. Availability of other versions with 1TB and 500GB hard drives will be "shared soon", these would cost $349 (approximately Rs. 23,500) and $299 (roughly Rs. 20,000) respectively. While the company hasn't said much in way of a bigger price drop on the existing Xbox One, safe to say it should be available for lower than the current official price of $299.