Microsoft drops Xbox One price to $349 on Jan. 16

The Xbox One price will drop to $349 on Jan. 16, Microsoft announced today.

The new price, which Microsoft refers to as a "new promotion," sees the console return to the lower price that Microsoft instituted temporarily over the holiday season. Microsoft confirmed to Polygon that the newest price drop is not permanent, but that the company doesn't have an end date set for the promotion.

"Building off a record-setting holiday, we are excited to announce a new promotion in which fans in the U.S. can buy an Xbox One at a special price of $349, starting tomorrow, January 16, from their preferred retailer," said Mike Nichols, corporate vice president of marketing for Xbox. "We are thankful for all the excitement for Xbox One this holiday and proud to offer more fans the amazing games lineup, Xbox Live gaming community, and continual innovation that Xbox One fans have come to enjoy."

Microsoft says the Xbox One was the bestselling console in the U.S. during November and December, saying weekly average sales during those months "outpaced Xbox 360 by 50 percent at the same point in its lifecycle." Microsoft lowered the price of the Xbox One from $399 to $349 on Nov. 2, a move that spurred sales. The company ended that promotion on Jan. 3.

Xbox head Phil Spencer outlined some of Microsoft's other plans for 2015 in a new video posted to YouTube, highlighting upcoming game releases like Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Halo 5 and the recently announced Forza Motorsport 6.

Spencer said Xbox One owners can expect new apps and features, including the ability to take screenshots "coming early this year," and other system improvements in 2015.

Microsoft also highlighted the performance of its other platforms, saying that Xbox 360 became the bestselling seventh-generation console in the U.S. in 2014. Spencer also said that Microsoft plans to reveal more about its PC gaming plans for Windows 10 on Jan. 21.

"For the Xbox team, this is the beginning of our discussion with our fans about the work that we're doing to bring gaming to the Windows 10 operating system," Spencer said. "It's really nice to be able to finally talk about this. We remain committed to gaming on console but we also know that we have fans and gamers that also play on PC and phone. It's important that we build out the features that we have, learning from what we've done on console and helping making Windows 10 the best operating system we've ever created for gamers on PCs."