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Xbox criticised for ‘creating a confusing mess’ with Series S - Remedy dev shares concern

cormack12

Gold Member
Probably game of the generation below. It won't hold back game design because it has the SSD and the rest will scale. Remedy scaled Control to work on the PS4 Pro with twice as powerful as a GPU than the PS4. These arguments have long outlived their welcome. New games will still scale lower on PC than the Series S

Witcher 3 - Nintendo Switch
the-witcher-3-on-switch-screenshots_c17f.jpg


Witcher 3 - PC
The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt_Old,_abandoned_and_probably_dangerous.png



Given Control had performance issues on every platform, I'd say this is a Remedy issue.
 

FranXico

Member
I disagree with this confusion "concern". Consumers are not as easily confused as some people think.

Having said that, the S will absolutely cannibalize X sales. Consumers have a strong preference for the cheapest. But which Xbox sells the most is kind of a moot point, I suppose.
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
So the same remedy that had to optimize thier game for millions of combinations of hardware both new and old for pc is whining about having to optimize for one relatively modern fixed platform? Boo hoo, somebody call a waaaaaaambulance.
 
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they def should have announced it earlier but its clear they didnt want to give sony time to make price adjustments. in the end it was the right call.

might be *some* confusion at launch but man, i give people a little more credit than that. its really that hard to figure out in 2 months
 
I disagree with this confusion "concern". Consumers are not as easily confused as some people think.

Having said that, the S will absolutely cannibalize X sales. Consumers have a strong preference for the cheapest. But which Xbox sells the most is kind of a moot point, I suppose.
In general I'd agree with you, but I legitimately knew people who thought the WiiU was a peripheral. Probably won't make a difference, but there are some really dumb people out there who don't pay attention to all this.
 

Tulipanzo

Member
They are launching systems with
- Same design
- Confusing names
- Same game case
- No new games
They're doing this while facing much more popular competition with clearer messaging.

It seems we forgot MS just had to cancel a cheaper, weaker, disc-less system due to how bad it sold.
 

Garibaldi

Member
'video game consoles are different'.....why are they different exactly? It's a choice between two products. One is cheaper, one is more expensive. It doesn't take much to figure out which will be the superior product. Then make your choice based on budget. What's the problem?
 

azz0r

Banned
Probably game of the generation below. It won't hold back game design because it has the SSD and the rest will scale. Remedy scaled Control to work on the PS4 Pro with twice as powerful as a GPU than the PS4. These arguments have long outlived their welcome. New games will still scale lower on PC than the Series S

Witcher 3 - Nintendo Switch
the-witcher-3-on-switch-screenshots_c17f.jpg


Witcher 3 - PC
The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt_Old,_abandoned_and_probably_dangerous.png



Given Control had performance issues on every platform, I'd say this is a Remedy issue.
Do you know how much cost goes into doing that though and how many studios and sub studios have to co-ordinate.

Witcher sold exceptionally also, so they could afford todo it.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Its gonna be interesting to see by how much (if?) the XSS ends up outselling XSX, ultimate price vs specs battle how appealing the Series S REALLY is
 

Tulipanzo

Member
In general I'd agree with you, but I legitimately knew people who thought the WiiU was a peripheral. Probably won't make a difference, but there are some really dumb people out there who don't pay attention to all this.
It's even less about confusion and more about capturing interest.

If the new XBox has no new games, looks the same, has the same game cases, then most consumers aren't going to even be aware there's a new one.
This was the same problem the WiiU had. Or more recently, the X1X: it doesn't matter how much better your entry point is if you don't give people a reason to care.


The New 3DS, which some brought up, was not as confusing. In non-English markets calling it New didn't create issue, but especially it didn't matter for an optional upgrade, especially given how badly the Vita was doing.

This is like if Nintendo called the Switch the 2DSeries S|X, had no games for it, and some older stuff ran worse than it did on the New 3DS.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
In general I'd agree with you, but I legitimately knew people who thought the WiiU was a peripheral. Probably won't make a difference, but there are some really dumb people out there who don't pay attention to all this.

This. People are dumb. Far dumber than even that sentence can possibly indicate.

I don’t think it’ll be a huge issue or anything, but a little criticism about the repetitive names across two generations of consoles is not off base. It actually became a decently large issue for the Wii U.
 
Cmon there is even UX data research because people get confused pressing a button.... of course this name convection will be an issue.
Its like pied piper. Mostly of real buyers are outside Neogaf bubble.

the analogy with phones is absurd.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
Do you know how much cost goes into doing that though and how many studios and sub studios have to co-ordinate.

Witcher sold exceptionally also, so they could afford todo it.

