How to Find an Xbox Series X in Australia 2023

Getting your hands on a next-gen… current generation console isn’t exactly easy. Unless you’ve got a best friend who works at a retailer or you’re Phil Spencer’s secret and long-lost brother, it’s near impossible to buy an Xbox Series X.

Seriously. Whenever a restock happens, Microsoft’s latest console sells out in minutes. Luckily for Xbox and its fans, the rival Playstation 5 isn’t any easier to get your hands on.

If Xbox’s Game Pass hasn’t yet drawn you over to the green side of the force, then the inability to own a Playstation has certainly made you think about it. With the allure of Game Pass and the non-existence of Sony’s next-gen console, Xbox should be vacuuming in any gamer who is on the fence as to which console they will ride into the future.

Unfortunately, it isn’t any easier to purchase Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.

Thankfully, we have everything you need to know about how you need to go about it and where you need to go to get your hands on one of the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X in Australia.

The Xbox Series X is currently unavailable at any retailer listed on the Microsoft store. This includes Microsoft, Jb-Hifi, BigW, EB Games, Amazon, Harvey Norman and Target. If you are willing to wait for the best and most powerful experience, be sure to continuously check with those retailers as to when the next stock will be coming in.

If you just want to step into the future of games and finally appreciate how it feels to turn on your console, open a game and have it open instantly to where you last left it, there is still hope for you. The Xbox Series S, while less powerful than its bigger brother, is a legitimate next-gen console and well worth purchasing.

If you want all the power and fortitude of the future in an Xbox Series X, then you have quite the journey ahead of you. Don’t worry. Follow this guide, and you’ll give yourself the best chance.

If you’re anything like me, the thought of going into a store makes your eyes roll so far back into your head that they’re almost stuck. Unfortunately, it is your first point of call in the hunt for an Xbox series X.

The chances of anything happening are low – but the opportunity to be that one lucky person for whom everything goes right for is worth the risk. There are numerous stories from people on Twitter and Reddit that say they just went in-store and were lucky enough for the store to have a spare console that nobody claimed, or just recently received stock. EB Games only holds pre-orders for a maximum of seven days, so if you missed out on ordering an Xbox Series X online, head to the store when they’re supposed to release and cross your fingers with hope that someone failed to pick up their console.

JB-HiFi is a great option if you’re willing to walk into the store. Walk in, find a staff member at the front desk and ask to sign up for an ‘expression of interest’ for the Xbox Series X restock. When they’re eventually restocked, they will go down the list of names who have expressed interest and tell them they have Xbox’s available for purchase. First in, best dressed.

What’s the worst that can happen? You still don’t have a console and you grab McDonald’s on the way home to drown your sorrows. No harm, no foul.

In a day and age where your phone does almost everything for you from ordering food to checking who’s at the door and turning off the lights, why would this be any different? Let your phone do the work for you.

Social Media platforms, specifically Twitter and less-so Reddit, are incredibly helpful in terms of knowing when the Xbox Series X is in stock.

On Twitter, here are a few examples of accounts that are helpful to Australians getting their hands on the elusive Xbox Series X.

• Xbox Series X Stock Alerts Australia
• Xbox Stock Australia Alerts

If you’re interested, be sure to follow and turn on post notifications on these accounts. Anytime they post, it’s usually with some key information and if it’s a link to buy an Xbox Series X – you’ll have to be quick.

As for Reddit, it’s a bit more difficult because you can’t turn on phone notifications for specific threads. Subreddits like r/xboxseriesx and r/xbox are helpful, but it’s luck of the draw. If you happen to catch that one post that links you to an orderable Xbox Series X, it might just be worth it.

While stock alert accounts are useful, they don’t do anything you can’t do yourself. The best way to make sure that you are ahead of the pack is to make sure you’re alerted as soon as a store receives stock.

You’ll want to make sure to not only follow their social media account but to turn on post notifications. While this means your phone will be blowing up with posts about new toasters, customer complaints and the store’s latest sale, it means you’ll be doing everything you can to order your new Xbox Series X.

The fact is, it requires significant grit, determination and time to get a hold of an Xbox Series X in 2022. There is no doubt it can be done, the question is just whether it’s worth the trouble. This is where alternative marketplaces come into play.

It’s a shame, but selfish and dishonourable people are rife in this world. That’s what scalpers are. Unfortunately, the ‘work’ of a scalper is the easiest way to earn yourself a next-gen Xbox console anytime soon. A scalper is someone who resells tickets to concerts or sports games for extravagant prices once the show is sold out – and that’s exactly what has been happening with both the Ps5 and Xbox Series S.

If you can afford to pay the extra few hundred dollars, it may be worth the money to not have to devote your time and energy through the steps above to buying an Xbox Series X. Whether you can afford it, whether it makes up for the time you would have to spend otherwise or if you want to support a scalper are all personal decisions.

If you decide to go this route, eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace are all options that regularly see ads posted for the Xbox Series X console.

We’ve taken you through pretty much all the information you need to know. The hows, whens, whys and some wheres of the Xbox Series X in Australia. Below is an extensive list of retailers in Australia who stock and sell the Xbox Series X.

