Microsoft has discontinued producing all Xbox One consoles. The software company originally retired the Xbox One X and digital Xbox One S ahead of the release of the Xbox Series X, then quietly stopped making the Xbox One S at the end of 2020, leaving shops to sell out their remaining inventory.
“We stopped producing all Xbox One consoles at the end of 2020 to focus on production of Xbox Series X / S,” says Cindy Walker, senior director of Xbox console product marketing, in an email to The Verge.
Microsoft’s statement comes as a Bloomberg article indicated that Sony had intended to cease PS4 manufacturing at the end of 2021, but will now produce a million PS4 consoles in 2022. Sony has affirmed that PS4 production is continuing, despite issues for both Microsoft and Sony to fulfill demand for their newest Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles.
Microsoft appears to be capable of supplying enough Xbox Series S consoles for demand. At the time of publishing, both Amazon in the UK and Best Buy in the US have the Xbox Series S in stock. When asked about Microsoft’s plans for its 2020 Xbox Series X/S release during an interview last week, Phil Spencer, president of gaming at Microsoft, stated that the company had produced more Xbox Series X machines than Series S units.
“We can actually build more of the Series S [chips] in the same [chip] die space as we can the Series X,” Spencer noted. That’s one of the reasons why there’s so much Xbox Series S inventory right now, along with Microsoft’s decision to retire the Xbox One S in favor of its next-gen consoles.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s discontinuation of the Xbox One console line leaves Sony as the only current-generation console manufacturer still in production.
However, Microsoft appears to have no issues with supplying enough Xbox Series S consoles for demand. It is likely that Microsoft has stopped production of the Xbox One in order to focus on its newest generation of consoles, the Xbox Series X/S.
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