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Costco Xbox Series S $239.99 starting Nov 17th

Regardless of what console you get, always look into Costco. Consoles arent part of their 90 day refund policy for electronics like TVs and computers. So if the console dies you can return it.

Face facts. That's foolish. This IS entry level to next gen, and it's dirt cheap.
Agreed. PS5 and Series X are for gamers willing to spend more money for more power and storage. But for casuals, this is the best deal out there for dirt cheap.

I just checked Ebay.com and people are still selling PS4 for about $200. So for an extra $40, you get a brand new Series S from Costco with warranty. Series S going for $200-250. Forget Ebay. Just grab one from Costco. Slam dunk deal.

It's like TVs. You could spend $1500 for a decent LG or Samsung, or spend half the price for TCL. Same size. Someone could buy the TCL and bank the difference, yet a lot of people will ante up and buy the better system. But for people who dont give a shit about OLED or the latest trend in Ultra Quantum Physics Pixel Paradigms at 22% clearer dot matrixes, the TCL is good enough.
 
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Awesome deal! Series S is a lil beast. Have one in my bedroom and a Series X in the living room. It's a fantastic deal and I think this will sell like hot cakes.
 
Only way I'd be interested in a series s is a sub $150 price. The X is where it's at.

I guess you'll be interested in a few weeks then...

You guys do know that black friday ads are already coming out, right?


We're getting sub $150 Series S.

It's a $150 console. For reference, I bought a PS2 for $130 and a Gamecube for $100. That was nearly 20 years ago. People are downplaying how crazy it is for a modern console to be at that price point. Yes, it's an entry level machine but it's still at a ridiculously attractive value that would make for a nice and relatively cheap gift for the holidays.

EDIT: My bad, wrong console.
 
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Not from USA, so different market and perspective.

But even 199€ could be too high for series s at EU (Finland) normal price is 269-299€ for S. Because series S have been available on stores since the launch and they sell "as new, used" condition for 100-150€, and sometimes cheap ones wont sell on our local auction site.

It is interesting how different markets can be. Last december you could literally walk into a store and buy series S/X, like I did (SXS). And now both S and X have been available for months.

So if 239$ is great selling point at USA, I wonder what the point is for EU.

I would guess that it is something like 120-150€ to make people buy them as impulse item that they dont really seek for. I personally dont know anybody whom would consider Series S, even if it is low as 100€.

Just wondering if MS can fix this disparity between USA/EU, or is there even way to fix it. Maybe it is enough for them to sell more than Xbone + sell more at USA. And stay somewhat relevant at EU.
 
It is already closer than last gen since Xbox fixed a lot of the issues that plagued them. That is to Xbox's credit, not a reflection on PlayStation. Not sure why we need to fall back on this narrative that one consoles success means the other consoles demise.



Why would you say that? PS4 and Xbox One continued to be the top sellers last gen even after PS4 Pro and Xbox One X were released. Price still matters.

Completely agree, I am no way insinuating that playstation is in demise. Sony would have to do some pretty crazy shit to damage the brand that much. Playstarion is great and I wouldn't want it to go anywhere. Too many good games.
 
Not from USA, so different market and perspective.

But even 199€ could be too high for series s at EU (Finland) normal price is 269-299€ for S. Because series S have been available on stores since the launch and they sell "as new, used" condition for 100-150€, and sometimes cheap ones wont sell on our local auction site.

It is interesting how different markets can be. Last december you could literally walk into a store and buy series S/X, like I did (SXS). And now both S and X have been available for months.

So if 239$ is great selling point at USA, I wonder what the point is for EU.

I would guess that it is something like 120-150€ to make people buy them as impulse item that they dont really seek for. I personally dont know anybody whom would consider Series S, even if it is low as 100€.

Just wondering if MS can fix this disparity between USA/EU, or is there even way to fix it. Maybe it is enough for them to sell more than Xbone + sell more at USA. And stay somewhat relevant at EU.

They need better marketing then. Not a price drop.

