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Let's Be Clear: Xbox Series S Is Microsoft's Real Next Gen Xbox

bad guy

as bad as Danny Zuko in gym knickers
Seems like PS5 will have the most impressive games (outside of resolution comparison videos) since games for it can be designed with the hardware strengths instead of straddling two systems that are worlds apart in terms of power..
The series S has a better CPU than the PS5. That's where the game logic (gameplay) happens. GPU is mainly for graphics, and at 1080p (4 times less pixels than 4K) Series S will be fine and not stand in the way of next gen games. PS5 has the slowest CPU of the bunch which will be holding back developers the most. Sorry.
 
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I get the argument that series X is for high res, and that makes 4TF at 1080p equivalent...the series X is holding back the S as stated...seriesX is the best MS can afford at target market price and resolution, and S just scales down mathematically

this is great news for Switch owners that can do math...some lower resolutions, just decrease the values and turn the knobs, and really a teraflop is just fine...and portable to boot!!!
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
At 4K? No. Utter garbage.

Capped at closer to 1080/1440? That's an utterly massive pixel/rendering reduction, that may actually make up for the hardware deficit.

Hands-on will tell the final story, though.
This isn't just 4TF. Its nothing like this gen.
 
m6CKUp5.jpg
 

Schmick

Member
People saying the S is going to hold back next gen...at 1080p it still has headroom to run games the exact same way the X does. Also, the smaller amount of RAM doesnt bottleneck anything since the S will not need 4K assets and textures. Those are what usually take a huge chunk in the memory
Starting to get frustrating that we are still seeing people say that the Xbox Series S will hold back the PS5 and XBX. Are people forgetting already how good looking FS is? This is a game that we be available on the Xbox consoles. FS hardly seems held back.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
I was just going to post something about that.

Funny seeing people that were excited for 12TF and making fun of Sony at 10TF are all of a sudden huge fans of a 4TF console. Don't get me wrong. Great price but it is still a lower end console and will perform like one when compared to the upper tier consoles.
Hmm. That's kind of the point isn't it? It plays next gen at 1080p res at impulse buy pricing. Everything else about the S is next gen despite the GPU. This is the console for people who don't care about 4K but still want a next gen experience. Simple.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
no? How is streaming music in the background the same as having ingame radio with original music that was in the game when I played in 2008?
They totally butchered the game

Errr, you just make a playlist with the same original 2008 songs, it would be identical?

Edit: Looks like it may have already been done........280 songs.
 
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The series S has a better CPU than the PS5. That's where the game logic (gameplay) happens. GPU is mainly for graphics, and at 1080p (4 times less pixels than 4K) Series S will be fine and not stand in the way of next gen games. PS5 has the slowest CPU of the bunch which will be holding back developers the most. Sorry.
I know how hardware works. Astroturf to someone else.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Pretty much.

T-this was the master plan all along!!

Seems like PS5 will have the most impressive games (outside of resolution comparison videos) since games for it can be designed with the hardware strengths instead of straddling two systems that are worlds apart in terms of power..

That's kinda a two-dimensional console wars way of looking at it. Judging by your posts at the politics section you are too sensible of a poster to engage in that kind of thing. I mean, to be fair it's possible to look at it from multiple angles. I for one can see the potential brilliance of MS's market strategy with GamePass paired with a nice simple cheap console makes sense, but at the same time I'm as you concerned regarding splitting the development of games between two very different machines in the same family.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Errr, you just make a playlist with the same original 2008 songs, it would be identical?

Edit: Looks like it may have already been done........280 songs.

no. The music plays in cutscenes and in fitting gameplay moments. Besides - cmon, it's not the same as having it in different radio stations in the game
I've got the damn disc right here. I don't even want to play the pc version because I've spent way too many hours comparing it and trying to fix it. It's easy to restore music in pc version but it's so broken otherwise
 
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9 months of xbox fanboys crowing over 12 teraflops this and teraflops that, and on a dime all of a sudden they don't care. 😂🤣

cant those people still just buy an Xbox Series X? It still exists and is still the most powerful console that will be available.

This isn’t a situation like all the talk on GAF about a 15TF, 32GB RAM PS5 😆😆
 
I've said it months ago, that if there will be slower&cheaper version = it sells more = it is the main platform for them

My guess is that S sells 3.5:1 vs x
 

jaysius

Banned
Series S might have the same specs as the PS5 for all we know lol.

Series S though couldn't hit at a better time, people caged up in their homes, looking for something to do, not a TON of money but enough to spend. It's a great reactive to the times product.

Also they'll have the market spread at this price, kids screaming for the newest games, poor families that feel like they need to oblige the brats, $300 isn't super steep and has been a sweet spot for consoles for ages.
 

Hinedorf

Banned
OP using a lot of words to shine up a turd. The only thing this WILL BE is a complete disaster on the financial front and the marketing front.

