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Microsoft to launch Xbox One subscription bundle: Game Pass, Xbox Live and a console

Microsoft attempts to change the home console game with "Xbox All Access".

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Jackson Ryan was CNET's science editor, and a multiple award-winning one at that. Earlier, he'd been a scientist, but he realized he wasn't very happy sitting at a lab bench all day. Science writing, he realized, was the best job in the world -- it let him tell stories about space, the planet, climate change and the people working at the frontiers of human knowledge. He also owns a lot of ugly Christmas sweaters.
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Josh Miller

Been sitting on the idea of buying an Xbox One console? You may have reason to press pause.

Microsoft looks set to announce a contracted subscription service that will bundle an Xbox One console with access to Xbox Live and a Game Pass subscription very soon.

Tom Warren at The Verge had previously hinted at a subscription based service and now Windows Central have gathered more information on the service called "Xbox All Access".

According to Windows Central, the two-year contract would cost approximately $22 per month with an Xbox One S and $35 per month for an Xbox One X . In both cases, access to Xbox Live, which allows users to play and stream games online, and a Game Pass subscription, which provides a Netflix-like library of video games to download, would be bundled in with the monthly price. At the end of the contracted period, the customer would own the console.

The contracted service would likely see customers save money, if ever so slightly. Typically an Xbox One S, including a game, retails at the Microsoft store for $299. A two-year pass to Xbox Live will typically set you back $120 over two years and a Game Pass subscription comes in at the same price. Factoring all that together, the total price would work out to be $539.

If the reports are accurate, then the two-year Xbox One S bundle would cost approximately $528. Not exactly a mammoth saving, but it would provide the flexibility of spreading the cost out of two years.

It appears that the service will only be available to US customers.

CNET reached out to Microsoft but they declined to comment.

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