Xbox Series X (coming 10 Nov 2020)

[Ethosik]

Bringing it back to the thread…. You can argue it as you like, but Microsoft WILL sell less consoles now, so their strategy makes little sense beyond Game Pass.

Oh yeah I fully agree. This is what happens when you have shareholders and investors that are not gamers. THAT is the core issue. Do gamers really want micro transactions? Do gamers want rushed games? Do gamers want games that can only render at 540 or 960 resolution and require upscaling to even achieve 1080p? No, we want 1080p at a minimum, and most of us want 60 fps at a minimum.

NO decisions have been made to appease gamers for about a decade now. This is purely due to how big the gaming industry has gotten. It is so profitable, that business and financial people are the ones in charge, not true gamers.

Proof of the ex-Ubisoft developers making such a banger of Clair Obscur Expedition 33. This would have NEVER been approved under Ubisoft. Yet it is selling extremely well and the team is very happy. And the game is just incredible, already my game of the year.

Another example, not fair to call it my game of the year since Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was last year. But I played it for about 2 hours on PS5, the graphics was horrible, and quality mode was 30 FPS which SUCKED. I later got it on PC, I have almost the best PC you can get and it is a stuttering mess. As a gamer, throwing a $4,000 custom PC build....yes custom, should play this game with ZERO issues. This is what gamers want. I loved the game, I really did. But the performance even on my high end PC REALLY frustrated me to no end. Monster Hunter Wilds is another that just is SO BAD performance wise.

 

[Pezimak]

This is the first console generation where there have been no price cuts this far into the generation. More specifically this is the first time MS hasn’t reduced the price of a console.

Well you could argue kind of it’s the second gen, because the Switch has never had an official price cut or rise during its lifetime. But yes Sony and Xbox placing so many price rises is unprecedented.

 

[Pezimak]

Oh yeah I fully agree. This is what happens when you have shareholders and investors that are not gamers. THAT is the core issue. Do gamers really want micro transactions? Do gamers want rushed games? Do gamers want games that can only render at 540 or 960 resolution and require upscaling to even achieve 1080p? No, we want 1080p at a minimum, and most of us want 60 fps at a minimum.

NO decisions have been made to appease gamers for about a decade now. This is purely due to how big the gaming industry has gotten. It is so profitable, that business and financial people are the ones in charge, not true gamers.

Proof of the ex-Ubisoft developers making such a banger of Clair Obscur Expedition 33. This would have NEVER been approved under Ubisoft. Yet it is selling extremely well and the team is very happy. And the game is just incredible, already my game of the year.

Another example, not fair to call it my game of the year since Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was last year. But I played it for about 2 hours on PS5, the graphics was horrible, and quality mode was 30 FPS which SUCKED. I later got it on PC, I have almost the best PC you can get and it is a stuttering mess. As a gamer, throwing a $4,000 custom PC build....yes custom, should play this game with ZERO issues. This is what gamers want. I loved the game, I really did. But the performance even on my high end PC REALLY frustrated me to no end. Monster Hunter Wilds is another that just is SO BAD performance wise.

It will be VERY interesting to see what Valve do though, with Steam OS starting to come to other systems officially now, and they have promised a Steam Deck 2, with storing rumours of a front room box too. They could really shake things up in the games world over the next few years. And they are a privately owned company.

 

[diamond.g]

Well you could argue kind of it’s the second gen, because the Switch has never had an official price cut or rise during its lifetime. But yes Sony and Xbox placing so many price rises is unprecedented.

You could argue that the Switch Lite was the reduction in price, though conversely you could also argue that the Switch OLED was a price increase as well.


As was stated earlier this price increase does track with MS wanting to get out of hardware sales, even if they tell us they don't. It will be especially interesting to see if the next console runs plain Windows with an Xbox overlay so that you can install other game stores. I'm sure MS is keeping a close eye on how SteamOS does in the handheld market. I am not sure they are worried about desktop since SteamOS is missing nvidia support.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Best gaming hardware news this year! "Freedom from Windows". MS has acknowledges that windows suck for gaming and has too much friction.

I like that handheld will be able to run slimmed down version of window with boot up in an Xbox UI. Native SteamOS support is lovely to see. This is super promising and a giant leap in the right direction. I look forward to seeing a range of Xbox branded handhelds. I will likely buy V2 of the product in 6-12 months and use it to play Xbox/PC titles on the go or casually if the kids are using the TV.

