Microsoft's worst kept secret--the Xbox Series S--has finally gotten its long-awaited reveal. Following a multitude of leaks, most recently one involving a release date and price, Microsoft has stepped in to confirm that yes, there will be a next-generation Xbox that is less powerful than the Xbox Series X, while still offering strong performance and value. Though we still don't know the price for the Xbox Series X, the smaller and freshly announced Xbox Series S will retail for $299.99/£249.99, with more detailed information coming soon. We also get the tagline "next-gen performance in the smallest Xbox ever".

The previous leaks indicated that by contrast, the Xbox Series X is planned to be priced at $499, with both systems releasing on November 10th, though this information is currently unconfirmed and is being reported as an "insider tip" by Windows Central.

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[Kraken_X]

This is the first time we have had a new console be less powerful than the previous generation. The Xbox One X should be powerful enough to play anything the series S can, but will it be locked out in software from being able to? They really should have just dropped support for the original Xbone and made the Xbone X the lower end model.

 

[JFizDaWiz]

[redacted]

 

[Meepers55]

They learned nothing from the Wii U

 

[Bladexdsl]

So than the series S is the heater
and the series one X is the chimney

 

[PROTOBOY]

I will get the Series X

 

[Codemastershock]

Will it be possible to, like, somehow resolder the disk drive? Will they remove the header?

If it's going to have different hardware than I doubt it, no reason to put any headers for a disc drive on the mobo if they never plan on giving the lower end version a disc drive in the first place. It won't be like the all digital Xbox One S that just reused a standard Xboner mobo.

And even with the All Digital, it is not possible to connect a disk drive on it even though the sata port is still there. All consoles since the 7th gen regardless of manufacturer have "married drives", both the console and the optical drive have a signature that has to match or it doesnt work. Even on normal One and PS4 models, if you simply disconnect a older drive block with another the console will refuse to work, the right way to replace a faulty disk drive is to change only the lens, but use the logic board that came with the original console. Since the All Digital doesnt have the optical drive assembly and/or the logic board of it, every optical drive you connect to it will not match the console signature.

 

[osaka35]

I'm getting a sinking feeling that either games are gonna be held back by the Xbox Series S, or that not every game will ultimately end up being supported by the former.

Nah, xbox ses will focus on 1080p. Xbox sex will focus on 4k. Plus, worst case scenario is the ses will run games on "low-high" graphics at 1080p, and sex will run the same game "high-ultrahigh" at 4k.

I'd imgine those not in the know will see "run the same games at nearly half the price" will prompt "what's the difference" questions to employees. Which will get "ones for 4k tvs, the other one is for normal HD TVs" which will probably be enough.

 

[pedro702]

are there any specs list?

im interested to know how much weaker it is really.

 

[Foxi4]

I can now confirm that UK retailers have begun to sign up customers for the Series S, the console will retail at £249.99. I've updated the news post to reflect that change.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/08/xbox...ox-series-x-release-date-price-leak-13237882/

 

[pedro702]

I never cared much for the Xbox, I always bought only consoles from Nintendo and Sony (and Sega too).

But that really caught my attention, $ 200 is a considerable price difference (it's $1059 around here, you can buy a used Xbox One for that price), I don't have a 4K TV and I never cared much for graphics, if the Xbox Series S really can run all PS5 and Series X games throughout the generation so it really is the best option for me.

I'm just afraid if it will actually be able to run all games during this generation and how it will affect the industry in general, 12 TFlops for just 4 TFlops and 16 GB of RAM for just 10 GB of RAM (not to mention differences in GPU) seem to me quite considerable differences, if a company wants to use the hardware of the PS5 and Series X to the maximum it will be able to port this game without problems to the Series S ?, will companies not end up preferring to use less of the hardware of the new consoles to facilitate the port for the weaker console ?

if this is true devs will have a very hard time making games for xbox, series making the game for 12.15 tf and 4tf same cpu will be an ass, this may gimp xbox games years to come if they are mandatory to work in both consoles for ever.

devs already complain about switch gpu values being kinda different and then they need to take 3 times diference in gpu power for every game, its gonna be crazy imo, also even ram is diferent wich again will affect alot of stuff.

