Microsoft Reveals Next-Gen Console: "Xbox Series X"

[inCloud]

different architectures (Polaris vs RDNA2)

Polaris isnt architecture, One X was based on GCN architecture(Techpowerup has info that it is GCN2.0). It is architecture from 2012 with some tweaks and you cant directly compare RX480 and One X only by TFLOPS figures.

Microsofts strategy continues to fascinate and confuse me at the same time, so far we've got:

Both companies strategies quite confusing, actually. Main problem with MS is all those Lockheart leaks that doesnt make sense without proper pricing. Also, leaks about 4TF from time when we think that PS5 would be 8+TF machine.

 

[MagpieRacer]

What consumers think of the TFLOPS rating is irrelevant, that's a problem for the marketing department to solve.

The One X was released what, three years ago? The RX 580 in it was smack bang in the middle of the GPU market at the time, but time has passed and now there are more powerful cards in its place. Performance is roughly equivalent to the RX 5500XT, which is near the bottom of the product stack of AMD's RDNA cards. When it was released, the 580 was higher up in AMD's GPU product stack. (And just for fun, the 580 is capable of 6.17 TFLOPS, whereas the 5500 XT is capable of 5.2 TFLOPS. The next-gen Xbox is using an RDNA2 GPU, which is once again a different architecture.)

Those games that are capable of native 4K 60FPS on the One X could also (probably) run equivalently on a PC with an RX 580 (they're not exactly demanding), but that doesn't change the fact that it's not really made for that resolution and refresh rate. It's easy enough to just drop the settings a bit and achieve 4K 60FPS, but that's definitely not the case in more demanding games. And as you said, many other games try to achieve the same with upscaling. There's nothing stopping MS from attempting to do the same with the same with the new S model. I'd assume it's easier from a marketing perspective to just have a clear-cut "this model is for 4K gaming, and this model is for other resolutions", rather than attempt to explain to customers what upscaling and native resolution means.

This is all just speculation, of course. It's a bit difficult to predict how both consoles would perform in the real world without having the equivalent desktop parts available to consumers (yet).

It's relevant when you're trying to sell consoles to the masses.

 

[Nexus]

Polaris isnt architecture, One X was based on GCN architecture(Techpowerup has info that it is GCN2.0). It is architecture from 2012 with some tweaks and you cant directly compare RX480 and One X only by TFLOPS figures.

I'll be honest, I completely forgot that the RX 400 series cards were still GCN. I think the Vega cards were the final evolution of GCN? I got lost with all the different version revisions by the time the R9 Fury series released.
Regarding the TFLOPS comparison between the RX 480 and One X GPU, it can be used to get a rough idea of how the One X GPU compares to desktop counterparts. It won't be an apples to apples comparison due to different clocks, CU counts, etc., but it's something.

It's relevant when you're trying to sell consoles to the masses.

I'm not talking about selling consoles, I'm talking about how we can't use TFLOPS as a performance metric when comparing two generations of consoles with two generations of GPU architectures.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I'll be honest, I completely forgot that the RX 400 series cards were still GCN. I think the Vega cards were the final evolution of GCN? I got lost with all the different version revisions by the time the R9 Fury series released.
Regarding the TFLOPS comparison between the RX 480 and One X GPU, it can be used to get a rough idea of how the One X GPU compares to desktop counterparts. It won't be an apples to apples comparison due to different clocks, CU counts, etc., but it's something.

I'm not talking about selling consoles, I'm talking about how we can't use TFLOPS as a performance metric when comparing two generations of consoles with two generations of GPU architectures.

I know, I'm talking about selling consoles and who they're aimed at, the crappiness of the marketing and the potential for this launch to flop harder than the One.

 

[inCloud]

the crappiness of the marketing

I dont think they will use 4TF in advertisement materials, more like 300$ next gen console

 

[Jezza819]

States in the list thay it won't have a disc drive, thays been widely accepted for a while that it wouldn't have one. All the older games on the XSX will have to be digital.

