Microsoft 25th Anniversary Xbox Series X Pricing Leaks at $899.99, Drops November 27

Microsoft is closing out Xbox's 25th anniversary with a hardware drop that hits harder on the wallet than on nostalgia. The translucent green 25th anniversary Xbox Series X, first teased at the Xbox Games Showcase in June and confirmed by XBOX Wire on June 7, has had its retail price leaked at $899.99 according to Dealabs, with a reported launch date of November 27. That puts the limited-edition console a full $100 above the standard carbon-black Series X, and dead even with a PS5 Pro, which already took its own controversial price hike earlier this year.

The leak comes from Dealabs contributor billbil-kun, a name that has been hitting hardware and software leaks accurately for years. Both IGN and GameSpot picked up the story on August 21, with TechRadar and a stack of community accounts pushing the number around the same morning. The November 27 launch window lines up with Black Friday week, which is either a savvy marketing move or a calculated cash grab depending on who you ask. Either way, Microsoft is banking on the see-through shell, the illuminated X logo, and a controller loaded with hidden Easter eggs to justify the premium.

What you actually get for nine hundred bucks

Specs-wise this is still a stock Series X at heart, so nobody is paying for horsepower. You are paying for the look. The translucent green finish is a deliberate callback to the original 2001 Xbox, which rocked the same candy-shell aesthetic and turned the console into an instant collector item. The chassis holds a few hidden Easter eggs Xbox has hinted at without spoiling, plus the disc drive that Microsoft quietly dropped from the standard 1TB carbon-black model earlier in 2026 as memory costs climbed.

Storage is 1TB, same as the current base Series X. The 2TB model has been discontinued outright because the AI-driven component crisis has pushed NAND and DRAM pricing hard. The matching anniversary wireless controller will be sold standalone as well as bundled, and it is loaded with history lessons: original four-color face buttons up top, rear bumpers styled after the black-and-white inputs on the original Duke controller, and enough micro-detail that Xbox design lead Matt Kussmann spent the whole Games Showcase stream showing it off. Buy the bundle if you actually want the controller in matching green. Buy the console alone if you already own a translucent mod shell and want to pretend.

Community reaction: love the look, hate the sticker

Reaction on X is mixed-to-negative, leaning hard on the price. J19_Gaming89 summed up the consensus in one blunt tweet: loves the look, will not pay $900, hard pass. Playswave pointed out the math, that this is the same number as a PS5 Pro for what amounts to a fancy shell plus a controller. Nova Pov reposting the Dealabs source noted that billbil-kun has been right often enough to treat the number as locked, even though Xbox has not officially confirmed. The fan community is also watching what Microsoft does with this price tag because the company has already warned publicly that it expects to raise Xbox console prices again in 2027 as the AI components crunch keeps grinding memory and storage costs higher.

Anecdotally, the response splits three ways. Collectors who already own the original 2001 translucent Xbox see this as the spiritual sequel and will pay without blinking. Long-time Xbox loyalists who missed out on the Halo-themed Xbox 360 and the Project Scorpio Edition are salty that Microsoft keeps skipping actual power upgrades for recolored shells. Then there is the bulk of the player base who view this the same way they viewed the PS5 Pro hike: cynical, fed up, and waiting for the next generation to bring real performance gains at a price that does not feel like a tax on nostalgia. Sony is running the same playbook with the Marvel Wolverine PS5 bundle, so nobody is innocent here.

Why this leak matters more than it looks

Even if you never buy this console, the $899.99 price is a tell. It normalizes a $900 console slot for the holiday season, right next to a PS5 Pro that already sits at the same number. Microsoft has been telegraphing further price increases for 2027 because the AI memory crunch is not letting up, and even Nintendo is bracing for a Switch 2 price jump on September 1. The 25th anniversary box is technically a limited run, but it functions as a soft market test for what buyers will tolerate at the high end before the next real round of hardware launches.

There is also the timing question. November 27 is one day before Black Friday proper. If Microsoft wants to clear inventory, the pricing math gets awkward fast against any Series X bundle that drops to $399 on sale the same week. Either Microsoft is comfortable cannibalizing the standard model for halo-effect press, or it expects collector demand to absorb every unit at full price because translucent green always does. Both reads are plausible. The Dealabs leak does not settle which one is right, but it does tell every other hardware maker watching the back half of 2026 that there is a floor on what people will pay for looks alone, and Microsoft just walked right up to it.

Should you actually pre-order one

Buy it if you collect Xbox hardware, you already own a launch-day 2001 translucent green Xbox, and you have been waiting twenty-five years for the grown-up version. Skip it if you want a Series X for the games, because a $399 carbon-black deal during Black Friday will run the same library without the bragging rights. And watch what Microsoft does with the controller specifically, because the standalone Wireless Controller X25 is going to be the real mover regardless of how many of the $899.99 consoles actually ship. The look holds up. The price holds firm. Make the call accordingly.