 

[Foxi4]

if this is true devs will have a very hard time making games for xbox, series making the game for 12.15 tf and 4tf same cpu will be an ass, this may gimp xbox games years to come if they are mandatory to work in both consoles for ever.

devs already complain about switch gpu values being kinda different and then they need to take 3 times diference in gpu power for every game, its gonna be crazy imo, also even ram is diferent wich again will affect alot of stuff.

Not really. If the target resolution for the Series X will be 4K and the target for Series S will remain 1080p, the problem solves itself. The S is pretty much 1/4th of the Series X and the APU core is in the same family, so on paper they should scale linearly and maintain the same framerate. Alternatively the Series S could target 2K or checkerboard 4K at half the framerate, or disable features as needed to maintain a pre-set performance level. There are people our there who are still gaming on GPU's that are 2 generations behind and they're doing just fine, and on PC they also have to deal with more overhead. It'll be totally fine, especially if you keep dynamic scaling in mind.

 

[pedro702]

Not really. If the target resolution for the Series X will be 4K and the target for Series S will remain 1080p, the problem solves itself. The S is pretty much 1/4th of the Series X and the APU core is in the same family, so on paper they should scale linearly and maintain the same framerate. Alternatively the Series S could target 2K or checkerboard 4K at half the framerate, or disable features as needed to maintain a pre-set performance level. There are people our there who are still gaming on GPU's that are 2 generations behind and they're doing just fine, and on PC they also have to deal with more overhead. It'll be totally fine, especially if you keep dynamic scaling in mind.

if you really believe AAA console games will all be 4k 60 fps on console i sure dont lol, i just dont see they doing the required optimizations for it at best games openworld games will be 4k 30 and more simple games or racing ones could hit 4k60 imo, but all games default to 4k 60 i doubt very much.

 

[Rahkeesh]

This is the first time we have had a new console be less powerful than the previous generation. The Xbox One X should be powerful enough to play anything the series S can, but will it be locked out in software from being able to? They really should have just dropped support for the original Xbone and made the Xbone X the lower end model.

This isn't remotely true because the jaguar CPUs and hard drives in all Xbones are horrible. S has the same CPU and SSD speed as X and so can run the same next-gen games albeit at a super blurry resolution.

 

[Deleted User]

If Microsoft were smart make the full model $399. Yes you're taking a loss on the consoles but you will get more sales, if anyone can afford a loss on a console it's MS. It will put pressure on Sony to sell for less than they want to.

 

[playsaves3]

That's still a lot of money for a stripped-down console.

thanks for pointing this out it doesnt even have a disc drive... the 199 - 250 rumors should have happened

 

[PatrickD85]

Decent pricing though.
Prepare for Sony to come out with theirs now soon as well.

 

[CrossOut]

This is a lot cheaper than i expected. I thought they would charge at least £550 to £600 for it. Normally i do not get these new consoles untill a few years after they are out since they will do that bollocks where they release a new model. Yes it does look like a speaker haha. I wonder if this series s Xbox is the digital only version of the new Xbox X?

 

[cashboxz01]

Yep, because I think the PS5 will be at $499 or $599, just depends how greedy they wanna be. Sony's gonna take a loss at $499 though I think, but not as bad as the PS3 launch.

Those prices are the same exact as the PS3, and with the PS3, Sony wasn't being greedy at all. For the hardware at the time, it was absolutely worth the money. The problem was that the masses aren't going to buy a $500-600 console for their kids on Christmas when a cheaper alternative is available. This led to a domino effect, in which devs focused on making games primarily for 360 hardware since that's where the most potential software consumer were, and then ported them for PS3. The PS3 was still beyond anything ever offered on a console with the cell processor. The only game which really tapped its potential was The Last of Us.

 

[xskibbles]

so:
for 1440p 120fps- Series S 299
for 4k ~120fps - Series X 499

 

[CrossOut]

so:
for 1440p 120fps- Series S 299
for 4k ~120fps - Series X 499

This is another good way of looking at it. If i get this, i will get the series s one. I am not bothered with 4k.