This appeals to one group of people, poor people. Poor people generally don't buy new video games, who is Microsoft marketing to?
 

vdopey

Member
You're still missing the point. Xbox is the platform they are trying to sell, the consoles are just hardware pieces part of the line up.

if he is missing the point, then doesn't that make the whole marketing strategy confusing ? all i am seeing is xbox 1x xbox1s xbox series s xbox series x, I mean how many x's do they need ? Its stupid whats next xbox super xxx-triple x^2 to the power of x ?

Seriously how is any of this straight forward, its just layers of confusion - the wii-u name ended up hurting wii-u sales because people thought it was just a controller for the wii, no doubt all of these x's everywhere just adds to the same confusion - its a bit silly to be honest the naming, the marketing it requires research and an xbox expert to understand what is going on with this whole mess.

I think maybe the Microsoft marketing approach here might just be pure blatant obfuscation ? we have the most powerful console $300 (** really small print $300 is 1/3 the performance, $500 xsx == most powerful).
This confusion will either help microsoft as people don't know the difference between the 2 and think for 300 they get a digital version of xsx or all of this branding confusion could have the opposite effect and people turn to playstation as its just easier to understand.
 
That's kinda a two-dimensional console wars way of looking at it. Judging by your posts at the politics section you are too sensible of a poster to engage in that kind of thing. I mean, to be fair it's possible to look at it from multiple angles. I for one can see the potential brilliance of MS's market strategy with GamePass paired with a nice simple cheap console makes sense, but at the same time I'm as you concerned regarding splitting the development of games between two very different machines in the same family.
You can only fit so much into a few sentences. I wasn't trying to describe the full breadth and nuance of the console wars.

I see a brand that wants to simultaneously be the cheapest, the most powerful, and without any compromises, and all while insisting that things are simultaneously S C A L A B L E yet embarrassingly not-S C A L A B L E for the competitor's system.

What is more likely: these are marketing platitudes from a brand specializing in marketing, or this is an actual feat they'll be able to pull off? From top to bottom it feels like a console launch designed by committee and given an expensive ad campaign. I don't see the beef.
 

vdopey

Member
You can only fit so much into a few sentences. I wasn't trying to describe the full breadth and nuance of the console wars.

I see a brand that wants to simultaneously be the cheapest, the most powerful, and without any compromises, and all while insisting that things are simultaneously S C A L A B L E yet embarrassingly not-S C A L A B L E for the competitor's system.

What is more likely: these are marketing platitudes from a brand specializing in marketing, or this is an actual feat they'll be able to pull off? From top to bottom it feels like a console launch designed by committee and given an expensive ad campaign. I don't see the beef.


Lets not forget how scalable Halo Infinite turned out...

Never forget Craig, Console Warrior Craig, the power of the clouds and all of the xxx's gave us Craig... The 500 Million Dollar Craig, sitting right alongside crackdown 3 Craig...
 

Aidah

Member
In terms of development, we'll be able to tell by the quality of the Series S versions.

Soon enough we'll be able to see comparisons between Series S and X versions. Personally I don’t know how that size GPU will fare in the long run when even the higher tier consoles start to show their age.
 
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Series S might have the same specs as the PS5 for all we know lol.

Series S though couldn't hit at a better time, people caged up in their homes, looking for something to do, not a TON of money but enough to spend. It's a great reactive to the times product.

Also they'll have the market spread at this price, kids screaming for the newest games, poor families that feel like they need to oblige the brats, $300 isn't super steep and has been a sweet spot for consoles for ages.

I am so sick of comments like this .... poor people don't spend $300 on video games much less even buy those types of products at launch.

MS needed a cheaper system to compete with sony in general not because of the pandemic.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Lets not forget how scalable Halo Infinite turned out...

Never forget Craig, Console Warrior Craig, the power of the clouds and all of the xxx's gave us Craig... The 500 Million Dollar Craig, sitting right alongside crackdown 3 Craig...

I was about to write a reply to him, and then I see your post and I realize there's no point in engaging more in this thread since it's in the low-IQ gutter. Thanks for saving me the energy.
 
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BigBooper

Member
So do you think they will have a disc drive peripheral? I'd be surprised if it's the most popular with no physical media.
 

reinking

Gold Member
Hmm. That's kind of the point isn't it? It plays next gen at 1080p res at impulse buy pricing. Everything else about the S is next gen despite the GPU. This is the console for people who don't care about 4K but still want a next gen experience. Simple.
I agree until we start seeing frames stutter and things like that because they are trying to squeeze too much out of it. I am not against the console but the narrative has been most powerful console by the Xbox faithful and now all of a sudden 4TF is being praised as the second coming of console gaming.
 
D

Deleted member 775630

Unconfirmed Member
if he is missing the point, then doesn't that make the whole marketing strategy confusing ? all i am seeing is xbox 1x xbox1s xbox series s xbox series x, I mean how many x's do they need ? Its stupid whats next xbox super xxx-triple x^2 to the power of x ?

Seriously how is any of this straight forward, its just layers of confusion - the wii-u name ended up hurting wii-u sales because people thought it was just a controller for the wii, no doubt all of these x's everywhere just adds to the same confusion - its a bit silly to be honest the naming, the marketing it requires research and an xbox expert to understand what is going on with this whole mess.