$199 equivalent would be excellent price for it.

Xbox has excellent marketing in US, Halo is basically house hold name. Outside it's just abysmal.
 
i bought one for 200 a week ago, its pretty good with game pass ultimate

I will say a lot of the newer games cant reach 1440p so its more of a 1080p machine yes, which is a shame. if you need at least 1440p minimum get the series x instead

if you like older games or indies its fine.

also if you use bing/microsoft rewards you get points for achievement and various bs, which can add up to free gift cards every month
 
They didn't when they sold for that price in my country just half a year after release, and several times again this year.

Even at $200 the price/performance is still worse compared to the Series X.
Plus, in 2023 we should start seeing mobile AMD APUs with 6+ TFLOPs RDNA3 GPUs.

It's not out of the realm of possibilities to see Steam Deck 2 or 3rd party Deck-like consoles with better longevity than the Series S (and where we can also play all our Gamepass titles).
There was a rumor back in 2021 that MS are actually losing more money selling the Series S compared to
the X, MS didnt cheap out on the S they wanted to hit the $300 price point and Series S is probably the
best we can get at that price .. Steam Deck doesn't even match the PS4 gpu/vram bandwidth wise it did
perform better in some games at lower resolutions due to better cpu and even then the performance
drops like a rock at 1080p in most last gen games due to lack of vram bandwidth, Steam Deck 2 will
never match the Series S
 
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I might grab a series S when me and woman go on vacation for two weeks in New Hampshire especially if it drops to $199.

Be a nice machine to throw in a travel bag and take it on the go.
 
Take the PS2 for example:
- launch price October 2000: 299 usd
- price in May 2002: 199 usd

Gamecube:
- launch price Nov 2001: 199 usd
- price in September 2003: 99 usd

Price cuts are actually normal and tend to happen after 2 years more or less.
Not during chip shortages and massive inflation
 
Steam Deck doesn't even match the PS4 gpu/vram bandwidth wise it did
perform better in some games at lower resolutions due to better cpu and even then the performance
drops like a rock at 1080p in most last gen games due to lack of vram bandwidth, Steam Deck 2 will
never match the Series S

The Deck has 88GB/s total bandwidth which is indeed a bit less than half than the 176GB/s of the PS4, but its RDNA2 GPU uses lossless color compression and probably has a lot more L2 than the PS4's old GCN2 GPU. That means the effective bandwidth for the Deck should be a lot closer to the PS4's than what the raw numbers would have one believe. On compute throughput we saw how RDNA1 beats the Vega GCN5 by >40% at similar TFLOP throughput. The Deck's 1.6 TFLOPs should be equivalent to a PS4 if it had a 2.2 TFLOPs or higher.
Where the Deck really does stand below the PS4 is on ROP count, and subsequently pixel/vertex fillrate. Of course that isn't a problem when the target resolution is only 1280*800, but that should be the main culprit for the Deck to falter at 1080p and above.

As for the Steam Deck 2, if it uses something like AMD's Phoenix (Rembrandt's successor) then it should use LPDDR5X 8533MT/s which gives it ~136.5 GB/s bandwidth. It's less than the Series S' 224GB/s but the SoC/MCM itself could have some form of Infinity Cache / GPU L3 which would change everything (even "only" 16MB would be a game changer). As for performance it's expected to have 6 RDNA3 WGPs clocked at least at ~2GHz in the 15W version, which amounts to 6.144 TFLOPs.

It's a rather safe bet that AMD's top-end Phoenix will be faster than the Series S. It's only a matter of whether or not the Deck 2 will use it, but even if it doesn't, other handhelds will use it for sure (similar to all other handhelds using Rembrandt at the moment).
 
I guess you'll be interested in a few weeks then...



It's a $150 console. For reference, I bought a PS2 for $130 and a Gamecube for $100. That was nearly 20 years ago. People are downplaying how crazy it is for a modern console to be at that price point. Yes, it's an entry level machine but it's still at a ridiculously attractive value that would make for a nice and relatively cheap gift for the holidays.
That's the One S, and from 2019.
 
