Xbox Series S | X Console Discussion

[S.C.G]

That is a great dark mode.

Ah well, I'm on a desktop, so the blue text isn't that bad on a big screen.

Still though... nice dark mode.

(I think I want a real dark mode for N-Europe forums on all devices more than any next-gen console right now)

- - - - -

back on topic... erm... who's definitely getting an Xbox Series S/X/One/Pro/Project Scorpio Edition when it comes out?

Edited September 8, 2020 by S.C.G

[Dcubed]

I'm in for the Series S now.  Can't argue with the price; especially with Gamepass.  It's the biggest bargain in videogame history.

[drahkon]

Not at launch. Will probably wait at least one more year.

If I don't get a gaming PC by then, I'll definitely buy a Series S.

[Eddage]

I'm a lot closer to buying an Xbox than I have been for a number of years! I'm still gonna get a PS5 at launch but once some Xbox exclusives start appearing then this is definitely something I'd consider picking up in another year or two.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Eddage

[Scratch]

I won't be buying one anyway, happy with my Switch + PC combo lol, but I do really think these are really great prices for the Series S and X.

With the Switch being over 3 years old at this point and being a much less powerful system, I wonder if Nintendo will have to reduce the price to compete? Although, maybe not since Nintendo gaming just kinda seems like "it's own thing" (I don't know if that's a just me thing or if it makes any sense xD).

I'm also curious as to the pricing for the PS5 now.

Even though I won't be buying a Xbox or PS, I'm still interested and looking forward to more news on this stuff.

[Ganepark32]

November 10th now confirmed as the launch date for the Series S.

Have to figure that that will be the launch date for the Series X as well, or that November 6th date that was going around will be for the X and the S will come out the Tuesday after to split up the launch for whatever reason. Interesting that they're not pulling the trigger for announcing date and price for the X like they've been forced to do for the Series S but I suspect it won't be much longer.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Ganepark32

[Ashley]

That date makes sense. Usually a case of a bit of time for the hardcore and then Thanksgiving. 

[Cube]

4 hours ago, S.C.G said:

 

*Rare just announces that new remoured Perfect Dark game

It's a shame that Rare haven't developed any of their classic franchises since 2008. 

3 hours ago, Sheikah said:

It's more the poor contrast of the blue text on the grey backround that was bothering me.

I'm using a laptop right now but I mostly use Tapatalk, which has a great dark mode.

 

For example: 

How do you not hurt your eyes with that? I don't understand dark mode on things at all, I've yet to see one that's readable.

Lowering screen brightness is miles better (or sepia tinting).

[bob]

How do you not hurt your eyes with that? I don't understand dark mode on things at all, I've yet to see one that's readable.
Lowering screen brightness is miles better (or sepia tinting).

I just close my eyelids a bit.

Lets less light in, plus you look like a total badass in public.

[Ashley]

We do have a dark theme you know...?

[Sheikah]

1 hour ago, Cube said:

How do you not hurt your eyes with that? I don't understand dark mode on things at all, I've yet to see one that's readable.

Lowering screen brightness is miles better (or sepia tinting).

Why would I hurt my eyes with it? It's white text on a dark background so much easier on the eyes. Might be you're viewing the image on a bright screen yourself, since I usually lower the brightness on mine.

Sepia tone also kicks in at night.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Sheikah

[Ashley]

Anyone know of a decent video that summarises the difference between the consoles and what things like GamePass and all those related services are for those of us out the loop?

And preferably videos because...

[Julius]

The Xbox Series X is officially confirmed to be $499, launching 10th November. Pre-orders start 22nd September. 

UPDATE:

...and coming in at £449 in the UK. 

Your move PlayStation. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Julius

[Goron_3]

Pretty much what I expected. I imagine Sony will go down the $399 (DE), $450/499.

I'm also going to predict that Series S will outsell the Series X by a significant margin (70:30) for the first year.

[Sheikah]

9 minutes ago, Julius said:

The Xbox Series X is officially confirmed to be $499, launching 10th November. Pre-orders start 22nd September. UPDATE:...and coming in at £449 in the UK. Your move PlayStation. 

