Editor’s Note: We’ve updated this story with availability information from Microsoft.
Microsoft has announced a new, affordable way to get your hands on an Xbox One.
Dubbed Xbox All Access, the service will let you get an Xbox One S or Xbox One X for 24 monthly payments rather than an upfront cost.With either console, you'll also get Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for the duration of the 24 months your payment plan lasts for.
Xbox Live Gold enables you to play online multiplayer in Xbox games, and Xbox Game Pass provides you with a large library of games to play (like Netflix, but for Xbox titles). Having both makes for the complete package.
For the Xbox One S plan, you'll be paying a paltry $22 per month, which nets you an Xbox One S console (which you can keep in perpetuity, after the 24 months are up) as well as the aforementioned Xbox services.
For the Xbox One X plan, the price goes up a bit to $35 a month. Still, that ends up costing just about what buying everything upfront would cost ($35 for 24 months ends up costing just a few dollars less than the total cost of two years of Xbox Live Gold at $60 per year, two years of Game Pass at $10 per month and $500 for an Xbox One X console).
Should you decide you no longer want your Xbox One partway through the program, you'll have to pay the remainder of the hardware cost.
The deal is available exclusively at Microsoft stores (in-store only) and requires a Dell Preferred Account (DPA). If you choose to pay with any other payment method, you'll have to cover the cost of your preferred bundle up front. The DPA deal will only be offered until December 31st, 2018, while supplies last.
For anyone not in a position to buy all these various Microsoft products and services upfront, this service is a good way to get in the game. Still, there's no telling where console hardware will be in 24 months — by the time you've finally paid off your One S or One X, there might already be new consoles on the market.
Credit: Microsoft / Tom's Guide
