Xbox One will launch on November 22, one week after the PS4

Not too long ago, we got word that the PlayStation 4 would release to the world starting in North America on November 15 of this year, giving everyone a little bit of time to secure a console for the coming holidays. We knew the Xbox One would release sometime in November, but we didn’t know whether it would land before or after the PS4. Today, Microsoft officially announced that the Xbox One would release one week after the PS4, on November 22.

The console will launch in 13 markets initially, which include the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain. Though the console has sold out of pre-orders, Microsoft has made some new launch consoles available. This announcement follows the news that Microsoft has bumped the Xbox One’s CPUby around 10% in power, from 1.6GHz to 1.75GHz. Not too long ago, Microsoft also gave the console’s GPU a modest boost in power — 53MHz — from 800MHz to 853MHz.

The November 22 date holds importance for Microsoft and Xbox fans alike, as the Xbox 360 was released on that very day (in the United States and Canada) back in 2005. It’s a little jarring when you realize that was eight years ago, and the PS3 and Xbox 360 almost lived up to that desired 10-year cycle both Sony and Microsoft claimed they would.

The Xbox One will retail for $499 — one of the only aspects of the console that Microsoft has not yet changed since the initial,disastrous reveal.