If Sony can reach £350 (or even £399) with the digital version then they should be in a very good spot.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

£449.99 is an amazing price for what this thing is packing! Fucking absurd value.

Sony better be willing to bleed if they want to even come close to that price...

Oh! And on top of that?

 

Xbox Game Pass now includes the entierty of EA's catalogue, including day 1 releases of Fifa, at NO ADDITIONAL COST!

Yeah, this shit is gonna be HUGE in Europe!

Edited September 9, 2020 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

1 minute ago, Sheikah said:

If Sony can reach £350 (or even £399) with the digital version then they should be in a very good spot.

They will not.  That is total lalaland.

Series X being a mere £449.99 is a fucking miracle.  The SSD alone is worth about £200!

Edited September 9, 2020 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

They will not.  That is total lalaland.

If Microsoft can reach 450 with a more powerful console then it doesn't seem fantasy at all that Sony could reach 400 with a digital only version which will be tied into PSN purchases for life.

Microsoft are also giving the US a much better deal for the Xbox Series X (499 USD is 384 GBP) so there's definitely wriggle room there.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

8 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

If Microsoft can reach 450 with a more powerful console then it doesn't seem fantasy at all that Sony could reach 400 with a digital only version which will be tied into PSN purchases for life.

Microsoft are losing stupid amounts of money on these machines (especially the Series S).  Sony simply can't afford to bleed as much as Microsoft can; end of.

Put this into perspective.  A 1TB Gen 4 NVME SSD alone costs about £170-200.  That is almost the entire cost of the Series S!!

Frankly, I think Microsoft are going to really struggle to make any money whatsoever on this generation of consoles.  But to them? This is just a trojan horse to get Gamepass & XCloud off the ground.  Their hardware business is fading away in favour of Xbox becoming a Service company (much like Office and Windows).  They are willing to burn away billions to make this happen; for the sake of winning the long-game.  Where gaming becomes a service, much like how Netflix destroyed traditional television and Streaming TV/Movies now rule the world.

Meanwhile? Sony can't afford to do this.  Their Playstation hardware/software sales are literally propping up the entire company (well, that and their Insurance division).  They literally can't afford to price match Microsoft here.

Quote

Microsoft are also giving the US a much better deal for the Xbox Series X (499 USD is 384 GBP) so there's definitely wriggle room there.

You forgot about the 20% VAT; US prices do not include local state taxes (because they vary from state to state).  Add the UK 20% VAT onto the US price and suddenly it translates into £462.

For once, the UK actually gets the better deal (and this is post brexit!!).  The Series S UK price is a complete fucking miracle compared to the US one! (Which is already stupid cheap!); this never happens!

Edited September 9, 2020 by Dcubed

[Goron_3]

8 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

They will not.  That is total lalaland.

Series X being a mere £449.99 is a fucking miracle.  The SSD alone is worth about £200!

Consider this:

• Sony are known for getting excellent value for money from their CPU/GPU partners, presumably as they can promise around 100M sales across a 5-6 year period. For example, the PS4's bill of materials for the GPU, CPU and RAM was estimated to be $140 per console, only $30 more than what Nintendo paid for the Wii U's, which was significantly weaker
• Sony's SSD has been produced internally, has it not? As it's not off the shelf, I imagine they'll simply accept that as the cost of R&D, whereas Microsoft will have purchased their own SSDs from suppliers.
• The XSX has much more expensive components.

Additionally, as the end of the last financial year, Sony made more money from PSN than Xbox and Nintendo combined (I think that was profit, not just revenue). The margins on digital downloads are so big that I think Sony will be happy to take a small loss on each console. I'm expecting U.S prices of $399/$499 (pre-tax obv).

Edited September 9, 2020 by Goron_3

[Ganepark32]

£450 is a pretty damned good price. I know I said it would probably go to that yesterday but part of me honestly thought it would be £500. Getting under that mark for the Series X is a big deal considering the cost of production of that hardware.