The tougher sell is asking consumers if they want to a buy a console thats less powerful than the previous gen one to play next gen games. I have a feeling this whole Xbox series is gonna bomb.

I chatted with an Xbox Game Ambassador tonight and they told me that Series X would have a disc drive but Series S would not.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/consoles/xbox-series-x

I initially may have misunderstood you and you were referring to the S and not the X and that's where I got confused. I would get the X so I could still use my disc games.

 

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Xbox Series X Confirmed at $499, Launching November 10

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on September 9th, 2020 in the Gaming category.

 

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Xbox Series X Confirmed at $499, Launching November 10

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on September 9th, 2020 in the Gaming category

And again...

Microsoft: Here's our new console!
The internet:

 

[juanffy18]

Ok Playstation is your time

 

[MagpieRacer]

And again...

Microsoft: Here's our new console!
The internet:
View attachment 956584

I love how Sony has been there both times.

Its an excellent price, correct me if I'm wrong but i belive that was also the launch price for the Xbox One X.

 

[Famine]

Its an excellent price, correct me if I'm wrong but i belive that was also the launch price for the Xbox One X.

And the original One as well. It's in my article

 

[MagpieRacer]

And the original One as well. It's in my article

So it is .

Its a tempting proposition. I just feel its lacking that killer launch title to make it a no brainer. I said this on twitter on the post I linked above and the guy just said its launching with thousands of games. Which whole technically true, odesnt require me to buy the new console to access them.

 

[RetroJohan]

I will probably get the PS5 first but Xbox Series S with Game Pass doesn't sound bad... might go with that.

 

[Moglet]

So it is .

Its a tempting proposition. I just feel its lacking that killer launch title to make it a no brainer. I said this on twitter on the post I linked above and the guy just said its launching with thousands of games. Which whole technically true, odesnt require me to buy the new console to access them.

Thousands? Where is he getting that number from? Game Pass as it currently stands doesn't have thousands of games and EA Play will add fewer than 100. If he's talking about the entire Xbox One back catalogue then while technically true we can play those on current gen so that makes very little difference really.

This is also the reason I'm holding out for a PS5 instead; there are going to be exclusive games on it that I actually want to play.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Euro prices (no surprises there):

 

[Castrol96]

If Sony made a PS5 like the Xbox Series S bundled with GT7 for £300...Would be pretty decent for me.

 

[Famine]

The maths on XAA is... odd.

Console: £449
Game Pass Ultimate: one month at £1, 23 months at £10.99
Total: £702.77

XAA: £29/month
Total: £696.00

I mean, you save £7 but... why? Am I missing something?

 

[danimac]

Great now all SONY has to do is sell their's at 449.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

It seems like a genius move to get nearly guaranteed revenue for a solid 2 year period and also going forward. Should dull the initial hit of the console purchase. Also gives people incentive to "buy" the console early versus waiting to see what exclusives shake out in the future.

 

[Nexus]

With direct conversions, the S is actually cheaper than what the PS4 cost at launch in Australia. ~$450 AUD, compared to the PS4's launch price of $550 (with the One selling for $600). Not bad.

The X seems pretty reasonably priced too IMO, considering the specs.

 

[Moglet]

The maths on XAA is... odd.

Console: £449
Game Pass Ultimate: one month at £1, 23 months at £10.99
Total: £702.77

XAA: £29/month
Total: £696.00

I mean, you save £7 but... why? Am I missing something?

I'm assuming it's better for them to have users locked in to Game Pass. With the monthly payment option you don't own the console until the 18th month so there is less chance of trading it in for the competition and losing that user completely.

 

[Famine]

I'm assuming it's better for them to have users locked in to Game Pass. With the monthly payment option you don't own the console until the 18th month so there is less chance of trading it in for the competition and losing that user completely.