I think maybe the Microsoft marketing approach here might just be pure blatant obfuscation ? we have the most powerful console $300 (** really small print $300 is 1/3 the performance, $500 xsx == most powerful).
This confusion will either help microsoft as people don't know the difference between the 2 and think for 300 they get a digital version of xsx or all of this branding confusion could have the opposite effect and people turn to playstation as its just easier to understand.
No one has issues with the naming really... xbox one s, xbox one x.
Xbox Series S, xbox series x

Nothing difficult about it
 

Stuart360

Member
XSX is the main console. The XSS is a diskless budget version for 1080p tv users, families, and people on lower budgets. The XSS may well go on and sell more, but that doesnt mean its the main console.
As for XSS holding back XSX and next gen itself, its just concern trolling from rival fanboys, and people that cant, or dont want to, understand the very simple technical aspects of XSS running next gen games at 1080p-1440p.
 

NullZ3r0

Banned
  • Technically, this spec WILL BE the baseline for next gen on Xbox. Any developer making a game for Xbox, will be starting from Series S and scale across Series X/PC etc). Series S is only 1/3 the GPU power of Series X and less than 1/2 the GPU power of PS5. This WILL BE a factor when looking at exclusive next gen 'Xbox' games versus 'PlayStation' games going forward!
Bull fucking shit. Stop with this FUD. It has been explained ad-nauseum why this is bullshit. But let me do it one more time.

CPU and storage doesn't scale easily in games. If Series S had a Jaguar CPU and a 5200 RPM HDD like the Xbox One S, you'd have a point. But it doesn't. It has the same architecture as the Series X - A Zen2 CPU, a RDNA 2 GPU and an NVME drive with Velocity Architecture.

The only difference is the GPU. All devs need to do at this point is scale down the resolution to 1080p or 1440p. This is the same thing they do on PC.
 

Alan Wake

Member
I don't think S or X is the "real" anything. They both exist and you pick the one you want.

I also don't think the 299 price point is going to make any difference. We've had Xbox One S at 299, all the way down to 199 at times and it made no difference. They need to be bringing the games people want.

This is true. Obviously it's easier to sell a console at 299 than 499, but Microsoft still need those big exclusives. And it seems they're not coming yet for a few years.
 

RCU005

Member
Of course it's next gen, but that doesn't change the fact that it will bring down many games specially third parties. I guess it will depend on what you actually want to get from next gen.
 

Ten_Fold

Member
I think Microsoft don’t really care if you buy their games, they want you to buy gamepass. Now it’s success depends on if they can put out some games, because that launch line/launch window is looking bad
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
For people speculating development issues, this is from Dirt 5 technical director - David Springate (the game is cross-gen and coming to Xbox One/PS4/XSS/XSX/PS5).
So anytime new hardware comes out, it's usually a very, very painful experience. When hardware shows up, it's usually half finished or it's crashes a lot, and the API that the programming tools that we use, then usually not finalized or even worse, they can suddenly change halfway through development. And so suddenly you're having to pivot really quickly, but actually Series X has been a very smooth experience. So Microsoft has developed something that they called the game development kit, which is a new replacement. And actually it's going to be utilized on original Xbox One and Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
And that's how everything is going to be developed together, a unified product development all the way from Xbox one up to Series X, but making the most of the hardware features across the board. But there are actually benefits to that as well, so an Xbox one game that was developed before now, could now to perform better if it was made with the new game development kit. And it also has the ability to make use of low latency input, which really, really important for a racing game.
...
But all in all, development on Series X has been more of the same, but just allowing me to stop and say, "Okay, my day to day toolset has not changed that much. It's still that familiar Xbox one experience, but now I get to make the most of all of the new toys."
...
In fact, it's the best thing. I don't want new tools after make the most of the experience that I already have. I want to make the most of understanding how to get to the hardware, not having new tools blocking me from getting in the way of getting to that hardware. So having familiar tools, having a familiar interface, super important. So it's been a really smooth transition for us at Cheshire studio making the fudge.
 
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Fake

Member
The series S has a better CPU than the PS5. That's where the game logic (gameplay) happens. GPU is mainly for graphics, and at 1080p (4 times less pixels than 4K) Series S will be fine and not stand in the way of next gen games. PS5 has the slowest CPU of the bunch which will be holding back developers the most. Sorry.

What you mean by 'better CPU'? They have the same CPU, right? Higher clock you mean? If so, Xbox One have a 'better' CPU than PS4 as well.
 
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reinking

Gold Member
9 months of xbox fanboys crowing over 12 teraflops this and teraflops that, and on a dime all of a sudden they don't care. 😂🤣
Don't forget that 825GB is not enough storage but suddenly 512GB is. :messenger_beaming:

I have decided that the XSS is not a wise investment for me and going with the Series X. Okay, I am too close to being a troll now so no more negative comments about the S from me.
 
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