Then the issue is cost and time not design and/or 'hardware contraints'. Don't forget Witcher 3 was released two years before the switch, so wasn't even in the development pipeline. It was because the Switch sold well it got a backport. So they were able to port one of the best looking games back to low end hardware that wasn't even factored into the original development. If it sold like the Ouya then yeah they probably wouldn't have ported it. So it makes little difference. Also, the studio (Saber) worked indepedently and only had access to a couple of directed technical leads from CDPR. Third parties have been used to relasing on PS4 and Pro, X1X and X1S and PC. Having two different SKU's isn't a new challenge or something ominous. If anything, it's more of the same. A third of all fortnite players use an iPad to play, according to this EPIC/Apple dispute, but it's still running on PC's, consoles etc. By the same token is the PS5 going to hold back third party games from exhausting the extra horsepower in the XSX? Of course not.

The Xbox Series S is going to sell lots of consoles. It's cheap and will play the latest games. The games aesthetics can be scaled easily, the game design may have been compromised if they gave it an HDD but they've given it adequate CPU, SSD and a lower end graphics card. Now it's going to be lacking that 'premium' oomph, but it's not a premium box, it might be a 'premium' box in other territories due to the price (e.g. India) but that remains to be seen. No one thinks people are going to pick up an XSS instead of a PS5, but those with PS5's may be tempted to pick up an XSS with GPU for a spare room/kids room etc.
 

HonkingTonk

Neo Member
In general I'd agree with you, but I legitimately knew people who thought the WiiU was a peripheral. Probably won't make a difference, but there are some really dumb people out there who don't pay attention to all this.
I mean, thats kinda what happens when a lot of the marketing puts most of the focus on the controller while keeping the console itself in the background.
 

Schmick

Member
There's a lot of YouTube videos of the "unboxing" of the Series X and S recently uploaded. Not only i'm i seeing positive comments from the viewers about both, am not seeing any mention of having the two consoles causing any confusion. I consider the YouTube demographic more representative of the causal gamer .
 

azz0r

Banned
I don't see how it's anymore confusing than PS4 and PS4 Pro, customers understood that ok.
Are you SERIOUS? Its ultra freaking simple.

Xbox series X
Xbox series S
Xbox One X
Xbox One S

vs

Playstation 5
Playstation 4 Pro
Playstation 4

Can you honestly say in comparison the Playstation line up is confusing? Without prior knowledge of the Xbox line up I'd have no idea what is next gen, what is premium and what is old.
 

cireza

Banned
Actually you have less risk of confusing a small white console with a big black tower-like console, unlike the PS5 Physical and Digital who look almost exactly the same.
 
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quest

Not Banned from OT
There's a lot of YouTube videos of the "unboxing" of the Series X and S recently uploaded. Not only i'm i seeing positive comments from the viewers about both, am not seeing any mention of having the two consoles causing any confusion. I consider the YouTube demographic more representative of the causal gamer .
Why do you think there is a sudden push back lol? It got positive reviews now the Sony astroturfers are out in force to discredit the device. Good xbox news then like clock work endless stream of negative crap.
 

Aidah

Member
Microsoft's naming is kind of a mess, and a lot of people do get confused easily. Xbox One was trending the other day after Series S reveal for instance. Larry Hryb wrote "Xbox One Series X" in a tweet the other day...etc.

Xbox's naming does suck, but we'll see if it's "confusing" enough to make any meaningful impact.

Also, no one optimizes for "hundreds of PC combinations", whoever said that.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
So they got a highly critical report out about this with market research in the what, 1.5 days since the S was announced?

The Sony Warriors are our in force with the FUD. Series S has them shook.

was the One S and One X confusing? No. Why is Series S and Series X?

if people can somehow manage to work their way around Samsung galaxies and xiaomis and iPhones, I think they can tell the difference between the letters S and X when they have a $200 price difference between them Lol
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Remedy? Probably some Indie playstation dev....
 

Fake

Member
What I like on Microsoft are their codenames:

Durango
Scorpio
Project Spartan
Lockhart


The final name is usally shit.

edit: Anaconda
 
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it's confusing in the sense that you cant really tell if it's an old lineup or new lineup of consoles. xbox series X and S literally tells people who havent followed next gen, nothing.


with ps5, you still know you're getting a ps5 even if you dont know anything about next gen consoles.
 
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Topfuel

Member
Are you SERIOUS? Its ultra freaking simple.

Xbox series X
Xbox series S
Xbox One X
Xbox One S

vs

Playstation 5
Playstation 4 Pro
Playstation 4

Can you honestly say in comparison the Playstation line up is confusing? Without prior knowledge of the Xbox line up I'd have no idea what is next gen, what is premium and what is old.

Ps5 without disc
Ps5 with disc

Total confusion and angry mother Karen.
 
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