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Can I be honest here...I don’t think the Xbox Series S is going to last very long into the generation.

There's simply a large portion of the MASS MARKET that won't purchase a console until it's under $300. That's why Sony is still supporting the PS4 and why $299 is such an important price to hit for every manufacturer. The Switch was a huge success right out the gate because they managed to launch at $299.

The mass market is the goal with every console. Enthusiasts just there to pay the R&D costs due to being early adopters.
Again, not saying you are wrong I just think the Series X still provides much more value for the price even if them releasing the Series S overall is a good move. We won't however know how good of a move it was until we get hardware numbers which we probably never will because Microsoft seems keen on focusing only on GamePass numbers.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I predict PS5's Demon's Souls visuals will not be matched by any Xbox first party game until the end of the gen, maybe 3-4 years time.
I wouldn't be so sure because its an early early game, surely Xbox has a Gears game that should look as good, and take advantage of the cpu as well(Demons Souls still uses logic from the PS3 days) and big open world games.

But Naughty Dog or SSM? i expect the PS5 to shine software wise.
 

OrtizTwelve

Member
Okay before I begin let me start off with the usual assumptions that people will probably have

1. I already know it’s a $300 system that is only capable of doing so much.
2. The system already uses the same CPU as the Xbox Series X
3. The console will be fine. Why are you so worried
4. I’m sure I missed some things.

Okay I understand what everyone is going to say and I 100% agree, but as an owner who is lucky enough to even have a next-generation system like Series S, I'm grateful for that because of how hard it is to get a PS5 or Series S/X. But I feel like Xbox doesn't give it enough attention that it needs and it's not entirely Xbox who I feel like they don't give it enough attention, it's also the devs, they sometimes leave of the Series S and sometimes treat it like it's a second class device that doesn't matter, and that is where I understand that the console can do so much but I feel like they need to do more, for an instant, the big upgrade Xbox released for the 120hz (120 fps) upgrade.

That to me feels unfair because they should have also focused on people who still have a 60hz screen and done both, do the upgrade for 120hz, but also do fps boost for those who have a 60hz screen, just like they did for the first fps boost, where I can play a smooth 60fps when playing games like Skyrim or Fallout 76. Make games that are 30fps to 60fps then jump to 120fps for those who have the capable device and yeah you can argue that some games already hit 60fps but in reality sometimes it is not the case, it's achievable on PS5 and Series X but it sure doesn't feel that way on Series S, it might be 60fps but you can see the dips and hardly ever notice it.

Another is the resolution to performance on the Series S, some games are achievable to a full 4K but to me, that should not be the main focus on the Series S when it won't hit 60fps like on the PS5 and Series X. To me, they should focus more on 1080p, and 1440p to achieve 60fps, and if they can achieve a full 4K and somehow achieve 60fps then fuck it, good for them and I'll celebrate with a bottle of beer and dance around my Xbox Series S.

I don't maybe I'm overreacting and being dumb in my assumptions, but I feel like the Series S will not last very far into the generation where I feel like they might make a Series S 2.0 in the future. (I would love to be proved wrong and would be happy to be proved wrong on ALL my assumptions I just made)
Thoughts?

Ok lol.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
There's simply a large portion of the MASS MARKET that won't purchase a console until it's under $300. That's why Sony is still supporting the PS4 and why $299 is such an important price to hit for every manufacturer. The Switch was a huge success right out the gate because they managed to launch at $299.

The mass market is the goal with every console. Enthusiasts just there to pay the R&D costs due to being early adopters.
It seems to be readily available everywhere though. This has been the case since launch. Even with the X being unavailable, and PS5 at that, S seems to be in stock. So they are either able to make a zillion of those, or it doesn't sell that well. For a cheap system aimed at a huge crowd I would expect different. Wii was impossible to find for a time. Switch was hard too.

Isn't it so that such a crowd still buys the PS4 perhaps? The S is rather good value, its as expensive as a PS4 but its much more powerful. Though you don't have a disc tray. But compared to my PS5 DE (I have both S and PS5), I felt it was lacking. The difference here is just 100 bucks and the PS5 is ofcourse quite a step up. But if you compare the S to PS4, Pro, One X. Then its the cheapest option even, and resolution aside its bonafide next-gen in all its features and architecture.
 

Derktron

Banned
Ohh god, what did I start, there are 3 pages. Anyways, I wanted to chime in and say that I still believe that the console will last but not long enough, personally, I would wait and see when more games become exclusive to next-gen. But again I do believe that Microsoft should put even more focus on the Series S as it feels like they abandon the actual target. People who still have a 1080p screen that still runs 60hz or a Full 4K UHD that runs at 60hz. Make it equal to everyone in the meantime and I will stand by that no matter what people say or dislike about what I believe in.
 