For MS, sure, but I don't see what the consumer gets out of it. I mean, they're not having to save up for one big purchase, but I'd expect some kind of incentive. If it was, say, £21.98 cheaper to get it on XAA, at least you've got two months of Game Pass Ultimate for free out of it.

 

[Moglet]

For MS, sure, but I don't see what the consumer gets out of it. I mean, they're not having to save up for one big purchase, but I'd expect some kind of incentive. If it was, say, £21.98 cheaper to get it on XAA, at least you've got two months of Game Pass Ultimate for free out of it.

There is zero upfront cost, I'm sure that will be a large incentive for a lot of people. It saves them buying it from somewhere like Currys or Very and being stung with high interest rates.

 

[DRambo]

Sorry for being a bit thick, but what happens to the console if you default on the monthly payments. I guess MS could lock it, but what if it's not online? Same thing I guess with a mobile phone, just never really thought about it.

 

[Famine]

There is zero upfront cost, I'm sure that will be a large incentive for a lot of people. It saves them buying it from somewhere like Currys or Very and being stung with high interest rates.

That's a motivation rather than an incentive. An incentive is something which rewards someone for taking that decision.

Again, I'm not too familiar with the Xbox ecosystem, so perhaps I've missed something you get for XBAA that you don't if you buy the console at list price and GP separately, but it looks like there's no particular reward for doing one rather than the other. Aside from what looks like a £7 (1%) saving, Microsoft is not incentivising people to make the decision to buy the console over two years in bits, rather than to buy the console outright and then the regular subscription gaming model.

Two months of free GP (or equivalent saving) for going the XBAA route would be an incentive.

 

[Moglet]

That's a motivation rather than an incentive. An incentive is something which rewards someone for taking that decision.

Again, I'm not too familiar with the Xbox ecosystem, so perhaps I've missed something you get for XBAA that you don't if you buy the console at list price and GP separately, but it looks like there's no particular reward for doing one rather than the other. Aside from what looks like a £7 (1%) saving, Microsoft is not incentivising people to make the decision to buy the console over two years in bits, rather than to buy the console outright and then the regular subscription gaming model.

Two months of free GP (or equivalent saving) for going the XBAA route would be an incentive.

There is no incentive other than that £7 saving, then. I believe this system has existed for a while with the current generation though so maybe they don't feel the need to offer one. I'm going to assume that they've seen the existing system become successful enough to warrant not offering much of an incentive on the new consoles.

 

[evldave333]

Im guessing Sony will undercut the price of the series X now, that coupled with a much superior list of upcoming games and it could end up further consolidating its dominant position time will tell. I really fancied getting both MS & Sony consoles this generation, but games-wise Sony is the only way to go for now at least.

 

[ImaRobot]

So we know Xbox isn't getting exclusives at launch, but does anyone know what PS5 is getting launch day? I'm having a hard time actually finding anything substantial that actually has a date tied to it. For what I've seen there's only really a handful that I'm seeing that I like from the PS5 side, I just can't figure out what's on launch or when anything else is getting released with so many articles floating around.

 

[FPV MIC]

With direct conversions, the S is actually cheaper than what the PS4 cost at launch in Australia. ~$450 AUD, compared to the PS4's launch price of $550 (with the One selling for $600). Not bad.

The X seems pretty reasonably priced too IMO, considering the specs.

It's actually far closer to the direct conversion than I thought it would be. We normally get gouged here, but we still might by the stores... like we are with everything else games related at the moment.

 

[evldave333]

So we know Xbox isn't getting exclusives at launch, but does anyone know what PS5 is getting launch day? I'm having a hard time actually finding anything substantial that actually has a date tied to it. For what I've seen there's only really a handful that I'm seeing that I like from the PS5 side, I just can't figure out what's on launch or when anything else is getting released with so many articles floating around.

I wouldnt put it past Sony to have a trump card exclusive ready for launch, but thats pure speculation... In theory GT could be released with the console they released it half finished last time out didnt they lol