By Dave Sebastian and Sarah E. Needleman 



  Microsoft Corp. has priced its Xbox Series X game console at $499, Xbox said on Twitter on Wednesday. 


  The company has said the Xbox Series X will feature enhanced graphics, increased processing power and storage and technologies such as ray tracing, which produces much more realistic images. 


  Microsoft on Tuesday said the Xbox Series S, another console it plans to release on Nov. 10, will go at $299. The Xbox Series S is smaller than prior models and lacks a disk drive. The strategy is a departure from Microsoft's previous efforts to place the latest technology advancements into a single system at launch. 


  The Redmond, Wash., tech giant and Sony Corp. have long been working on next-generation consoles after prior versions, the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4, were released in 2013. 


   Microsoft said it is taking pre-orders for the two Xbox consoles starting Sept. 22. 


  Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com and Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com