• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

[TechRadar] Xbox Series S is now a real threat to PS5

sainraja

Member
Um, the thread title is calling it a threat but the portions quoted in the body are positioning the S as a companion. What is really the idea behind the conflicting points? I see how someone interested in the Xbox might go with the S if they also have a PS5 but.....you are pointing to different things being said.
 
Last edited:

DavidGzz

Member
Xbox Series S is an easy sell to a parent or casual, but for a semi-educated gamer it makes a great case for a digital PS5. For a mere $100 more you get double the memory and true next gen specs.

Educated gamers don't make up the majority of sales. Not even close. Look at the Switch sales, it's a cheap tablet selling for as much as a Series S. For another $100 you can get a MUCH more powerful PS5 but the Switch will probably continue to sell more than it even when they are more readily available. I know, Nintendo games have a lot of appeal, but I don't understand it. Besides, unless you care a lot about 4k, a Series S and Game Pass is an awesome entry point into next gen and it gets better every day.
 

sainraja

Member
Game Pass is a hot topic. It is an awesome value. When game news is down because there are no huge releases, it's only logical for it to get this much attention. What else are they going to write about?

Well, yeah, but they still need to promote what it is to people. The target for this isn't going to be us, likely people that are not as invested as us in gaming.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Um, the thread title is calling it a threat but the portions quoted in the body are positioning the S as a companion. What is really the point here?


These companions don't benefit each other. The owner of said consoles will spend less time with each individually. Less time is less money.


Well, yeah, but they still need to promote what it is to people. The target for this isn't going to be us, likely people that are not as invested as us in gaming.

People don't know what Game Pass is? Doesn't it have 15 million subscribers at last count? It's snowballing. I think you're getting it confused with PS Now which is subbed by like 2% of Playstation owners.
 
Last edited:
Well if they can run on an XSS I don't see why they can't run on a low end PC.
Maybe we disagree on what a garbage PC (fished out of a dumpster) is. If you wanted to build a PC equivalent to the XSS today, it would be something like 700+ dollars (if you are able to buy a graphics card, that is). Certainly not a garbage PC imo. To me garbage is something like an average laptop from 2014.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Educated gamers don't make up the majority of sales. Not even close. Look at the Switch sales, it's a cheap tablet selling for as much as a Series S. For another $100 you can get a MUCH more powerful PS5 but the Switch will probably continue to sell more than it even when they are more readily available. I know, Nintendo games have a lot of appeal, but I don't understand it. Besides, unless you care a lot about 4k, a Series S and Game Pass is an awesome entry point into next gen and it gets better every day.
At least Switch has the portability draw.

Wii was a $250 Gamecube with motion controls, shit third party support, shit online, no portability, and couldn't even read DVDs. For an extra $100-200 you could get a 360/PS3 that does so much more, reads DVDs and PS3 read BR too.

And Wii sold more.
 

sainraja

Member
These companions don't benefit each other. The owner of said consoles will spend less time with each individually. Less time is less money.

People don't know what Game Pass is? Doesn't it have 15 million subscribers at last count? It's snowballing. I think you're getting it confused with PS Now which is subbed by like 2% of Playstation owners.

1. These are people who have already chosen one console as their main, right? The second one allows them to invest some of their time so it's not necessarily a bad thing but I do see your point.

2. So they want to stay at 15 million subscribers? But try to follow the conversation and see why I said what I said. I was responding to someone else. It's not black and white.
 

DavidGzz

Member
1. These are people who have already chosen one console as their main, right? The second one allows them to invest some of their time so it's not necessarily a bad thing but I do see your point.

2. So they want to stay at 15 million subscribers? But try to follow the conversation and see why I said what I said. I was responding to someone else. It's not black and white.

1. Good cause it's logical.

2. They are probably closing in on 18 million or more at this point. You quoted me so I read what you quoted and then your response, why are you responding to someone else by quoting me?
 
Totally. But when it comes to electronics, there's always going to be a big chunk of the market that buys the value proposition. They either dont know or dont care about having the best gadget at the highest price.