With recession knocking on our doors perfect price for a new console & cheap gampass gaming.
This. I got XSX twice, sold it twice. GPU till July 2023, and even then 15€ a month for Xbox first party + all other GP games? Seriously tempting even given how little time I have to play games.

Thing is small, well designed, clear target in mind.
 
I guess you'll be interested in a few weeks then...



It's a $150 console. For reference, I bought a PS2 for $130 and a Gamecube for $100. That was nearly 20 years ago. People are downplaying how crazy it is for a modern console to be at that price point. Yes, it's an entry level machine but it's still at a ridiculously attractive value that would make for a nice and relatively cheap gift for the holidays.

What's a $150 console? The One S from 2019 Black Friday?
 
Tbh I think a digital only 512 GB lower tier console makes no sense, the 825 GB ps5 is borderline stupid considering how big games are even if they are smaller due to the ps5's OS.
 
Tbh I think a digital only 512 GB lower tier console makes no sense, the 825 GB ps5 is borderline stupid considering how big games are even if they are smaller due to the ps5's OS.
Games on the Xbox Series S are smaller because it doesn't download the 4K assets.
 
i bought one for 200 a week ago, its pretty good with game pass ultimate

I will say a lot of the newer games cant reach 1440p so its more of a 1080p machine yes, which is a shame. if you need at least 1440p minimum get the series x instead

if you like older games or indies its fine.

also if you use bing/microsoft rewards you get points for achievement and various bs, which can add up to free gift cards every month
1440p was mainly a marketing point, best case outcome like 4k is for PS5 and XSX. Not all games will reach those resolutions. It was just to show the system's main target.
 
Games on the Xbox Series S are smaller because it doesn't download the 4K assets.

512GB is still far too small, imo, and the difference without 4k assets doesn't make up for it. That was the only issue I really had with my XSS and so I returned it and go the XSX instead.
 
Hey, I mentioned something about all these Series S promotions and Game Pass...lol

Yes, I have been saying no one should really focus on Xbox vs Playstation. MS shouldn't either. Only look at XBO vs Series consoles and MS should be satisfied.


The Wii also outsold both the PS3 and 360 tho. And was doing that from day 1.

Series is tracking behind One in the US and UK

US
One 8 million (sep 15)

UK
One 2 million (nov 15)



360 outsold the Wii in NA and UK

PS3 outsold the Wii in the rest of the world
 
Just a reminder that the series s is going for around $200 on facebook marketplace and Craigslist but I guess for $40 more you can get that awesome warranty from Costco so..
 
Not during chip shortages and massive inflation

S is most simplified console out there.

It's just a PCB in a box with everything soldered. Few parts.

So it has scope for price reduction. Especially since prices of SSDs and DDR6 ram have dropped a lot.
 
Stop playing 10 games at once. Problem solved.

I filled XSS up with about half as many games. Not worth the hassle for me so I upgraded to XSX. Problem solved.

If others have no issue with XSS storage then that is fine too. I'm just speaking for myself.
 
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I think Series S is at least about even with One X all things considered. It's technically less TF, but gaming perf isn't always about TF. It has higher pixel fillrate but worst texture fillrate, worst memory bandwidth and arguably less memory for the GPU (One X had 12 GB with 9 GB usable by games; Series S has 10 GB with 8 GB usable by games).
A while ago there was a Digital Foundry video: the OneX had better image quality, but for many games the Series S offered 60fps
And the Series S has the SSD... That alone is major..
 
I had my og ps4 at 500 gigs for that entire 8 year generation. It's okay to unisntall and reinstall lol

Plus you can use a external hardrive (or external ssd) for cold storage, and switching games back and forth is faster than downloading. Plus the ssd expansion card, which will be going down in price in black Friday for sure. I got a 512 for $70 at target just randomly.

