First Xbox Series X and Series S Pre-Order Times Announced

Microsoft previously announced the pre-order date for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and we now know exactly when those pre-orders will go live. It was announced on Tuesday that the pre-orders for both next-gen consoles would go live through UK retailers at 8 a.m. BST on September 22nd. That time converts to midnight in Pacific Time, so it looks like that’s when we can expect the pre-orders for the Xbox consoles to go live next week.

Samuel Bateman, the marketing lead for Xbox UK, tweeted about the times for the pre-orders on Tuesday to confirm when people would first be able to pre-order the new consoles. While the retailers listed are geared entirely towards the UK audience, the pre-order time gives us our first indication of when buyers will be able to stake their claim for an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series X.

Bateman added more info to the tweet in a follow-up to confirm the timezone and some more details about the Xbox All Access program. Again, the info is largely for the UK audience, but it gives an indication of how other regions may handle the release of the consoles.

The confirmation of the pre-order times follows an updated look at the pages for both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. Those pages now feature a detailed breakdown of each of the consoles and their differences to show what features they sport and how they differ from one another.

News of when the pre-orders will go live for the new Xbox consoles only widens the gap between what we know about the next-gen Xbox plans and what we know about the PlayStation 5, but gap will hopefully close soon during Sony’s upcoming PlayStation event. The next PlayStation 5 event is scheduled to take place on September 16th at 1 p.m. PT where we’ll see a showcase of some of the games coming to the PlayStation 5. Other announcements have always made sure to stress that there wouldn’t be any console news at past events, but this one carries no such warning. The thinking then is that we’ll finally get news of the PlayStation 5 cost and release date, but we won’t know for sure until the event takes place.