Current Events > I legitimately do not understand the Xbox Series S's market position

(+) Yeah! (+)

Let's make a digital-only console with only 300 GB of usable storage, despite the fact that last gen titles averaged 50-100 GB. Then, let's give it a modern CPU but a GPU weaker than your last generation console (One X).

Then, let's make it so that the storage upgrade adds $220 to the price, making the Series S with 1.5 TB of storage actually more expensive than the Series X with 1 TB of storage.

It's just crazy.


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I'll personally be going for discless this generation, but yeah, that sounds like a very bad way of designing one. And I'm certianly waiting for 2TB models, at least.

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If Xbox fans were good with numbers they'd be Playstation fans.
You can't help them, just smile and say "wow, good for you!" when they show off that shiny new Series S

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I was actually thinking of getting a Series S if Xbox gets more RPGs... But lol 300gb storage. I don't usually download large games like Halo or whatever though so it's not thaaaaat bad

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I don't know why there's a focus on digital only; you have to install games from discs regardless.

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I got one for retroarch and I also got the gamepass for the fuck of it, mines is loaded with games

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I've always said it was a dumb console. Even worse is the PS5D is only a hundred more dollars for double the storage, power, and exclusives.

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Quick buck off 50 year old divorcies

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Yeah Seires S needed much bigger internal storage and Mark bre expansions cheaper.

Take the loss selling it. You make much more per digital sale then you do on retail

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Lower entry price and they make extra money from add-ons

i mean for someone like yourself who has the money to blow on every piece of electronics it may not make sense

but plenty of people in their audience have to save up just to afford a $300 console

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hyperpowder posted...

I've always said it was a dumb console. Even worse is the PS5D is only a hundred more dollars for double the storage, power, and exclusives.

That actually is particularly ridiculous, given that the $399 PS5 is literally just a PS5 without a disc drive.

There's literally no sacrifice other than the lack of a disc drive if you choose to save money.


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They inadvertently made the greatest emulator in gaming history with the Series S

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On a similar note I would argue that the space is decent. This only becomes a problem for those who have backlogs I tend to delete my games after I beat them. I do have some multiplayer games I play but they don't require that much the biggest one is RDR Online with 105GB while others like State of Decay and Rocket League take up 20GB and then Forza 4 Horizon takes up around 76GB and I still have room


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DarkRoast posted...

Let's make a digital-only console with only 300 GB of usable storage, despite the fact that last gen titles averaged 50-100 GB. Then, let's give it a modern CPU but a GPU weaker than your last generation console (One X).

Then, let's make it so that the storage upgrade adds $220 to the price, making the Series S with 1.5 TB of storage actually more expensive than the Series X with 1 TB of storage.

It's just crazy.

Microsoft being greedy


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BignutzisBack posted...

They inadvertently made the greatest emulator in gaming history with the Series S

Or you can use a PC.


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I still have no idea which of the Xbox consoles is which. They all have the same damn name.
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Theres also the fact that A) most people arent playing many games at once so a console that can only hold two games at a time is at worst an inconvenience and B) many people dont care about state of the art graphics so theyre not going to care if they could be better as long as theyre still able to play the games


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DarkRoast posted...

Or you can use a PC.

significantly more expensive

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TheGoldenEel posted...

Theres also the fact that A) most people arent playing many games at once so a console that can only hold two games at a time is at worst an inconvenience and B) many people dont care about state of the art graphics so theyre not going to care if they could be better as long as theyre still able to play the games

I think A is a much bigger deal than you give it credit.

Call of Duty alone fills almost the entire hard drive, and nobody wants to delete and re-download a 200 GB game.

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BignutzisBack posted...

significantly more expensive

Considering the Series S GPU is literally on-par with midrange GPUs from 2015, I'm positive you can Frankenstein a PC around $400ish that would steamroll the Series S as an emulation machine.


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DarkRoast posted...

I think A is a much bigger deal than you give it credit.

Call of Duty alone fills almost the entire hard drive, and nobody wants to delete and re-download a 200 GB game.

Google tells me you can pick and choose what to download, for example saving 12GB by not downloading the raytracing package

obv not ideal but there would appear to be space for one other game plus CoD

personally I am almost never playing multiple games at once so realistically all I would need is Rock Band 4 installed plus whatever game Im playing at the moment

its not for me, I will certainly go with the XSX once I get around to buying one, but I can see it being an attractive option for someone with less money

i dont see how its different from almost anything else in lifeyou can save money by taking on more inconvenience

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DarkRoast posted...

Considering the Series S GPU is literally on-par with midrange GPUs from 2015, I'm positive you can Frankenstein a PC around $400ish that would steamroll the Series S as an emulation machine.

Okay but an XSS is $300

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DarkRoast posted...

Considering the Series S GPU is literally on-par with midrange GPUs from 2015, I'm positive you can Frankenstein a PC around $400ish that would steamroll the Series S as an emulation machine.

I can easily take the S series around I can't do that with a PC....I went to visit a friend took it and we were playing Mario Party and Golden Eye like old times can't do that shit with a PC for $300 as well

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TheGoldenEel posted...