If you play older games, last Gen and before, games will still run on a hardrive as well.

Needless to say, there's plenty of options.
 
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Nice price but it would be extremely embarrassing if MS ended up in 3rd place after the fire sales. I mean, what else can MS do to be competitive?

MS claims that console sales don't matter but they are really trying hard to sell their consoles at a loss I assume.

Seriously, That's Costco reduction, not Microsoft cutting the price...
 
That or attach an inexpensive external hard drive. The XSS has supported those since the beginning of the generation. Cold storage support from the beginning as well.

Sure....that's all fine for folks who want to go that route. I decided that the $200 upgrade to XSX was the better deal for me overall.
 
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this is the resolution people are playing with? wtf?

The low res games are BC Xbox One titles.

It will be a pretty bad look for MS, not Sony.

MS doesn't have any excuses to be in 3rd place this gen. Gamepass + the cheap Xbox S console + the acquisition of Activision Blizzard should in theory make them at least competitive. Not back to 3rd place as usual.

Sony is making bank with the PS5. Check their financials for proof of how well they're doing. Transparency with unit sales and profit.

How's it a bad look for MS If they sell fewer units than Sony or Nintendo? You can sell fewer units and still be quite competitive.
There's also the fact that Xbox as an ecosystem is also divorced from the console itself.

Such a laughable narrative to push
 
512GB is still far too small, imo, and the difference without 4k assets doesn't make up for it. That was the only issue I really had with my XSS and so I returned it and go the XSX instead.
I have 10 games and 22 apps installed on my XSS and still have 97 GB free. It's not so bad. Of course I didn't pay for my XSS so I can't be that mad about it.

I upgraded the storage in my PS5 and XSX and have over 1 TB of games installed on each of them. I think all around storage is too low this gen. I'm just grateful to have high internet speed so I can install and reinstall as I want.
 
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I have 10 games and 22 apps installed on my XSS and still have 97 GB free. It's not so bad. Of course I didn't pay for my XSS so I can't be that mad about it.

I upgraded the storage in my PS5 and XSX and have over 1 TB of games installed on each of them. I think all around storage is too low this gen. I'm just grateful to have high internet speed so I can install and reinstall as I want.

Sure....and it depends on the kinds of games you are playing. Anyone installing MS FS as I did, are going to see a big chunk of their space take up. For me, the XSX and PS5 are around what I need storage wise and I don't feel the need to upgrade at all.
 
Sure....and it depends on the kinds of games you are playing. Anyone installing MS FS as I did, are going to see a big chunk of their space take up. For me, the XSX and PS5 are around what I need storage wise and I don't feel the need to upgrade at all.
I didn't enjoy FS on XSS. It's better on XSS via streaming. It's great on XSX.
 
I already have GamePass for PC, so I could use that same account with this Series S, right?

If so, tempting! It'd be cool to have one for the kids to play stuff in the living room so I can use my PC in the office at the same time. Not to mention having an extra controller that can be used on the PC as well.
 
I already have GamePass for PC, so I could use that same account with this Series S, right?

If so, tempting! It'd be cool to have one for the kids to play stuff in the living room so I can use my PC in the office at the same time. Not to mention having an extra controller that can be used on the PC as well.
Do you mean share GamePass PC with console? If so, no, I don't believe so. I think they are separate subscriptions.
 
I already have GamePass for PC, so I could use that same account with this Series S, right?

If so, tempting! It'd be cool to have one for the kids to play stuff in the living room so I can use my PC in the office at the same time. Not to mention having an extra controller that can be used on the PC as well.

You would need to upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate.
 
Microsoft got y'all fooled with marketing tactics here. This is Costco, which requires, at minimum a $60 membership (maybe the $120) in order to get this deal. I mean, it works for people who already have the membership, but realistically for most people, it is actually more to buy. Unless I'm mistaken and you don't need the membership to buy it.
Edit - looks like maybe a membership isn't needed on Costco online, but there is a 5% surcharge, can anyone confirm?
 
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