Phil Spencer on why the Xbox Series X won't have an Optical Audio Port

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“I’m going to use kind of weird terms, but the marginal cost of everything is important,” Spencer said to IGN. “So if you look at a part on a console that’s maybe one, or two dollars and you say, ‘okay, how big of a deal is that inside of a console?’ That’s a few hundred dollars. But then you say, ‘okay, we’re going to plan to sell, you know, 100 million of these consoles.’ So you take two bucks over 100 million now you’re $200 million over the life of the program.”

Spencer also revealed that there were spatial considerations, meaning getting the actual component to fit in the console but also how many people use the optical audio port.

“We also, frankly, know how many people use it today on the console. So I know you do, but we see it. So we also kind of do the math of we have to put a part in every console that X percent of people use, is there a better place for us to spend that money if we can support it in different ways.”

Phil Spencer Explains Why the Xbox Series X Doesn't Have an Optical Audio Port - IGN

Xbox head Phil Spencer reveals exactly why the Xbox Series X doesn't have an optical audio port.

uk.ign.com