If someone needs to buy a toaster, you can find one for $20. There's also 50 other models that go all the way up to $100+ for those ones that look like mini-ovens. Who knows what the fuck those do, but my Black & Decker toaster cost me $40. Good enough.

For any naysayers, I'd like to see the list of things you buy at the store and verify how many of them are the highest priced product on the shelf. I bet most people buying stuff skew to average products which look like a good enough product at a decent price.

When I got my 4k TV in 2017 (Sony 900e) it was $1800 at Costco Canada. I could had paid $3000 and get the first batch of OLEDs, which definitely seem snazzier with impressive black levels. The picture quality on the demos looked great. But I wanted to save $1000 even though I could afford OLEDs.

Next time I get a TV, I'm actually going to scope out TCL or Vizios. They seem to get good reviews and a 65" tv is $1000. Might be good enough too when its time to replace my tv later on.
Good point, but the value to performance ratio on consoles favors performance more than other products. I bought the 55" high end TCL for $650. It looks pretty damn good for the price. I can tell that $2000 Sony's and OLEDs look better, but not enough better to justify spending 3 or 4 times the price. Consoles separated by $100 that have double the resolution, framerate, and storage, give a very tangible benefit for a pretty insignificant extra cost.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Good point, but the value to performance ratio on consoles favors performance more than other products. I bought the 55" high end TCL for $650. It looks pretty damn good for the price. I can tell that $2000 Sony's and OLEDs look better, but not enough better to justify spending 3 or 4 times the price. Consoles separated by $100 that have double the resolution, framerate, and storage, give a very tangible benefit for a pretty insignificant extra cost.
I agree.

But for many people they'd rather save the money. Like in my toaster example, no matter how awesome those $100 mini-ovens are which like can roast a chicken in it, some people just want a $20 toaster from Walmart that toasts bread.

Many people don't even have 4k tvs too, which is required to get one of the key benefits (resolution). So for them a PS5 or Series X is already overkill.
 
I agree.

But for many people they'd rather save the money. Like in my toaster example, no matter how awesome those $100 mini-ovens are which like can roast a chicken in it, some people just want a $20 toaster from Walmart that toasts bread.

Many people don't even have 4k tvs too, which is required to get one of the key benefits (resolution). So for them a PS5 or Series X is already overkill.
Yeah, my son has my old 1080p Sony TV with a PS4 Pro on it, and he couldn't care less about upgrading any further. XSS is the obvious choice for anyone buying a new console for a 1080p TV.
 

twilo99

Member
I think this little machine will pleasantly surprise a lot of people once they start shipping their first party games and 3rd party get the hang with developing for it.
 
Educated gamers don't make up the majority of sales. Not even close. Look at the Switch sales, it's a cheap tablet selling for as much as a Series S. For another $100 you can get a MUCH more powerful PS5 but the Switch will probably continue to sell more than it even when they are more readily available. I know, Nintendo games have a lot of appeal, but I don't understand it.
It's almost like power isn't the main reason why people buy a specific console.
 
You can probably find an old PC in the garbage that will run most Bethesda games on steam.

So you need a playstation, a switch, and some garbage to play all the exclusive games.
But that doesn't mean garbage pc can run future games which will be made keeping mind higher SX specs.


Fallout 4 needs decent high end rig if you want 60fps.
 

Interfectum

Member
ray liotta laughing GIF
 
Good point, but the value to performance ratio on consoles favors performance more than other products. I bought the 55" high end TCL for $650. It looks pretty damn good for the price. I can tell that $2000 Sony's and OLEDs look better, but not enough better to justify spending 3 or 4 times the price. Consoles separated by $100 that have double the resolution, framerate, and storage, give a very tangible benefit for a pretty insignificant extra cost.
You can get a good 55 inch LG OLED for under $1000 bucks. Will look way better than the TCL too.
 

sainraja

Member
1. Good cause it's logical.

2. They are probably closing in on 18 million or more at this point. You quoted me so I read what you quoted and then your response, why are you responding to someone else by quoting me?

lol I thought you were not the original poster I quoted, given what you were saying in response to me (so my response was to you.) But the point I was making was that they still need to promote game pass.
 