And adding EA Access to Gamepass at no extra cost is a genius move, especially in the European market space. Getting Fifa included in your Gamepass sub at no extra cost, not having to fork out the £60+ for a copy on next gen, yeah that Series S box is going to fly off of the shelves and bring with it quite a big swathe of new Gamepass players.

How the Series X does is another matter. The Series S will undoubtedly outsell it and may even give the PS5 a run for its money (though I'd still say that Sony will walk away the winners this holiday) but I do think hittjng that £450 price point and the inclusion of EA Access in Gamepass does present a strong incentive to pick up an Xbox at the end of the year.

Yesterday they were forced to come out and announce the Series S, today they've just gone with it and played their whole hand. Its now up to Sony to throw down and see where the cards fall. I suspect at most, one of Sony's machines will match the Series X price point, possibly the digital, but will they be willing to gamble on a bigger loss to undercut Microsoft. I'm not sure. Really will be interesting these next few days/the next week (I'd expect Sony to come out with their price and release by next week at the latest now. Wouldn't be surprised for some kind of announcement this week for a State of Play next week tbh).

[Dcubed]

10 minutes ago, Goron_3 said:

Consider this:

• Sony are known for getting excellent value for money from their CPU/GPU partners, presumably as they can promise around 100M sales across a 5-6 year period. For example, the PS4's bill of materials for the GPU, CPU and RAM was estimated to be $140 per console, only $30 more than what Nintendo paid for the Wii U's, which was significantly weaker

Microsoft and Sony are using the same vendors for their parts.  How quickly you forget that Microsoft bumped off Sony with the 360; which repurposed parts of the PS3's Cell chip, and where MS got to make use of all those lovely parts that Sony paid all that R&D for from IBM.  Microsoft made out like bandits that generation; and there's no reason to believe that either one will get AMD to play favourites either way here.  That is really wishful thinking.

Quote

• Sony's SSD has been produced internally, has it not? As it's not off the shelf, I imagine they'll simply accept that as the cost of R&D, whereas Microsoft will have purchased their own SSDs from suppliers.

Sony do not manufacture their own SSDs or NAND chips.  They will be sourcing parts from 3rd parties, just like what Microsoft are doing.

Quote

• The XSX has much more expensive components.

Only the GPU is substantially better.  The rest of the advantages come down to better designed thermals & a larger overall volume.  If anything, Sony's custom SSD solution will be their achilles heel in that regard; and it's not unlikely that the PS5 will actually be more expensive to manufacture as a result.

At the end of the day, you have to understand that Microsoft is selling these consoles at a massive loss.  Something that Sony cannot do in retaliation.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

Microsoft are losing stupid amounts of money on these machines (especially the Series S).  Sony simply can't afford to bleed as much as Microsoft can; end of.

Put this into perspective.  A 1TB Gen 4 NVME SSD alone costs about £170-200.  That is almost the entire cost of the Series S!!

Frankly, I think Microsoft are going to really struggle to make any money whatsoever on this generation of consoles.  But to them? This is just a trojan horse to get Gamepass & XCloud off the ground.  Their hardware business is fading away in favour of Xbox becoming a Service company (much like Office and Windows).  They are willing to burn away billions to make this happen; for the sake of winning the long-game.  Where gaming becomes a service, much like how Netflix destroyed traditional television and Streaming TV/Movies now rule the world.

Meanwhile? Sony can't afford to do this.  Their Playstation hardware/software sales are literally propping up the entire company (well, that and their Insurance division).  They literally can't afford to price match Microsoft here.

I don't think you really know how much money it is costing Sony to make overall or how much they are able to slice off the asking price. This post reads like a lot of conjecture.

Sony will want to compete though, surely, and they must know that going above £500 when their competitor is £449 is bad business. 

One thing we do know is that Sony make a lot of money from digital purchases and the digital edition PS5s will help them make even more money digitally, so they might be willing to give a bigger discount on those. Bear in mind as well that a lot of people buying a digital PS5 will probably buy at least one game from the store to play on it.

[Nicktendo]

[drahkon]

Just now, Nicktendo said:

I was about to post the MJ one in the PS5 thread