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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[J-Machine]

i was down till they said "digital only with 512gb of storage"

 

[Foxi4]

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.

Looking at the specs I don't doubt for a second that you can run games on this hardware at 4K with relative ease and you'll still have resources to spare. You may need to resort to lower details or dynamic scaling, but overall it's perfectly plausible. When looking at the numbers for the Series X the APU is an equivalent of a 2080 Super with 8 Zen2 cores. The primary issue of the previous generation, particularly when talking about the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, was the fact that the Jaguar cores were bottlenecking the GPU, Digital Foundry proved as much. You couldn't push all of the available GPU power if you tried, the Jaguar just couldn't keep up, nor was it expected to - the core was never designed for that kind of workload, it was designed for power efficiency in mobile applications. This generation mitigates that by giving you an overkill CPU in an age when games are rarely CPU bound. Even with just 8 cores they're still physical cores, so it's not like they're using logical core trickery to get half-decent results. The higher end units will do 4K just fine, although admittedly not to the same standard of their PC equivalents, purely because we're on the cusp of a new generation of PC hardware at the same time. With that said, they have more than enough beef to be thoroughly impressive and I suspect they'll stick around for a good while before we see any issues.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

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

Yeeeah no. If the leaked specs are remotely accurate, it'd be more like

1080p 60fps...and some 30fps - Series S $299
4k 120fps - Series X $499


Remember, the leaked specs are saying the Xbox Series S is weaker than the Xbox One X (granted, with a much better CPU), so I wouldn't expect 1440p at all, let alone any games at higher than 60FPS.

8 of the latest Zen cores available - you can't even get them in consumer desktops yet.

Incorrect, the Sexbox CPU is Zen 2 based, AKA Ryzen 3000 series, not Zen 3.

But otherwise, yeah, this should do 4k just fine, especially if AMD managed to push something like DLSS for their GPU platform with RDNA 2 (which is what's not available yet).

 

[PiracyForTheMasses]

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.

LMFAO hate to break it to you but Sony did not take a loss on the PS3. Saying they took a loss is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get customers to think that they are getting a good deal.

 

[Foxi4]

Yeeeah no. If the leaked specs are remotely accurate, it'd be more like

1080p 60fps...and some 30fps - Series S $299
4k 120fps - Series X $499


Remember, the leaked specs are saying the Xbox Series S is weaker than the Xbox One X (granted, with a much better CPU), so I wouldn't expect 1440p at all, let alone any games at higher than 60FPS.



Incorrect, the Sexbox CPU is Zen 2 based, AKA Ryzen 3000 series, not Zen 3.

But otherwise, yeah, this should do 4k just fine, especially if AMD managed to push something like DLSS for their GPU platform with RDNA 2 (which is what's not available yet).

My mistake, you are correct. I always get tripped up by the laptop Ryzen 4000 which are in fact Zen2 for some reason instead of Zen3 like their desktop counterparts, you are correct, the cores are the same as in the desktop 3000 series. I'll correct that mistake so it doesn't trip anyone else up, good catch!

LMFAO hate to break it to you but Sony did not take a loss on the PS3. Saying they took a loss is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get customers to think that they are getting a good deal.

A lot of the initial cost was a matter of the development of a wholly new CPU architecture building upon IBM's PowerPC, created in association with IBM and Toshiba under the collective umbrella of STI. The units were most definitely sold at a loss, and a big one at that - it took years for the manufacturing process to be streamlined, and even then the CELL was rather short-lived. In fact, most consoles are sold at a loss on the premise that licensing income will allow the company to turn a profit. It's a lot like Kurig, when you think about it - sell the coffee machine cheap, make millions on proprietary cartridges. Selling consoles at cost is a relatively recent trend, that didn't use to be the case.

 

[Deleted User]

Baby steps towards digital only games. The gen after this will probably make the digital version more powerful than the one with discs, and the one after that no discs at all.

 

[Foxi4]

Baby steps towards digital only games. The gen after this will probably make the digital version more powerful than the one with discs, and the one after that no discs at all.

If the performance of the significantly cheaper Xbox One S Digital is anything to go by, you don't have to worry about that for many years to come - the thing fell flat harder than a lead zeppelin, much like many previous attempts at a digital only system. This one shows promise because it's *extremely* affordable compared to the alternative. There will be a day when physical games completely die out though, you're right about that - I'll miss the collectible factor, but PC gamers already went through that phase and I don't hear them complaining, not with Steam Sales every other week keeping them spoiled for choice.

 

[Deleted User]

If the performance of the significantly cheaper Xbox One S Digital is anything to go by, you don't have to worry about that for many years to come - the thing fell flat harder than a lead zeppelin, much like many previous attempts at a digital only system. This one shows promise because it's *extremely* affordable compared to the alternative. There will be a day when physical games completely die out though, you're right about that - I'll miss the collectible factor, but PC gamers already went through that phase and I don't hear them complaining, not with Steam Sales every other week keeping them spoiled for choice.