Last edited:

Trimesh

Banned
I think they are right - simply because $300 is (just) a mass-market price point for a toy and $500 is not. Sure, it's easy to ignore this for the sort of people that hang out on a gaming enthusiast site where video games are their primary or only hobby, but the vast majority of the market isn't like that. I don't know how many members this site has - but the highest user ID is about 800,000 - so I'll use 1 million people as a ballpark. Compare that with highly mass-market successful systems like the PS2 or the Nintendo DS series that sold > 150 million units and it's pretty obvious that the users on this site are a tiny self-selected sliver of a massive potential market.
 
While no official numbers exist, all evidence points to only a few Series S units sold (in comparison to Series X), with that in mind I am wondering how good future games will run on it, considering that the developer probably don't waste too much time with optimizations for it. I mean we see already in the current games, that instead of optimizing titles on Series S, they were ported with low effort. So I wouldn't say this is a good investment to play Bethesda games. People who are very concerned about Bethesda going to be exclusive are core gamers and will invest rather in a better PC or a Series X.
 
You can get a good 55 inch LG OLED for under $1000 bucks. Will look way better than the TCL too.
Right on. I got this one 2 years ago maybe, so I'm a bit out of the current pricing game. Probably should have waited for this console generation to come out. Can't really justify another upgrade for a couple of years.
 

Neo_game

Member
If SS is Microsoft main console then this is bad for everyone I think. This would also mean there will not be any mid gen upgrade, though that was probably unlikely anyways. For me PS5 DE for 100$ more is definitely a better deal as you get 2x more powerful GPU, RAM and SSD.
 

Fredrik

Member
I think they are right - simply because $300 is (just) a mass-market price point for a toy and $500 is not. Sure, it's easy to ignore this for the sort of people that hang out on a gaming enthusiast site where video games are their primary or only hobby, but the vast majority of the market isn't like that.
If it has mass market appeal then why aren’t we seeing Series S selling out like Series X and PS5?
Honestly at this point Series S seems like a costly miscalculation of the market.
 

Trimesh

Banned
If it has mass market appeal then why aren’t we seeing Series S selling out like Series X and PS5?
Honestly at this point Series S seems like a costly miscalculation of the market.

Because right now, there are no games. Only enthusiasts buy consoles which don't have any games, and the XSS is not aimed at enthusiasts.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
If SS is Microsoft main console then this is bad for everyone I think. This would also mean there will not be any mid gen upgrade, though that was probably unlikely anyways. For me PS5 DE for 100$ more is definitely a better deal as you get 2x more powerful GPU, RAM and SSD.

Don't see how this is bad for everyone, still be tons of sales of x and ps5, and plenty of next gen games to enjoy. As far as the DE goes, Sony barely makes any, so good luck with that.
 

Three

Member
If it has mass market appeal then why aren’t we seeing Series S selling out like Series X and PS5?
Honestly at this point Series S seems like a costly miscalculation of the market.
The Series S isn't a miscalculation. Xbox just isn't that popular to be selling out its mass market machine when xbox ones do them just fine for now but xbox has its fans who are more likely to buy the X during the initial year. After the initial year the series S will sell like a normal cheap xbox console replacing the xbox one. What I find fascinating though is the support for it here on an enthusiast site. Any other weak hardware would have been laughed at, I still remember the reception to the Wii U.
 

Fredrik

Member
Because right now, there are no games. Only enthusiasts buy consoles which don't have any games, and the XSS is not aimed at enthusiasts.
You think masses of casual gamers are sitting on the fence waiting for true next gen titles to arrive to play on a cheap box that can barely run them?
Doesn’t add up for me. I just think MS missed the mark here. If people wanted a cheap nextgen console they would’ve already bought it. There are games, too many games, Game Pass will make that puny SSD feel like a cruel joke.
 

turtlepowa

Banned
Xbox Series S is an easy sell to a parent or casual, but for a semi-educated gamer it makes a great case for a digital PS5. For a mere $100 more you get double the memory and true next gen specs.
Yeah, but look at PS4 Pro. 100 bucks more for much more power and 80% still bought the normal PS4 after the Pro was released.
 
