In hindsight, was the Xbox Series S a bad idea in your opinion?

I had one, and barely used it. I guess I wasn't the target audience. It didn't have a drive, and while I had GamePass, I still preferred to play it on the more powerful Xbox Series X. I will say, the only great thing for me was that it was portable. It reminded me of when consoles used to be easy to lug around! Also, I remember at the beginning of the gen, the PS5 Digital was only $100 more and had slightly more storage and was significantly more powerful. So what say you, SW? Was the Xbox Series S a bad idea in your opinion? Did it hold the Xbox back this gen? Would you like to see Xbox do it again next gen?

It was a GP console and little else

Bu Bu Bu But xbox deflection thread?

For the people who can't afford a PS5 pro, we got a console for you:

it's called the Series S

Didn’t have one myself as I preferred the XSX for both it’s power and ability to play my collection of physical games on but I think the XSS was a good idea. I wouldn’t be opposed to Microsoft doing something like it again for their next console iteration.

It was an earnest attempt to scale the user base for Game Pass, especially in lower income markets. It could have worked, but the problem was content. Xbox's problem has always been content.

Why would you have a Series S and X?

Anywho the idea wasn't bad but the execution needed work. Only a 100 quid difference between the S and PS5 digital kinda made it a hard sell. It probably needed to be a bit cheaper. Yeah the PS5 digital is 30% more expensive but you are getting a lot more then 30 more console for it....Literally :P. So it's a better value proposition.

It should have been used more like the mobile phone model. I.e. sign up for 5 years of gamepass and get a series S for "free". On the day you just need to hand over 15 quid (or whatever 1 month costs) and you are walking out with a brand spanking new console and you don't need to worry about games for the next 5 years (that's the sales pitch anyway).

I don't think it's held back gaming or caused problems for Xbox in an of itself. Last I heard it has outsold the Series X by quite a bit so many clearly see 500 or even 400 as too much to get into current gen gaming. We also haven't had any console price cuts partly due to inflation so, 4 years in, the bigger consoles are still 500+.

Would I like to see something similar next gen? The way things are going, the console market may very well need to adopt a 2 or 3 tier hardware approach. Prices are not dropping and don't look to be dropping in the foreseeable. By the time the PS6 and Nextbox are coming out, 500 bucks really is not going to buy you a lot of hardware and console manufacturers are not taking 200-300 dollar losses on the BOM.

Seriously: if the PS6 is to be as a big a jump as the 5 was from the 4, or the 4 was from the 3, I think console gamers are going to have to brace for significantly more expensive consoles next gen. But it's still important to keep that barrier to entry as low as possible so people still buy into your console ecosystem.

A bit off topic but I am getting concerned about where the Switch 2 is going to land in terms of pricing.

I went with the Series X and never considered buying an S, but I am pretty sure that a lot of casual gamers have been satisfied with their S. So it isn't a failure.

I have one but use it purely for dev mode as an emulation box, once set up its great for that.

I think maybe they overbranded a bit, and the naming is a little weird.

Big fan of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid...not the band, though Love Gun is pretty great) and less-is-more for the most part, they should have just called it "X Box _" and X Box _ Digital" or something.

Game Pass is amazing, though. If I was on a budget and couldn't afford a PC, I'd be on an Xbox with Game Pass.

Is it? Seems like they have a pretty large catalog of games available.

@mrbojangles25:

That's the problem: quantity over quality. What they needed was a killer app to move units.

I use Series S for another room in my house and it's fine 99% of the time, there's a few games that run like horseshit on it but thankfully that's why I got my Series X.

I always thought it was a bad idea, so I'm not the one to ask. The Series X is their premium version that hasn't sold nearly as well and costs 600 for the 2tb verion with a SpongeBob and a couple other special Editions for 700. The S has the lions share of sales so essentially the PS5 Pro although 100 dollars more is SONYs version of the X.

Perhaps they should have had a 600 dollar 1tb version and a 700 2tb version with a discount drive. I think that's the hang up for many.. the fact it doesn't have a drive. At least you can get one, but 80 extra does suck. I'll likely get the drive down the line because I'm not paying scalpers.

Paying for the drive sucks, but I guess we're at the point where physical is going to be for us old farts. I just hope Sony continues to support it. I'm fine with a separate drive.

no..

with both Microsoft and Sony attempting to normalize $600 and $700 consoles, having a low cost option is welcome..

Already have SX, but SS is a great device for emulation, if I can find one for like $150 2nd hand I'm going to get one just to play ps2 and GameCube games on it

Xbox Weak

It's not a bad idea considering that most of the Series consoles people bought are Series S. Most of their audience is happy to sacrifice performance for a lower cost device. That also seems to be the case with Switch and PC gamers.

@girlusocrazy: Well going off of the sales of the PS4 Pro in comparison to the PS4 base model the PlayStation users feel the same way also.

@Archangel3371: Yup. Do you think they should have just not released the Series X?

Its been a perfect companion for me and my boys.

• I was able to play all of my BC 360 library and enjoy the FPS boost
• Easy to travel with so my boys can play games together (along with ROG Ally)
• Boys have a 1080p tv at their mom's so made no sense to get a Series X or PS5
• Easy entry into console-retro gaming
• Amazing little streaming and media box

I think the gaming media (and forum users) are used to things being catered to them, but this little box has been amazing even though I dont use it for "modern" games.

I can see someone with kids that just play Madden, NBA 2K, PUBG, Roblox and Fortnite to enjoy this little thing.

@girlusocrazy: No. Releasing the Series X was fine.

@Archangel3371: Ok, got it.

Sony may have lied about believing in generations in terms of their software, but they were true to it with their hardware. PS5 Digital is the same spec as the disc version unlike the Series Shit which is a 4TF piece of shit that belongs in the last gen.