I think on PC it was a pretty easy transition because you rarely saw collectors with boxes of their PC games on shelves, or at least I didn't. It was usually huge console collections. I never had a gaming PC in my entire life until about 2 months ago. I considered myself a console gamer and I use to have over 700 original games complete with box and instructions. My perspective that could be wrong is that majority of PC gamers didn't mind digital only while a majority of console gamers do mind. However, things could change it will be very telling to see what a digital console that is considerably cheaper does saleswise vs the full console with disc drive.

 

[Jayro]

A lot of the initial cost was a matter of the development of a wholly new CPU architecture building upon IBM's PowerPC, created in association with IBM and Toshiba under the collective umbrella of STI. The units were most definitely sold at a loss, and a big one at that - it took years for the manufacturing process to be streamlined, and even then the CELL was rather short-lived. In fact, most consoles are sold at a loss on the premise that licensing income will allow the company to turn a profit. It's a lot like Kurig, when you think about it - sell the coffee machine cheap, make millions on proprietary cartridges. Selling consoles at cost is a relatively recent trend, that didn't use to be the case.

It's too bad the cheapest Keurig is still $60, when a basic coffee machine is $20...

 

[Foxi4]

It's too bad the cheapest Keurig is still $60, when a basic coffee machine is $20...

At this point I think you're paying for the brand - the scam totally worked.

 

[Cortador]

Personally just being able to run all Xbox one games is a huge win for me. These will most likely run better as well going by what they have achieved with 360 Backwards comparability.

 

[xskibbles]

Yeeeah no. If the leaked specs are remotely accurate, it'd be more like

1080p 60fps...and some 30fps - Series S $299
4k 120fps - Series X $499


Remember, the leaked specs are saying the Xbox Series S is weaker than the Xbox One X (granted, with a much better CPU), so I wouldn't expect 1440p at all, let alone any games at higher than 60FPS.



Incorrect, the Sexbox CPU is Zen 2 based, AKA Ryzen 3000 series, not Zen 3.

But otherwise, yeah, this should do 4k just fine, especially if AMD managed to push something like DLSS for their GPU platform with RDNA 2 (which is what's not available yet).

"1440p up to 120fps" its Microsoft though so thats probably a range . Your right though hardware wise seems to be weaker so will see how it performs In real life.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

i was down till they said "digital only with 512gb of storage"

They can't be seriously launching this system variation in particular with only 500GB of internal storage? Couldn't they at least have aimed to squeeze as much in there, like even 750GB would make a huge difference!



Well, in that case, all Sony has to do is give their digital edition more storage (1TB will do wonders), make sure they have more than what Xbox has, and that the system isn't the overheating nightmare some rumors are saying it is at launch!

 

[GoldenBullet]

The price for this is good, we all spent the same for an underpowered tablet. It better have performance that at least matches the Xbox One X though or its gonna be a performance disaster.

I expect the base physical PS5 to be $499 at most with it being $449 at least. Now, versions with more storage space will probably be hella more expensive because of the ssd.

One Terabyte should be the standard storage nowadays. In the days of live service game, updates can be 50gb each. Even with an all disk setup, 500gb won't be enough to play comfortably. Unless they can actually reduce game sizes like they're promising.

 

[tigersaman]

It's good as a gamepass machine and nothing more.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Personally just being able to run all Xbox one games is a huge win for me. These will most likely run better as well going by what they have achieved with 360 Backwards comparability.

Unless if your collection is mostly digital, IDK for sure how they're gonna handle discs with this model of the Xbox atm. I'd say an external drive would do, but that would make too much sense like Sony selling physical BC via expansion units with SoCs one could connect to any of their systems for those games.

But IDK, Microsoft has been playing nice after their fuckup of astronomical proportions in 2013, so we'll see.

 

[Jayro]

They can't be seriously launching this system variation in particular with only 500GB of internal storage? Couldn't they at least have aimed to squeeze as much in there, like even 750GB would make a huge difference!



Well, in that case, all Sony has to do is give their digital edition more storage (1TB will do wonders), make sure they have more than what Xbox has, and that the system isn't the overheating nightmare some rumors are saying it is at launch!

You can always use a USB 3.0 SSD to expand as needed, or outright replace the internal SSD with a larger one.

 

[Dax_Fame]

I refuse to buy digital only because I'm a grandpa and refuse to change.

What will fill my shelves!?... Probably the overabundance of other garbage I already have

 

[Silent_Gunner]

You can always use a USB 3.0 SSD to expand as needed, or outright replace the internal SSD with a larger one.

Wait, these will work with external SSDs? And any of them to boot? Because I thought they were going the proprietary route with these systems, especially for the Xbox Series X games.

 

[BORTZ]

Hmm. Interesting. I was a huge PS4 faboi as many of you know. But after seeing the PS5 I can't really say I want one. And I was never considering getting an Xbox ever again, not after rescuing my friends from the X360 days and onto brighter futures with the PS4 lol. And this certainly isnt helping any. Not to influence me, that is.

Now. I wonder if they are aiming for the lower cost spot occupied by things like the Wii/Switch? I can kind of see that being their angle, but without having some sort of killer app or feature(s) (ie: the Switch's portability comes to mind) I can only see this selling marginally well?

I still can't figure out who the Xbox Series console is actually for. Everything available on it is on PC... So like, why?