Xbox Series X - The next Xbox that's boxy but sexy xXx

I have no response to that.

Where/how did you find your Series X? Is it an arcane process involving boys bots that search the web for you?

I pre-ordered one of mine on Amazon and got the other from Costco after launch.

Don’t be sexist… It’s ‘youths’ (pronounced like Joe Pesci does in My Cousin Vinny)

D’oh! Stupid autocorrect.

Fixed

I got a notification on the Hotstock app, opened up the Amazon app, and clicked “buy now”. Took around 6 or 7 tries that attempt as Amazon was acting up. Only took me 4-5 attempts total. XSX was super easy compared to my GPU and particularly CPU.

Funny followup, Amazon shipped it UPS ground from California, so I called them up and complained that it was supposed to be 2 day shipping and they refunded my entire year of Prime-- a $129 refund to my credit card. Can’t beat that! Arrives Thursday.

Glad to see this!

Series S is still available at Gamestop.

Surprise, ain’t nobody wanting the iPhone 5C.

Yeah, it’s the disc version or bust for me, given the old discs I still have, like Midnight Club Los Angeles.

I kind of wish they had a 3rd option that is Xbox X with no disc for $400, maybe call it Xbox E. That is the one I probably would have jumped on if given the chance. With that said, if they did that then it would have really killed the sales of the Series S.

The original concept sounded great. An XSX, just at 1080p. They outright failed to execute on that. It deserves to die.

They absolutely should make an XSX Digital Edition, they would sell like hotcakes. Problem is they’re not exactly having difficulty selling the full-fat XSX, so there’s no reason to go there in the next couple of months at least.

It’s the Core all over again, but gimpier, and I told you so.

But that’s the problem - the concept wasn’t an XSX 1080p. The concept was a last gen console with next gen “features” to ensure backwards compatibility.

The Series S exists for people who would have been buying an Xbox One X version S edition, that doesn’t exist because forward compatibility would have sucked.

In MS’s mind, they’re tapping into the same demographic that bought the One S last time. A significantly less powerful console that people bought because of reasons. And really, the logic is the same - if you think the Series S shouldn’t exist, then the One S shouldn’t have existed and, going forward, there should be no backward compatibility with new games and last gen consoles.

The One S made sense as it was a direct replacement of the original model that was being discontinued and came out over a year before the One X:

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The Series S doesn’t make sense in the same way. I had told myself I’d pick up an S strictly as a Gamepass and emulation box and when the opportunity presented itself today decided I actually wasn’t all that interested in a machine that’s already failing to hit its performance target (and if history is any indicator will receive more and more compromised experiences as time goes on).

I think it’s too early in the cycle to say it’s a failure to execute on that. There are some developers that have done just that. And Metro Exodus is aiming at just this objective as well. We’ll see. Maybe most developers will fail to achieve this, but it’s too early right now I think, especially with most developers working from home right now.

Many didn’t. It’s a failure.

When the xboneS came out it was the only xbone. Very different scenario.

True, it was the only one. But it continued to sell better than the Xbox One X when that came out a year later.

Sold out again - offering pre-orders for mid March at that link.

The actual test of the Series S will come when games start landing that are actually designed to leverage the capabilities the new Xboxes have, versus what are mainly just Xbox One games with the settings cranked up. I’ll be interested to see how the first handful of first-party games run on it.

Ultimately if it can maintain something like 900p30 or higher, it’ll probably suffice as a budget option for the 1080p TV crowd it’s for. I suspect it’ll come down to devs putting in the work to optimize for it, or not.

I have no interest in the XSS, but it also isn’t really aimed at me to begin with. Just about anyone I know with a Series S loves the thing so far. If that sentiment changes, then Microsoft would have a problem. Until then? It lets people with less money participate in the next-generation of games, and that’s alright with me. I’m certainly not gonna clutch my pearls about what a failure it is, four months into a console generation when the closest thing we’ve had to a noteworthy exclusive was a Bloober game so poorly optimized that even on the XSX you could watch textures pop in after a second or two in some places.