This is how Microsoft is combining Windows and Xbox for handheld PCs

The full-screen Xbox experience is here

www.theverge.com

 

[turbineseaplane]

Best gaming hardware news this year! "Freedom from Windows". MS has acknowledges that windows suck for gaming and has too much friction.

I like that handheld will be able to run slimmed down version of window with boot up in an Xbox UI. Native SteamOS support is lovely to see. This is super promising and a giant leap in the right direction. I look forward to seeing a range of Xbox branded handhelds. I will likely buy V2 of the product in 6-12 months and use it to play Xbox/PC titles on the go or casually if the kids are using the TV.

This is how Microsoft is combining Windows and Xbox for handheld PCs

The full-screen Xbox experience is here

www.theverge.com

No playing actual Xbox console only games though I take it?

That's the move I wish they'd finally make.

 

[diamond.g]

No playing actual Xbox console only games though I take it?

That's the move I wish they'd finally make.

I’d be curious if Windows has all the same low level APIs run the console games.

 

[salamanderjuice]

No playing actual Xbox console only games though I take it?

That's the move I wish they'd finally make.

Nope. Just remote play and X cloud.

No trackpads either, so while it can "play" more games than Steam Deck I'd argue it actually has less playable in handheld mode.

 

[Macalicious2011]

No playing actual Xbox console only games though I take it?

There are a few xbox only titles that I play. However, going forward I don't expect there to be many xbox only titles. Most will be multi platform or play anywhere.

I bought biped for xbox this week. It cost less than a cup of coffee. Other than that most titles I come across are pc and xbox.

 

[turbineseaplane]

There are a few xbox only titles that I play. However, going forward I don't expect there to be many xbox only titles. Most will be multi platform or play anywhere.

I bought biped for xbox this week. It cost less than a cup of coffee. Other than that most titles I come across are pc and xbox.

It's the sports ones I'm mainly interested in ... things like NHL games

 

[salamanderjuice]

There are a few xbox only titles that I play. However, going forward I don't expect there to be many xbox only titles. Most will be multi platform or play anywhere.

I bought biped for xbox this week. It cost less than a cup of coffee. Other than that most titles I come across are pc and xbox.

Play anywhere is a small list of titles. Even a lot of first party MS stuff is missing, e.g. Minecraft, and they don't seem to have any intention of adding older games from studios they picked up after the program launched like Call of Duty.

While there's few true Xbox exclusives, it sucks that the Xbox handheld can't play your Xbox games. Yes, it can technically play games that are also on Xbox, but it's not the same version and in many cases you have to rebuy if you already have it on Xbox. If I have to buy it on PC again, why get the Xbox handheld? Why not a cheaper Steam Deck? Or the inevitably faster Aya Neo or Legion in 6 months?

 

[Macalicious2011]

Play anywhere is a small list of titles. Even a lot of first party MS stuff is missing, e.g. Minecraft, and they don't seem to have any intention of adding older games from studios they picked up after the program launched like Call of Duty.

While there's few true Xbox exclusives, it sucks that the Xbox handheld can't play your Xbox games. Yes, it can technically play games that are also on Xbox, but it's not the same version and in many cases you have to rebuy if you already have it on Xbox. If I have to buy it on PC again, why get the Xbox handheld? Why not a cheaper Steam Deck? Or the inevitably faster Aya Neo or Legion in 6 months?

Microsoft won't bring all older Xbox titles to PC. There are licensing, porting and other costs involved. This doesn't make economic sense for some titles the same way netflix periodically removes content from their library.

But your point is valid. The handled might be an xbox but its also partially misleading as like you said, not all xbox titles will be playable on it. However I don't think that MS cares about old titles. It's the 80/20 rule where by 20% of titles(live service, minecraft, sports titles)

The steam deck is only cheaper for now. In 12-24 months there will be xbox handhelds at all price points. With support for steam, MS are clearly aiming for there not to be a reason for buying a steam deck over an Xbox handheld.

I think this might also be a preview of the next Xbox for the couch. It will likely run the same OS but have more powerful hardware. This aligns with the vision of unifying windows and xbox. Same OS experience across both platforms.

Very interesting future ahead that will be multi store. Imagine being able to buy games from the PSN store on the Xbox ha dheld but not on the series consoles.

 

[Quotenfrau]

You can't play Minecraft on those two ROG Xbox Ally devices?