MAtgS

Member
The target audience is people who can't afford a 4K tv but can afford high speed internet/data caps. I feel like that's a pretty small group.
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
Ohh god, what did I start, there are 3 pages. Anyways, I wanted to chime in and say that I still believe that the console will last but not long enough, personally, I would wait and see when more games become exclusive to next-gen. But again I do believe that Microsoft should put even more focus on the Series S as it feels like they abandon the actual target. People who still have a 1080p screen that still runs 60hz or a Full 4K UHD that runs at 60hz. Make it equal to everyone in the meantime and I will stand by that no matter what people say or dislike about what I believe in.
Thats what they are doing?

The series S doesnt target 4k.
 

ManaByte

Member
The target audience is people who can't afford a 4K tv but can afford high speed internet/data caps. I feel like that's a pretty small group.

There are more ISPs with unlimited internet than ones with data caps in the US.

 

Hinedorf

Banned
Imagine being a 10 year old kid and all you want to do is play video games but your family is poor and can't afford the latest and greatest.

I applaud Microsoft for offering this type of optional console for the casual consumer or somebody who may not be willing to commit 400-500+ at one time.

As a hardcore gamer I would definitely fall on the side of agreeing this console isn't sustainable long term but this console ISN'T FOR ME therefore I don't have to be concerned if it is for others.

I come from a blue collar family that always struggled to make ends meet but my parents always wanted to make me happy and try to get me that brand new console. I remember when times were hard and my parents did everything they can to get me that fancy new playstation but literally couldn't afford any games, of which i supplanted by renting games from block buster.

Xbox S + gamepass is this for a new generation. Be thankful it exists even if it's not FOR YOU.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
No wonder it scares some people so much.
People do seem to have a hard time accepting how gaming is changing. It's so normalized and mainstream that "hardcore" is now niche even though kids still think of themselves that way. But I'd wager that most people in the video game ecosystem are perfectly fine with One X / Series S levels of gaming performance.

I've been playing video games longer than a lot of people on this forum have been alive. I used to buy all of my movies on disc. Now I just stream what I want to watch as it saves me a ton of money and I have less clutter. I'm more than happy to get my games via subscription model as well. Playing what I want when I want for $15-$20 per month is more appealing than owning hundreds of games I'm only going to play once. I would prefer Series X and PS5 but what I have now still works well for how I want to play games.
 
Imagine being a 10 year old kid and all you want to do is play video games but your family is poor and can't afford the latest and greatest.

I applaud Microsoft for offering this type of optional console for the casual consumer or somebody who may not be willing to commit 400-500+ at one time.

As a hardcore gamer I would definitely fall on the side of agreeing this console isn't sustainable long term but this console ISN'T FOR ME therefore I don't have to be concerned if it is for others.

I come from a blue collar family that always struggled to make ends meet but my parents always wanted to make me happy and try to get me that brand new console. I remember when times were hard and my parents did everything they can to get me that fancy new playstation but literally couldn't afford any games, of which i supplanted by renting games from block buster.

Xbox S + gamepass is this for a new generation. Be thankful it exists even if it's not FOR YOU.
This is pretty much my view on the Series S. It's not meant to blow people away with visuals. It's meant to play games and be more affordable. Without Game Pass being a thing I'd agree that the Series S would eventually die out. But Game Pass is a thing and should please a lot of people. It's a great solution for parents with younger kids too. For the hardcore gamers that want the best this gen has to offer then of course the Series S won't suffice.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Series S will be around the whole gen, it will also surprise people now the GDK has been updated for SFS and VRS. Add in Mesh Shaders and the full hardware support for RDNA2 means it will handle next gen games just fine.
 

Athreous

Member
It's a big success here in Brazil, since it's almost half the price of a series X and very affordable right now, since the GPUs for PC are extremelly expensive with all this mine thing.
 
What most of you people don't get, don't realize, this system isn't meant for you, the hardcore gamer. It's not meant for the people that go online and argue about a difference of 3fps in a game at one point, and then argue over what that difference means. This is entirely meant for all the gamers out there who don't give a rip about any of this stuff, so they can play new games, get on Game Pass, and now that the paywall is down, its a cheap acccess point for parents looking go get their kids a Fortnite or Apex box.
 
It isn't going to last and I think its a waste of money

Once games start being made natively for the PS5 and Series X you will start to see the power gap of the Series S

So for $100 less you are getting a weaker console with no disc drive = waste of money. You might as well have just saved up and got the Series X, I understand that it isn't easy to find right now but to be honest there isn't any point of rushing to own any of these consoles right now because of the lack of native games.

By the time you can walk into a store and buy a series X it will have more native games that will make your purchase worth it.
It won't stay at 100 less though, they'll drop the price, its a budget next gen console, it's not going anywhere either.
 