Theres also the fact that A) most people arent playing many games at once so a console that can only hold two games at a time is at worst an inconvenience and B) many people dont care about state of the art graphics so theyre not going to care if they could be better as long as theyre still able to play the games

DarkRoast posted...

I think A is a much bigger deal than you give it credit.

Call of Duty alone fills almost the entire hard drive, and nobody wants to delete and re-download a 200 GB game.

He also underestimates how bad many peoples internet is in the USA, developing nations, rural areas and many other places.


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pikachupwnage posted...

He also underestimates how bad many peoples internet is in the USA, developing nations, rural areas and many other places.

Not to mention data caps are now a thing, which is idiotic

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DarkRoast posted...

Let's make a digital-only console with only 300 GB of usable storage, despite the fact that last gen titles averaged 50-100 GB. Then, let's give it a modern CPU but a GPU weaker than your last generation console (One X).

Then, let's make it so that the storage upgrade adds $220 to the price, making the Series S with 1.5 TB of storage actually more expensive than the Series X with 1 TB of storage.

It's just crazy.

Series S is made from Series X rejected parts that weren't able to pass stress tests at the level required to run Series X games. The platform is "losing less money on wasted manufacturing defects"

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This is like wondering why budget laptops are a thing, or the Galaxy A series when you could "just buy an S series" phone.

Not everyone needs, wants, or can afford the top of the line model. I think the Series S makes more sense than the digital PS5, although both should come with at least twice the storage. Series S at least can store games on a regular HDD.

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pikachupwnage posted...

He also underestimates how bad many peoples internet is in the USA, developing nations, rural areas and many other places.

i mean, the majority of people in the US have access to high speed internet

i imo its not everybody and thats a problem in 2021. But the vast majority of people who would buy a digital only console have access to high speed internet.

I think TC is underestimating how much $100 means to a significant chunk of americans

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DarkRoast posted...

Not to mention data caps are now a thing, which is idiotic

Yeah.

Plus even good internet is gonna take a fair bit to download these fucking Monster PS4/XBone and PS5/XBX games unless you have perfect conditions.

Especially if you have some online games you only play during events or with friends or you burnout easy and rotate games.

Is it so hard to belive someone could say play 5+ games at least once in a week?

Playing a long ass RPG you are slowing chipping away at
The big new release
An MMO or live support game that you play regularly
FIFA and COD that you play on weekends with your buddies.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

i mean, the majority of people in the US have access to high speed internet

i imo its not everybody and thats a problem in 2021. But the vast majority of people who would buy a digital only console have access to high speed internet.

I think TC is underestimating how much $100 means to a significant chunk of americans

Access In terms of hypothetically being able to get it sure. How many can actually afford it, how many actually both live in an area with it AND actually have conditions/maintenance that allows it to perform even close to what is advertised and how many don't have data caps to worry about?


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I think the Series S makes more sense than the digital PS5, although both should come with at least twice the storage. Series S at least can store games on a regular HDD.

You can use external drives with the PS5 for everything but PS5-specific games.

And the digital PS5 has twice the usable storage of the Series S. So there's that.


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pikachupwnage posted...

Yeah.

Plus even good internet is gonna take a fair bit to download these fucking Monster PS4/XBone and PS5/XBX games unless you have perfect conditions.

Especially if you have some online games you only play during events or with friends or you burnout easy and rotate games.

Is it so hard to belive someone could say play 5+ games at least once in a week?

Playing a long ass RPG you are slowing chipping away at
The big new release
An MMO or live support game that you play regularly
FIFA and COD that you play on weekends with your buddies.

okay but why are we using black ops Cold War as the baseline?

FIFA 21 is 40 GB
Assassins Creed Valhalla is 45GB
Cod Black Ops without optional stuff is 135GB

then you have space to throw in some indies

the average attach rate for consoles is less than ten games per console. Its not that hard to see that people who dont care about the state of the art graphics also wouldnt need space for that many games. And they save plenty of money for making that sacrifice


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the average attach rate for consoles is less than ten games per console.

Except the entire point of GamePass changes that concept.


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DarkRoast posted...

I think the Series S makes more sense than the digital PS5, although both should come with at least twice the storage. Series S at least can store games on a regular HDD.

You can use external drives with the PS5 for everything but PS5-specific games.

And the digital PS5 has twice the usable storage of the Series S. So there's that.

You can store Xbox Series X/S games on regular HDDs. You can't play them, but you can store them. You can't even store PS5 games on an HDD, unless that's changed.

And right, I forgot the digital PS5 is 1TB. Series S should definitely have been 1TB, too, but at least you can use cheap external HDDs or even USB drives.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

i mean, the majority of people in the US have access to high speed internet

i imo its not everybody and thats a problem in 2021. But the vast majority of people who would buy a digital only console have access to high speed internet.

I think TC is underestimating how much $100 means to a significant chunk of americans

If a hundred dollars is going to break you then you really shouldn't be buying consoles in the first place.

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