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

[Menzo]

Yeah, at this point I think the $499 price has been leaked enough that it’d be shocking if the actual announce was any different.

Which means the PS5 will launch at $499 as well.

I’m still surprised they can get all that hardware into the box at that price. Very impressive.

[DaveLong]

512GB drive is monumentally dumb IMO. Anyone that’s played Modern Warfare/Warzone can tell you, that drive is big enough for two next gen games… maximum… unless something has changed with the size of graphics assets between the last generation and this next one, and I’m guessing it has… shit’s gonna get even bigger.

[Rock8man]

I could be misremembering, so correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Cerny Playstation presentation say that switching to faster loading drives meant that game sizes could be smaller now, because there won’t have to be as much replication of data?

[nijimeijer]

This is not necessarily wrong (still depends on how the engine is architected), but asset sizes themselves will scale up, since resolution is higher.

[DaveLong]

It’s possible, but there’s no question assets will continue to grow with each generation, because if they don’t then you can expect games to continue to look the same. Higher resolution = higher resolution assets.

If you haven’t, download Warzone. It’s free. It very capably shows off in its massive map just how many assets you need to have truly open worlds for people to play within. Combine that with all the shader data along with everything else, and games are not going to get smaller. Far from it.

[Woolen_Horde]

@nijimeijer

This is not necessarily wrong (still depends on how the engine is architected), but asset sizes themselves will scale up, since resolution is higher.

I wonder if MS has devised a system where it will only download 1080p/1440p textures if you’re going to run the game on an XSS, but 4K textures on an XSX.

[DaveLong]

Even if that’s true, you’re still looking at Modern Warfare as a minimum if you want large scale open worlds that look that good at 1080p/1440p. That’s the benchmark right now IMO.

I expect Cyberpunk to be at least 200GB on disc.

[Paul_cze]

@DaveLong

I expect Cyberpunk to be at least 200GB on disc.

CDP already disproved that. It will likely be around 80-100.

That said yes, 500GB is small. I just bought 2TB SSD because I was tired of having to uninstall stuff.

[nijimeijer]

Sure, but those games are duplicating data all over the place just so it’s placed close together for streaming. Faster loading ostensibly reduces some of that need, but again - that’ll depend on architecting for that solution.

[DaveLong]

So even if it’s 100GB, that’s four games and the OS/apps.

[Woolen_Horde]

There’s no way XSS won’t have the storage expansion port. 512GB is small, but if you want more, pay for an XSX or buy the 1TB expansion card.

[Wendelius]

At least. the SSD size still gives you something to criticise. Because the price definitely ain’t it.

It’s not huge, but considering the price at which the console sells, I believe the digital 1080p gamers who will be interested can also play for a couple of months before they fill up the hard disk and look at expanding their storage with an external card. Should still spread the cost and keep this one very affordable.

That said, if additional storage is expensive enough and the series X is 499, it does make it that more tempting…

You also said this a week or so ago:

@DaveLong

I don’t think Microsoft will dilute a new console launch by launching an inferior device alongside the flagship Series X. The world is changing (as the NVIDIA demo today illustrates) and no one is going to want to play in an inferior game world on console or PC IMO.

And I think the proposed specs show how smart MS is to be aggressive specs and price wise. It’s not an inferior version. It’s pretty much the same thing at 1080p (without the physical media side, obviously) for little money up front. I don’t think that dilutes anything. It just broadens the appeal to 2 different markets.

[Mellified]

1. Some games are going with uncompressed textures to improve loading times. Won’t be necessary with DirectStorage, which offloads texture decompression to the GPU.
2. Xbox One already has the technology so that games will only download the assets they need for the system. You can override this in the Xbox One S and download 4K assets if you want super sampling.
3. 512GB isn’t a mistake, but it is a great upsell opportunity to the 1TB Seagate Xbox Storage expansion.

Shane Lynch (iequalshane)

[Menzo]

The Series S is for the most price conscious consumer who is willing to sacrifice features for a lower price. It having half the storage of the Series X makes sense.

[stusser]

@Mellified

3. 512GB isn’t a mistake, but it is a great upsell opportunity to the 1TB Seagate Xbox Storage expansion.

Exactly. The XSS is a cost-optimized product. No disk drive, smaller SSD, but it plays every XS* game at 1080p. It’s literally an XSX with less RAM and half the GPU.

[RickH]

@Wendelius

I believe the digital 1080p gamers who will be interested can also play for a couple of months before they fill up the hard disk and look at expanding their storage with an external card.

Also, this box is not necessarily for the AAA gamer who pays full price for the new hotness on release, they will spend the extra amount for the SX. This is an XGP box, and plenty of XGP games will fit together on a 512gb SSD. Heck, there are several of them less than a gig in size.

[Wendelius]

Agreed.

[Woolen_Horde]

@Mellified

1. Some games are going with uncompressed textures to improve loading times. Won’t be necessary with DirectStorage, which offloads texture decompression to the GPU.
2. Xbox One already has the technology so that games will only download the assets they need for the system. You can override this in the Xbox One S and download 4K assets if you want super sampling.
3. 512GB isn’t a mistake, but it is a great upsell opportunity to the 1TB Seagate Xbox Storage expansion.

https://twitter.com/iequalshane/status/1303223828470923270

It took me a second to realize what that was.

“Wait, when did they add the second black circle???”

[Mellified]

@stusser

it plays every XS* game at 1080p.

You keep saying 1080p. I do not this means what you think it means.

It is a 1440@120 console.

[Woolen_Horde]

@Mellified

@stusser

it plays every XS* game at 1080p.

You keep saying 1080p. I do not this means what you think it means.

It is a 1440@120 console.

Sure, but I’ll be you dollars to donuts that the overwhelming majority of people buying it will be playing on 1080p TVs, which are everywhere.

If you have a 1440p monitor, odds are you’re playing PC games on it.