Imagine being a 10 year old kid and all you want to do is play video games but your family is poor and can't afford the latest and greatest.

I applaud Microsoft for offering this type of optional console for the casual consumer or somebody who may not be willing to commit 400-500+ at one time.

As a hardcore gamer I would definitely fall on the side of agreeing this console isn't sustainable long term but this console ISN'T FOR ME therefore I don't have to be concerned if it is for others.

I come from a blue collar family that always struggled to make ends meet but my parents always wanted to make me happy and try to get me that brand new console. I remember when times were hard and my parents did everything they can to get me that fancy new playstation but literally couldn't afford any games, of which i supplanted by renting games from block buster.

Xbox S + gamepass is this for a new generation. Be thankful it exists even if it's not FOR YOU.
Great post, unfortunately it's wasted on most of the posters here.
 

FritzJ92

Member
None of our opinions matter. Resolution didn’t stop the Switch from selling won’t stop the Series S from selling.
Main question should be can it play next gen games at 1080P? Then it does what it’s suppose to and all concerns should be towards XSX and PS5 that’s marketed towards 4K but mostly hovers around 1440P to 1800P on demanding games.
 

coffinbirth

Member
There are more ISPs with unlimited internet than ones with data caps in the US.

You do realize that the majority of those providers without data caps aren't available to the majority of Americans, right?
Also, those "unlimited data" mobile ISP's HEAVILY throttle bandwidth after about 10-25GB, depending on the provider. As in, can't even watch a YouTube video throttled...
 

coffinbirth

Member
I really don't get how some people don't understand how scalable game engines work.
Aside from resolution and framerate, and the quality of the assets on Series S vs. X or PS5...you won't be seeing games "being held back" because of the Series S.
It's like they don't know how the pc gaming market has worked the last couple decades or whatever. It's completely stupid. Relax.
 
I still can't believe Microsoft released a console that, in most ways, is weaker than their console from last generation (the One X) and are calling it a next-gen console.

In a world where a fully-powered PS5 is only $100 more, the Series S makes no sense.

But, unfortunately, I disagree with the OP. We are stuck with this thing all generation and all games will HAVE to account for it, which will limit the quality of games, even on proper next-gen hardware like the Series X and PS5.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
Make more Series X and less Series S. I keep trying to buy a Series X and miss out.
QyEbDcx.gif
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Make more Series X and less Series S. I keep trying to buy a Series X and miss out.
QyEbDcx.gif
How I feel about them talking about a 3080ti coming to market. I've spent the last 6 mos. trying to buy a 3080. Now we got a 3080ti? And now, I don't even want a 3080, I want a 3080ti. I'll upgrade one day.

When I finally get my 3080ti:

giphy.gif
 
I did the same last gen with the one S. It also made a great travel companion. Would pack it in my suitcase to play games after work in the hotel.
 
Okay before I begin let me start off with the usual assumptions that people will probably have

1. I already know it’s a $300 system that is only capable of doing so much.
2. The system already uses the same CPU as the Xbox Series X
3. The console will be fine. Why are you so worried
4. I’m sure I missed some things.

Okay I understand what everyone is going to say and I 100% agree, but as an owner who is lucky enough to even have a next-generation system like Series S, I'm grateful for that because of how hard it is to get a PS5 or Series S/X. But I feel like Xbox doesn't give it enough attention that it needs and it's not entirely Xbox who I feel like they don't give it enough attention, it's also the devs, they sometimes leave of the Series S and sometimes treat it like it's a second class device that doesn't matter, and that is where I understand that the console can do so much but I feel like they need to do more, for an instant, the big upgrade Xbox released for the 120hz (120 fps) upgrade.

That to me feels unfair because they should have also focused on people who still have a 60hz screen and done both, do the upgrade for 120hz, but also do fps boost for those who have a 60hz screen, just like they did for the first fps boost, where I can play a smooth 60fps when playing games like Skyrim or Fallout 76. Make games that are 30fps to 60fps then jump to 120fps for those who have the capable device and yeah you can argue that some games already hit 60fps but in reality sometimes it is not the case, it's achievable on PS5 and Series X but it sure doesn't feel that way on Series S, it might be 60fps but you can see the dips and hardly ever notice it.

Another is the resolution to performance on the Series S, some games are achievable to a full 4K but to me, that should not be the main focus on the Series S when it won't hit 60fps like on the PS5 and Series X. To me, they should focus more on 1080p, and 1440p to achieve 60fps, and if they can achieve a full 4K and somehow achieve 60fps then fuck it, good for them and I'll celebrate with a bottle of beer and dance around my Xbox Series S.