 

[Macalicious2011]

You can't play Minecraft on those two ROG Xbox Ally devices?

Yes you can. Minecraft is multi platform.

 

[maflynn]

You can't play Minecraft on those two ROG Xbox Ally devices?

Why couldn't you? The announced ROG Xbox Ally plays windows games, xbox games, games from steam, etc. What would prevent you from playing?

 

[salamanderjuice]

Why couldn't you? The announced ROG Xbox Ally plays windows games, xbox games, games from steam, etc. What would prevent you from playing?

It doesn't really play Xbox games. Just stream. I think maybe they got confused by my mention of Minecraft not being Play Anywhere. You can't play the Xbox version of Minecraft on the Xbox handheld, just PC.

 

[maflynn]

It doesn't really play Xbox games. Just stream

Really? That sucks, why spend 500 to 700 (not sure the price point) for an xbox handheld that doesn't play xbox games natively. I was watching LTT on this, but I've not finished the video, I'm not sure if Linus mentioned that factoid or I just missed it

 

[Pezimak]

Really? That sucks, why spend 500 to 700 (not sure the price point) for an xbox handheld that doesn't play xbox games natively. I was watching LTT on this, but I've not finished the video, I'm not sure if Linus mentioned that factoid or I just missed it

It is a PC handheld like the Steam Deck, it will support other stores like Steam too, you install the games on it. Not sure if you install the Xbox games on it but as it does with storage 512GB or 1 terabyte I imagine so. Unsurprisingly Microsoft were very confusing in their messaging. These will not be cheap, more like 600 to 900 like other PC handhelds.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Really? That sucks, why spend 500 to 700 (not sure the price point) for an xbox handheld that doesn't play xbox games natively. I was watching LTT on this, but I've not finished the video, I'm not sure if Linus mentioned that factoid or I just missed it

Yes, really. I think Linus mentions it but I think they're much more PC gaming focused and so it's not a huge concern to him. Microsoft has only mentioned running Xbox games in terms of X Cloud or Remote Play or if they're Play Anywhere.

It is probably the best Windows based PC handheld at the moment. But yeah, not much reason to really carry the Xbox name.

 

[maflynn]

It is a PC handheld like the Steam Deck

Oh I know, but since you can run Windows on an xBox, I would have thought MS would have done something to allow this

 

[diamond.g]

Oh I know, but since you can run Windows on an xBox, I would have thought MS would have done something to allow this

I think the handhelds need to match the Series S in power before they can have them run the Series console games, otherwise you'd be stuck with Xbox 1 games.

 

[Macalicious2011]

I think the handhelds need to match the Series S in power before they can have them run the Series console games, otherwise you'd be stuck with Xbox 1 games.

I don't think the handhelds will support backwards compatability regardless of hardware.

Backward compatability adds complexity, technical debt and bloats the OS. This is the opposite of what they are trying to achieve, which is create an OS that's as small and optimised as possible. You can't support older titles forever. As some point, you have to draw the line. However streaming older titles is an option for occassional play.

In the end, it's lose some win some.

Lose:
-Backwards compatability.

Win:
-Some play anywhere titles can be run on the console.
-Steam account holders oe steamdeck owners will be able to run their games on it.
-PSN store front will be avaiable. Play Playstation games that are unavaiable on Xbox.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I finally sold my XBX this weekend.

I only had it for MSFS and the 2024 situation on XB continues to be a trainwreck.

 

[Macalicious2011]

I finally sold my XBX this weekend.

I only had it for MSFS and the 2024 situation on XB continues to be a trainwreck.

Will you replace it with a PS5?

I still have my XBX. Keeping it mainly for GTA6. And it serves as an extra gaming device that I can take between mine and my GF's house. My PC stays at my home.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Will you replace it with a PS5?

I still have my XBX. Keeping it mainly for GTA6. And it serves as an extra gaming device that I can take between mine and my GF's house. My PC stays at my home.

I've had a couple PS5s (bought & sold them both).

I enjoy GT7, but I just didn't play it enough otherwise.

People laugh at me for this, but I honestly just fire up my PS3 still when I want a GT fix (GT6).

If the Aces of Thunder PSVR version releases and is great, I may be tempted.

I want some kind of great flying in VR experience, but I'm not willing to pony up what it costs to do that well with MSFS on PC (thousands of dollars).