The new Xbox console can arrive for R $ 999 in Brazil

Xbox boss Phil Spencer shed a little more light on the ‘Keystone’ streaming project last month. At the time, he mentioned how a prototype had been built, but the final product would likely take “years” to reach market.

Now, in a new interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast (via VGC extension), Phil Spencer once again discussed this project. Apparently, the prototype actually worked very well, but it could have proved too expensive along with a controller.

Below is some of what Phil Spencer had to say, explaining how he thinks the ideal price point should be between $99 and $129. Nothing to announce specifically on the price of an Xbox streaming device at this time.

“The console that we built that people are seeing now, Keystone, was more expensive than we wanted when we built it…”

“Com Keystone, [estamos] still focused on it [e] when we can get the costs right, but when you have Xbox Series S for $299 and you see a price promotion, obviously you’re going to have Xbox Series X higher, I think for a streaming-only box it makes sense, the price should be quite significant.

“… I don’t want to advertise prices specifically, but I think it has to be $129, $99 somewhere in there for it to make sense to me, that we just weren’t there. We weren’t there with the controller. And I love the effort. The reason it’s on my shelf is that the team rolled up their sleeves and in nine months built that thing. And many of us took it home and it worked. It worked really, really well.

“…The thing, when it’s on, looks like an Xbox, the UI, everything works, but some of the silicon choices we were making at the time we were designing it just didn’t allow us to set the price we wanted blow.”

Keystone’s original plan was to build an Xbox Cloud Gaming device that could “connect to any TV or monitor without the need for a console,” and clearly Microsoft is still very interested in this concept. However, the “decision to walk away” from the prototype design suggests we still have a long way to go before it finally hits the market.