I don't maybe I'm overreacting and being dumb in my assumptions, but I feel like the Series S will not last very far into the generation where I feel like they might make a Series S 2.0 in the future. (I would love to be proved wrong and would be happy to be proved wrong on ALL my assumptions I just made)
Thoughts?
It'll be just as viable for lasting as long as the Switch has, so if that means 4-5 years before a replacement then that would be 100% expected and welcomed.

Plus, I don't think Microsoft ever once said Series S was meant to last the entire gen, it's purpose is as a cheap entry-point into the Xbox ecosystem. I will also say, if it's indeed meant for an eventual replacement, that takes that much more wind out of the sails for those who want to cling to the belief they are using Series S as the baseline and simply scaling up for Series X (thankfully the total number of folks pushing that idea have diminished greatly, but there's always still holdouts).

It's not supposed to last long. It was always a half measure.

That's a bit harsh. A half-measure would be the 32X, something intentionally designed to hold people over until a next-gen system was ready for release. And abandoned almost immediately once their proper next-gen system (Saturn) was available, after less than a year.

Microsoft is providing tons of resources to both Series X and Series S, have clearly developed Series S to complement Series X's feature sets (the most SEGA did for this between 32X and Saturn was the dual SH-2 CPU setup), and developed a SDK fully supportive of and integrating both Series S and X into a proper dev environment.

It's actually one of the smartest hardware designs to have come in the industry, especially considering the market realities they took into account (lack of sufficient price drops on RAM, smaller nodes getting more expensive vs. less expensive, etc.).
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
How I feel about them talking about a 3080ti coming to market. I've spent the last 6 mos. trying to buy a 3080. Now we got a 3080ti? And now, I don't even want a 3080, I want a 3080ti. I'll upgrade one day.

When I finally get my 3080ti:

giphy.gif
Oh I am giving up on building a new PC till next year when the semiconductor shortage gets better. The price of graphics cards has inflated to obscene amounts this year. I just want a founder's edition 3070.
 
Some people seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Series S and its place in the market. Assuming GAF is around in 3-4 years it'll be interesting to return to threads like this when the S is still around (altho by then we'll possibly have mid gen refreshes on the way)
 

FMX

Member
While I know it's cool to hate on Microsoft/Xbox these days but what the haters are not thinking about are the development tools that are just now being released--those will be the key. The XSS is not the XSX and it wasn't designed to be. If you don't want one don't buy one!!! :messenger_sunglasses:
 

Schmick

Member
It's strange seeing all this negativity towards the S. It has the potential to introduce so many people to next gen at the very beginning of the cycle and actually speed up the transition from last gen to new gen as more people buy the console.
 
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PaNaMa

Banned
Love my series S. Have it up in the living room. Wife looking for forward to playing Back 4 Blood on it while I play on the Series X downstairs
 

DavidGzz

Member
Meanwhile the Switch, a cheap ass tablet is running The Witcher 3. I'm so concerned about the "weak" Series S. It will be around for the whole gen even if games have to be 900p and 30fps. People don't mind an even lower res on the Switch. It isn't meant for the hardcore...
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
its goign to last...in a bad way.

Once developer moves on with next gen console (series X and ps5), series S is going to be soooo behind as games will develop on the next gen console.

Remember alot of games were developed cross gen currently, it will be totally different in the future.
 
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e&e

Banned
I mean, didn’t they have the XboxOne S for a long time? Also, I will be surprised if the system doesn’t get games (it would be a huge fuck up for MS), and that’s all I care about. The console for fidelity is already being sold...
 
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Let me put it this way to assuage your fears. Multiplatform games are intrinsically highly variable. They always have to work at the bottom end. The majority of PC gamers use a GTX 1060, which is possibly weaker than the Series S. Game consoles, especially Xbox systems, are built like static computers, so developers know all they really need to do is lower the base resolution and texture quality to accompany for the weaker GPU and less RAM. Sure, in later gen titles, the Series S may struggle the most for the more demanding titles, but all that really happens is that Series S owners just get the worst performance out of the three major consoles. It's not the end of the world. We've dealt with worse in this gen alone. Look at how badly the VCR Xbox One is chugging with the most demanding games.
 

ManaByte

Member
I mean, didn’t they have the XboxOne S for a long time? Also, I will be surprised if the system doesn’t m get games (it would be a huge fuck up for MS), and that’s all I care about. The console for fidelity is already being sold...
They actually discontinued the One X. The normal One S (with the disc drive, not the all digital) is still not discontinued.
 

Stuart360

Member
Lets wait and see how it does when its been avalable on store shelves for 12 months. I still think its going to do really well with parents, casual gamers, people stuck on 1080p tv's, people who want a cheap way into Gamepass etc.
It was never going to sell huge in the first months after launch, with it being mostly the hardcore gamers buying these systems early on.
 
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