High Price: Microsoft Postpones Xbox Streaming Console Keystone

Microsoft actually wanted to offer a kind of streaming Xbox with “Project Keystone“. Now Xbox boss Phil Spencer has not only confirmed the existence of the device, but also explained why Keystone has never been launched: the price was too high.

As Microsoft’s Xbox boss Spencer explained in an interview with The Verge , Microsoft has decided not to launch “Project Keystone” in its current form. Too high costs would have forced the company to put the project on hold for the time being.

The device was ready for the market

According to Spencer, the small box, which is basically intended to turn every television and every display into an access point to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass game streaming offer, has already been developed to market maturity. Both the hardware and the software and the user interface are already finished.

Ultimately, however, it became apparent that the production of the “Keystone” game streaming box would not be sustainable from a cost perspective when the device began to be planned with the desired hardware. According to Spencer, the project has not yet been completely abandoned. Instead, they are now waiting until it is possible to launch the device at the desired price without risking massive losses.

Desired maximum price was $130

The Xbox boss also made it surprisingly clear how high the price should be. According to Spencer, in order to be able to deliver an attractive product below the Xbox Series S , which is available for $299 , Microsoft aimed for a retail price in the range between $99 and $129. A controller should also be part of the package. Since the controller alone would have accounted for a good part of the price, there was probably little leeway in terms of the hardware costs for the actual streaming console.

Before the project was shelved, it had only taken nine months to finish developing the streaming console. Some members of the team took prototypes home and tested them there, showing that the concept worked very, very well, Spencer said. This is exactly how the device ended up on his shelf, where it was recently seen for the first time in a photo on Twitter .

As far as the prospects for the availability of a dedicated game streaming box from the Xbox family in the mass market are concerned, Phil Spencer is probably still very cautious. Only recently, in another interview, did he explain that Microsoft certainly has such plans, but that it would probably be years before such a product could be commercially available.