Xbox Series X

It’s speculation. As is so common with the internet, people always present speculation as fact.

Having said that, I expect we will see a model similar to what was done with Xbox One and Xbox One X, where we get a generational upgrade after some years.

No, not at all. Some games announce years before, others announce closer to a release date.

Look at Mortal Kombat 11. Announced December 2018, released April 2019. That was only four months!

Aside from the fact that this is all speculation, consoles, especially this generation, are mini-PC’s running proprietary services.

Console gamers also aren’t big on PC brands, i.e. Steam. Sony and Microsoft doing something like this with their PlayStation and Xbox brands, that’ll sell because of the brand familiarity and loyalty already in place.

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It’s certainly exciting times…

I’m hoping the Series X is indeed 12+ RDNA Teraflops as that would make this thing an absolute BEAST. I think it will be $499…and there might be a cheaper ‘Lockhart’ SKU in Fall 2021 for $199-$299 but the Series X will be the ‘primary’ focus for game developers and any cheaper less powerful SKU will just have games scaled down as needed.

I do think KI4 is at least in early planning stages for Series X but may not be a launch game…who knows. What I do know is the KI franchise fills a gaping hole for MS Studios and they would stupid not to continue it. The big question is who is making the game? My guess is it would be a newly formed team comprised of internal MS staff, Rare and possibly Iron Galaxy.

Im drooling at the thought of an all new KI built from the ground up with all that power.

Yup, options are good. I find Xbox Game Pass too pricey long term unless you’re binge-gaming everything, but having it for a month or so to test, and then buy a few games on a discounted price is great.

For physical copies versus digital, I’ve also turned to all-digital and did so a few years ago. As a PC gamer primarily, starting around 2015, most “physical” copies you bought just contained a download token in an otherwise empty cardboard box. So it made sense to switch, and take advantage of excellent sale prices on Steam, Batlle.net., etc.

I have always been a console gamer. I really like the comfort of sitting in the couch while playing in front of my 49" screen TV. It’s priceless in my opinion. Regarding the digital midia, it’s just unavoidable. The effort it takes to go out and buy a physical copy just doesn’t compare to buying a game just pressing a button. I keep physical copies just for games that are special to me, such as KI.

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Very cool. I enjoy both PC’s and consoles, and have rotated between which is my primary based on which supports my style of gaming and genres better at the time.

I enjoy gaming on my couch absolutely, and I also enjoy gaming from my desk.

For physical versus digital, I actually prefer physical copies, but, and especially on PC, digital is usually a lot cheaper, so that just makes more sense to me.

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I wish digital was cheaper. On consoles digital and physical are always the same price at launch. And while physical copy prices reduce over time, digital ones rarely do and do so over a much longer period of time.

You’re right. It makes no sense. If you take into consideration that digital copies are not affected by manufacturing/distribution costs, they absolutely should be cheaper.

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I’m for it just because I don’t expect most big developers to prioritize higher framrates, no matter how powerful consoles get. Pushing graphical fidelity and bigger, more detailed worlds has been the norm in the industry for a very long time now, and targeting anything higher than a 30fps standard limits that so it’s rare to see outside of indie games and genres that especially need it to play at their best.

But if you add different spec and settings options into the mix like on PCs, then all these things become available. Not all at once since consoles aren’t in the business of making $4000 monster machines, but it’s better than no options at all.

Consoles have been mini-PC’s since the original Xbox and PS2 era, and especially since 360/PS3. Their benefit until recently has always been PC-like power in a simpler, more inexpensive architecture, with a consistency that provided both developers and consumers with a reasonable expectation of what they could expect in terms of performance.

I like that model of console. All these different versions of the hardware annoy me :man_shrugging:t5:

Just speculation on my part… no confirmed that I know of. But …i did get the speculation from watching the interviews about Xbox Skarlett and the Xcloud ideas. Plus the recent release of digital only XBox X. Also a conversation of the price point of the SKarlett and how many people may not pay 700$ for a console. ’
I dont prefer their to be more than one… but I think it may be likely.

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I hadn’t heard that there was a digital only X1X. If that’s the case then yeah, wouldn’t be surprised to see that kind of thing make a comeback.