Threat is a bit clickbaity...but the value is definitely going to skyrocket with the Bethesda acquisition.

So what you are saying is that when MS starts advertising that the new Starfield is going to be on GamePass day one it won’t make a difference?
The value in Gamepass will increase, but I don’t think it will make a difference quite as much as many people are anticipating. I could be totally wrong though. Sure, it will probably help build up some hype and excitement of course, but I really think it depends on the release dates of these games including Starfield and most importantly, the quality of the games.

Unfortunately, it seems like Bethesda’s latest offerings have garnered mostly mixed or bad opinions from gamers and that’s why I’m not sure if Starfield will turn things around. We’ll see.
 
Last edited:
Nah look, the thought of shelling out for a series S and Dolby Atmos really puts a dampener on things.
I could put that towards a non existent expandable drive, maybe I'd use it on postage for sending my under warranty controller in for repairs, maybe a month or two of PS now (just lolling on this one,) or it could go towards one of those fully paid 1440p remakes of their sad dad games. I think I'll pass.
 

martino

Member
Did you even read the article? Some very good points were made.

techradar astroturf said:

Xbox Series S is now a real threat to PS5​

techradar astroturf said:
Now, I’m not saying that people will start trading in their PS5 consoles en masse, but what the Xbox Series S could become is the perfect companion console to Sony’s machine.

with a functional brain you can only laugh with title like first quote and content like second one
 

v_iHuGi

Banned
Yeah, my son has my old 1080p Sony TV with a PS4 Pro on it, and he couldn't care less about upgrading any further. XSS is the obvious choice for anyone buying a new console for a 1080p TV.

Why are Series S getting dust why SX sell out then? Seems like nobody wants Series S so far.
 

Duchess

Member
Are they available now. I can't find one, was going to get one for my daughter.

(see below)

Why do you have to throw in an easily disprove-able lie like that mate?

In stock at all these places at time of posting this message.

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GD9MNZB/
Game UK: https://www.game.co.uk/en/hardware/...m_sp=XboxHardwarePage-_-espot-_-shopall#Page2
Argos UK: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8448248?clickSR=slp:term:xbox series s:1:1:1
Curry's: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gamin...-ultimate-bundle-512-gb-ssd-10221027-pdt.html

Edit: if PS5 and XSX were as easy to buy right now, people would be declaring console gaming is dead, etc. However, the PS5 remains one of the most in-demand consumer devices of 2021 and will likely continue to be for the remainder of the year. Sony's already won. Mate.
 
Last edited:
Educated gamers don't make up the majority of sales. Not even close. Look at the Switch sales, it's a cheap tablet selling for as much as a Series S. For another $100 you can get a MUCH more powerful PS5 but the Switch will probably continue to sell more than it even when they are more readily available. I know, Nintendo games have a lot of appeal, but I don't understand it. Besides, unless you care a lot about 4k, a Series S and Game Pass is an awesome entry point into next gen and it gets better every day.

Maybe just maybe Switch and Playstation consoles sell better because their parent companies understand what Microsoft doesn't - content is the king.

All those teraflops mean nothing when you want to play Pokemon or Animal Crossing with friends and it's available on one machine.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
(see below)



In stock at all these places at time of posting this message.

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GD9MNZB/
Game UK: https://www.game.co.uk/en/hardware/...m_sp=XboxHardwarePage-_-espot-_-shopall#Page2
Argos UK: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8448248?clickSR=slp:term:xbox series s:1:1:1
Curry's: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gamin...-ultimate-bundle-512-gb-ssd-10221027-pdt.html

Edit: if PS5 and XSX were as easy to buy right now, people would be declaring console gaming is dead, etc. However, the PS5 remains one of the most in-demand consumer devices of 2021 and will likely continue to be for the remainder of the year. Sony's already won. Mate.
Ah ok, so because it’s now easier to buy (4 months after launch), with a £50-£65 mark up at Game and a £30 mark up at Curry’s - that’s your metric of success or failure?

I’m getting severe second hand embarrassment from the bolded part of your post, it sounds like you genuinely do want a blowy of Cerny. No one said anything about winning or losing.
 
Top Bottom