Microsoft just announced an Xbox Series X bundle that should be way more appealing than it actually is. It’s bundling the high-end console with Blizzard’s Diablo 4, and the bundle will ship on June 6 (the game’s launch day) for $559.99. Pre-orders are open now at the Microsoft Store.
The most appealing part of this package is that it’s $10 cheaper than buying the console and game separately. But that’s pretty much it. Aside from getting some in-game cosmetics, the incentive to buy this bundle is, sadly, very low. One would assume that Microsoft might try a little harder to impress people with, say, a custom-designed Xbox à la Nintendo’s new Tears of the Kingdom-inspired OLED Switch.
The company should have outfitted it with red LEDs and a custom sound effect, at the very least. Diablo 4 has plenty of design touchpoints that would translate well to a limited edition look. Perhaps such a collaboration between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard might seem suspect to competitors during Microsoft’s pending acquisition of the publisher, but who am I to say?
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Either way, this is a pretty lazy bundle, and it doesn’t make sense to pre-order and wait two months to receive a console that you can readily acquire through multiple retailers right now. It’d sure be a lot of waiting to save $10.
It’s possible you might save even more than that by avoiding this bundle, as Verizon has knocked $50 off this console in the past, leaving you more spending money for the best Xbox Series X accessories. Who’s to say if that deal will happen again, but console discounts are becoming more of a thing these days. Through mid-April, Sony’s PlayStation 5 bundle with God of War Ragnarök is $50 off at multiple stores, essentially reducing the cost of the bundled game to just $10. Personally, I’d bank on seeing even more temporary cost-cutting on hardware throughout 2023.