• Microsoft Store
• Amazon
• Harvey Norman
• EB Games
• Big W
• JB-HiFi
• The Good Guys
• The Gamesmen
• Target
• Catch
• Kogan
• eBay
• OzGameshop
• Mighty Ape
• Dick Smith

Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service from Microsoft that allows players access to an immense library of games for a small price each month. Since the Playstation 4 era, it has been widely thought that by and large, Sony’s console had a stronger list of games at the top – games like God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon: Zero Dawn and the Uncharted series.

While this might still be the case in the eyes of everyone but Xbox fans, the Game Pass is Xbox’s answer. Instead of drawing players to the Xbox with AAA games, they’re sucking them in with a gigantic library of all kinds of games, for an incredibly cheap price tag.

Never mind the slate of older games from the Xbox360 era onwards, Microsoft now releases massive AAA games day and date on Game Pass. Huge games like Forza Horizon 5 are available on Xbox Game Pass, for no extra cost, from day one.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes Xbox Live Gold that allows players to use online services, is only $15.95/month in Australia, while the standard version without Xbox Live comes in at only $10.95.

While this is already an incredible plan Xbox doesn’t stop there. Currently, Xbox is offering the first month of your Game Pass subscription for only $1. If the Xbox Series X didn’t already sound good to you over the PS5, Game Pass is something that requires deep thought to ignore.

There truly is every level of video game within the Game Pass library. From the best of the best in the AAA world to the most niche unknown indie game. Not every game is must-play, nor is everyone good, but with a library of well over 100 games, the options are immense and, for the most part, strong.

Here are a few of the best games in the Xbox Game Pass Library

• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
• Life is Strange: True Colours
• Bugsnax
• Forza Horizon 5
• A Plague Tale Innocence
• Hades

This is only a fragment of the great games available on Game Pass.

There is no question what the two best things about next-gen gaming are. Reduced and almost non-existent load times and immensely beautiful looking gameplay. You’ll get the first one no matter what game you play, whether it’s Criterion Software’s 2009 ‘Black’ or the gorgeous latest showing from Playground Games with ‘Forza Horizon 5’. The second one depends on the game.

Either way, if you find a way to get your hand on an Xbox Series X or the Series S, these are five must-play games.

• Forza Horizon 5
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Death’s Door
• Halo Infinite

You could go the rest of your life, or the rest of the console’s life, with what you get in the box with the console. The controller, power cords and charging cable are all you need to enjoy your new Xbox – but that’s why they’re called accessories.

An accessory is a thing added to something else that makes that thing “more useful, versatile or attractive”. Here are a few of the best accessories for the Xbox Series X and Series S.

Xbox Rechargeable Battery and USB-C Cable

This is a must have for any Xbox player. While buying and using batteries, or just playing with your controller wired, isn’t the worst thing in the world, this makes your experience far better. For only $29.95, gone are the batteries. From then on, you charge your controller like you would a Dualshock or Dualsense controller, with the battery lasting up to 30 hours.

Xbox Wireless Headset

Online gaming is a crucial piece of gaming today. Whether you’re screaming insults at the enemy, strategising with your teammates or chatting with your mates playing completely different games; you need a headset. A headset is just as crucial to single-player gaming. No matter your sound system, nothing is as immersive as a headset.

While there are better and more versatile headsets going around, for $149.95, these are a great asset to your gaming life.

Xbox Elite Controller Series 2

Whether couch co-op is your regular gaming set-up or not, a backup controller is a key to any gamer’s way of life. Whether it means playing one controller while the other charges or introducing your partner to gaming just because you want to play ‘It Takes Two’, a second controller is a must-have, so why not make it the best controller on the market.
While you pay for what you get, what you get is an awesome piece of technology. Priced at $249.95, you might feel that the difference from the normal controller can’t possibly be worth the price. If you can afford it, it’s very much worth it.

There are a few key ingredients to the Xbox Series X console being extremely difficult to get your hands on. Huge demand, Scalpers and of course, Covid-19. While the first two are without a doubt a piece of the puzzle, the worldwide pandemic cannot be overlooked when looking at why the Xbox Series X is hard to find.

Many industries were gutted by the Coronavirus pandemic, and a lot of them were involved in the manufacturing and production of the Xbox console. You have to remember that somebody makes every part of every tiny little piece of technology that goes into the console – then they have to be sent and delivered by someone else. That production was slowed down immensely during the pandemic and it is recovering slowly, trying to make up for lost time.

Combine that with scalpers picking up every console they can get their hands on, holding onto them until they were impossible to find and then selling them hundreds of dollars above retail price and you’ve got a recipe for an almost impossible to find gaming console.

There is no doubt that the Xbox Series S is the little brother of the Series X. It is physically smaller, it is less powerful and it is lacking features that may be important to you. What all that means, though, is that it is a helluva lot cheaper and easier to find.

You will be able to walk into most retailers in Australia, or at least most online retailers, and purchase an Xbox Series S right now. While it might be less powerful than a Series X, unable to play games at 4K resolution and lacking a disc drive, it is a great console.

Are you someone who doesn’t care about framerate? Perhaps you can’t tell the difference between 4K and 1080P, or you don’t even know what a teraflop is. If one or all of them sound like you, the Xbox Series S might be the perfect next-gen console for you.

Below are a few retailers currently stocked with the Xbox Series S.

• Microsoft Store
• Amazon
• Harvey Norman
• EB Games
• Big W
• JB-HiFi
• The Gamesmen
• Target
• Kogan
• Mighty Ape
• Dick Smith