How did they lie? FF7 Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, Astro Bot, etc all on PS5, not on PS4.

Cross-gen period was crazy long. They were milking their games on both console gens and not focusing on PS5 for many years.

Ratchet and Clank and Returnal were PS5 only and came out in 2021..
Forbidden West and God of War did end up coming to PS4, but that was actually a good thing for gamers. The pandemic resulted in PS5 supply chain issues for a couple years. By the way, it's not unusual for the first couple years of a new gen to still have games on the previous gen consoles. That is because the new systems don't have that big enough of a market yet. Sony has not released any new first party games on PS4 for a while. Spider-Man 2 was PS5. Even Helldivers 2 wasn't on PS4. Meanwhile, it's other companies that continue to do so. Look at Activision, Black Ops 6 is coming out on PS4 still.

@SolidGame_basic: The console is 4 years old and it was lacking current gen exclusive bangers for most of that time. Not a good look for a company that 'believes in generations'. Seems like they have no games as people say. LOL

PC Gamers: we have no generations and get to play all games, including Sony ports down the road

Also PC Gamers: haha, PS5 gets to play all games, plus Sony games at launch, including the 94 MC Astro Bot that just launched!

😆

PS5 gets to play all games? Since when are all the Xbox, PC, and Nintendo exclusives on PS5?

Also, thank you for beta testing the Sony games so that we can play the superior versions on PC.

well we already know Xbox games are on their way, PC games share the vast majority of their library with consoles now, and Nintendo doesn't come to PC either.

The idea is fine, the implementation is wrong, if they used a "you get what you pay for" approach and be clear about everything I think it could've revolutionary in more than a way.

I thought it would, but I think it's actually been vindicated considering how this gen has failed to deliver.

When I got it, I said "with this, you can get rid of it and upgrade to the Series X at any time, and it's as easy as just signing in", that was always my plan. I was waiting for things to pick up. For the pre-release marketing fluff about these consoles to deliver. But in the last four years, I've seen nothing that made me think "wow, I should upgrade". This gen is unimpressive.

Lets take some of the PS5 marketing fluff about the SSD. "with this, it'll change how games are developed and load times will be eliminated". Never happened outside of a few games.

And then there's all that fluff about the Xbox tools like mesh shaders etc.

Most games up until now were cross gen and looked it. I haven't seen or played much which has made me regret it. These last four years, nothing has made the Series S look like a "bad idea". And if someone can spend £700 on a console for the last four years of the gen, I think it's okay to spend £250 on a console for the first four years of the gen.

I think it's a great idea, while there has been rumblings about it delaying games, I think it's a great system for this terrible economy. It's not tailored towards the gamers that go on forums or invest most of their time gaming and I still believe that's smart.

Does it get bad press and rep from gamers? Yes but most of the people I know that game casually with friends have one and are completely happy with it.

MS is being very selective of which games make it over to PS. I would not rely on a PS console at all to get access to MS games. Yes, PC shares much of the library with the consoles and that is a good thing, but there are still exclusives on PC. Nintendo is available on PC via emulators.

I don't think so, it's a fun little system. Although I admit, it probably isn't for everyone. If you don't already have a sizable Xbox digital library, it's hard to recommend.

In my case, my digital Xbox library was already massive, (courtesy of Game Pass Core + Play Anywhere + last gen's games with gold + other digital purchases) so the series S made sense. I don't really care for the heavy push for higher resolutions and such, especially on consoles so right now mine is connected to a basic 1080p TV. And it's performance? Well, most of the games run 60FPS or have 60FPS modes so that's good enough.

All digital doesn't really bother me, as Xbox sales are already pretty aggressive and frequent.

In hindsight, the real mistake was the Xbox One X. What a crock of shit that was.

Gaming on the Series Shit...

@saint-george said:

Bu Bu Bu But xbox deflection thread?

The response you rely on when your “preferred“ console of choice isn’t faring so well.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Like appointing Spencer as head of Xbox, the series S was a mistake.

I’m not too sure where I read it but if memory serves me correctly both Ragnarok and GT7 were supposed to be ps5 exclusives, but because of COVID and scalpers the ps5 wasn’t readily accessible to many consumers and looking at Demon Souls, Rift Apart, and Returnal sales numbers Sony got spooked about these titles being exclusive to the ps5, so they developed their ps4 variants to help with sales. This is why both GT7 and Ragnarok was delayed.

Again this is what I read.

Forgot about Demon’s Souls remake ! Four years later and still not on PC.

Sony needs to step up their game and port it over. MS is kicking their ass in PC support.

Manticore FTW

This is true

On the one hand it does seem like some developers aren't thrilled about it ... on the other hand they often can't be bothered to optimize for stronger hardware either ....so i say fudge em.

Personally I like the concept of weaker hardware sticking around and wish that more of the big companies would develop their games with it in mind and then add bells and whistles for the stronger systems. (Monster Hunter Rise is the only example I'm aware of this happening) I'd think that's cheaper then making a graphically intensive game and then making it look/run worse for lower end stuff... but I'm not a dev.

I really don’t think that Sony cares. Most of ps games sells real good without the pc crowd. Only a few exceptions are apparent, and Sony knows that they’re still in the console business.

It is the perfect stop gap for me. It's an easy console to travel with because you can put it in your bag or a specialized carrying case(which I have). It also helps your electricity bill and it fits in literally all entertainment centers(tv benches/stands and computer desks) because of how small it is. It's also nearly 300 dollars cheaper than the PS5XSX in Canada. I plan to upgrade to a series X by black friday unless things change.

From a business perspective it has probably worked out better for MS than the SX which likely has smaller profit margins. For me as a game, I never found it intriguing and felt it didn't help the Series X from a technical view.