But yeah, $700 is well above the reasonable price point for most people in the market for a new console. Most people won’t pay more than $400 for one period - any time a company has exceeded that cost (and really, $300) out the gate there have been repercussions on launch sales, both of the real (units moved) and soft (bad PR) varieties.

Which is probably why they would develop multiple models. That way you’ve got the really cheep digital only for casuals, the more expensive model with a disc drive for people who are more into gaming, and then the super expensive $700 4K ultra-ray traced mumbo jump model for the graphics whores.

@STORM179 @KombatLeaguer Yes I want the 8k super ray tracing one LOL ! I cant wait!!!
Now what do I do with my Xbox X? I need to know if we will be able to continue playing our Xbox One games on the Series X so we can confidently trade in the Xbox 1X and not loose any games or keep it for a while until its obsolete.
Like with PS4…I dont think I can let go of that one until I know I can play Bloodborne, Horizon Zero dawn, ect… on the next gen or not.

And there isnt an All digital Xbox X…only the S is all digital…but again IM just speculating here that it is why they chose “Series X” for the title.

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I actually have an Alienware Alpha (aka Steam Machine)…not a bad little piece of hardware. I use it in my arcade cabinet. My son’s currently playing Bulletstorm on it…not an arcade game I know, but still…

Anyway, I just hope their claims for backwards compatibility means it’ll play everything right out of the starting gate.

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That’s the same on PC though. The only way at launch you’d get a game cheaper is by pre-purchasing off a third party site, or buying from a key reseller site.

Third party sites, like Green Man Gaming, allow you to pre-purchase a game, and the earlier you do so, you’ll usually have a cheaper cost. But you’re paying right then and there. They profit by banking your money early.

Key reseller sites, like G2A, are not always legit; some of the keys they sell are illegal. Buying from them is an at your own risk thing.

So basically, even on PC, at launch, costs are the same.

For digital copy cost reduction, on console, it seems you need to pay attention to, and wait for sales. They happen less frequently than on PC, but the major holiday and sale times seem to still be the same.

I was referring to the fact that Steam Machines did nowhere near the amount of success they predicted. It also didn’t help that most people already had good computers, or the fact that the Steam Machines use SteamOS (which is Linux-based) in an industry that is still heavily biased towards Windows-only support…[angry mumbling]

At the same time, digital copies tend to go on deep discounts during big sales, whereas physical copies will only drop down to $20 at most in stores; even during a Black Friday sale I saw old games like Fallout: New Vegas being sold for $12, but on Steam it would be $6 for a digital copy.

And while it is true that you properly own a physical copy, it can still get damaged over time to the point of uselessness (a stray speck of dust can be like a knife to most physical media). Also a lot of games are going the “live service” route which requires a server to play the game, regardless of whether you own a physical copy or not; that physical copy of Battleborn I have in storage is basically useless now because the servers will be shut down in the future. And yet despite digital copies of Battleborn being completely delisted, the MTX is still up…[shakes head]

What I’m saying is, not only are both Physical and Digital copies double-eged swords, but the lines are being blurred to the point where console Physical copies are basically glorified installation discs/DRM checks (no better than PC at this point).

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Quite true, however on the original Xbox, for example, games available on PC and console were oft not the same. The console versions had to be edited or trimmed simply to function (i.e. Doom 3). They were still solid, though.

That improved significantly with the Xbox 360 generation, but the PC-like power was not there still. You could easily see that with games like Fallout 3 and the major texture quality and draw distance differences.

The different versions of hardware with consoles now, it simply allows more choice, and permits developers to continue offering better parity with PC gaming. I personally see this overall as a good thing. Games still look good on an Xbox One S, for example, and they look noticeably better on the Xbox One X, like playing with Medium texture quality vs Hard texture quality.

For the Xbox Series X, I’d recommend waiting on picking one up, unless there’s a game that you must have at launch. That way, you can fully see and understand their business model and the direction they’re going, if there’s any deal-breaking hardware issues/bugs that are not getting resolved, etc.

That still doesn’t make it make sense. When you buy digital your’re not paying for a disc or case. So it should be cheaper. Either retail games need to be more expensive, or digital purchases should be less.

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