Mortal Kombat creator: Xbox Series S could be Microsoft's next-gen hit

[midian182]

Recap: Microsoft got ahead of Sony by announcing both the release date and prices of its next-gen consoles—the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. In the case of the latter, which is less powerful and lacks a disc drive, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon believes it will become the better selling of the two.

Unlike Sony, which revealed both versions of the PS5 back in June, Microsoft had been quiet about its disc-less console—much of what we knew came from sources such as controller packaging. That all changed last week when the company confirmed the Xbox Series X’s $499 price and the $299 Xbox Series S, both of which launch on November 10.

Microsoft has positioned the Xbox Series S as a cheaper alternative to its big brother, one that’s designed for 1440p gameplay at 60fps with support for up to 120 fps. As you can see in our spec-by-spec comparison, the Series S clocks in at four teraflops of GPU power while the Series X hits 12.5 TFLOPS.

Despite being less powerful, that $299 price tag has already caught the eye of many consumers, particularly those who want a next-gen console but aren’t as concerned about 4K resolutions or don’t own a UHD television.

One person who believes the Series S will outsell its more expensive sibling is Mortal Kombat co-creator, Ed Boon. He’s compared the console to Apple’s budget iPhones—the 11 and SE—which are best-sellers. “High end & afordable line = Microsoft came to play,” Boon tweeted.

Just like the lower priced iPhones (11 & SE) are the best sellers. The $299 Xbox Series S could very well be the best selling next gen Xbox.

High end & afordable line = Microsoft came to play.

— Ed Boon (@noobde) September 14, 2020

It seems that Boon's excitement about next-gen consoles isn't limited to Microsoft's machines. He recently sang the praises of Sony’s PS5, noting that people are underestimating the impact its custom SSD will have on gaming. “It’s suddenly going to open doors that weren’t considered possible before,” he said back in May.

Sony is conducting one final “PlayStation 5 showcase” livestream on Wednesday when we’ll hopefully find out the consoles' prices and release date. The former has reportedly been a sticking point for the firm, which is reportedly lowering the MSRPs following the Xbox Series X/S unveiling.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86730-mortal-kombat-creator-xbox-series-s-could-microsoft.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I'm not sure what I hate more:
#1 The fact Microsoft is still pushing proprietary SSD instead of letting us buy regular, cheapening PC SSD models...

#2 Or the fact there are, once again, two competing Xbox consoles thereby not standardizing the experience.

The first Xbox was pure. Regular PC parts, HDD, Ethernet port and a straight forward XBL internet experience without gimmicks.

Xbox 360 forced us into proprietary HDD when games were only growing in size and availability - moving away from playing on disks, to playing on the HDD internally. Playstation 3 gave us a user replaceable HDD.

Xbox One forced us to buy external drives because it still wouldn't give us a user-replaceable HDD like Playstation. Then they introduced multiple versions of the console in the S and the X but timed the releases so far apart that if you bought either model, you basically felt cheated because you knew it wasn't a generational leap and was just a half-hearted refresh.

Now they are doing that again.

I think they've lost me as an XBL subscriber this year after over 10 years of membership.

 

[Burty117]

It's nothing like the iPhone SE, the iPhone 11/SE didn't come out with a gimped chipset...

 

[DZillaXx]

I'm not sure what I hate more:
#1 The fact Microsoft is still pushing proprietary SSD instead of letting us buy regular, cheapening PC SSD models...

#2 Or the fact there are, once again, two competing Xbox consoles thereby not standardizing the experience.

The first Xbox was pure. Regular PC parts, HDD, Ethernet port and a straight forward XBL internet experience without gimmicks.

Xbox 360 forced us into proprietary HDD when games were only growing in size and availability - moving away from playing on disks, to playing on the HDD internally. Playstation 3 gave us a user replaceable HDD.

Xbox One forced us to buy external drives because it still wouldn't give us a user-replaceable HDD like Playstation. Then they introduced multiple versions of the console in the S and the X but timed the releases so far apart that if you bought either model, you basically felt cheated because you knew it wasn't a generational leap and was just a half-hearted refresh.

Now they are doing that again.

I think they've lost me as an XBL subscriber this year after over 10 years of membership.

Both the 360 and XB1 you could replace the HDD. Neither uses locked drives, unlike the original xbox that requires you to format & lock the drive with the same key the original HDD used.

It was pretty easy to upgrade the HDD in the 360, granted you needed some tech knowledge. Also required a WD Drive.

The Xbox One is just as easy. Yes it requires you opening the console, but it is fairly easy to open. The Stock drives are pretty slow and tossing in a 2TB SSHD speeds up the console big time. This time the xbox works with pretty much any drive, but limited in format sizes IIRC.

Yes Sony made it easier, but I would say most people don't upgrade their drives anyways. I like that they give us an easy option. Using USB hdd is by far the most popular way to increase storage size. MS clearly has favored this method.


What I really wish either MS or Sony would allow is network storage. Even gigabit is fast enough for archive and older games (ps4 & xb1). Its a shame these options are left out, as there are few that would use them.

MS using easy to use SSD expansion will make it easier for 99% of people. And will more than likely be used in the future, while Sony much more invasive storage solution will more than likely only ever be used by the few. I feel like both should have included a 2.5mm HDD slot.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Yes Sony made it easier,

Of everything you typed, the only thing I will focus on is that one portion of the sentence.

If I can't upgrade the internal hard drive WITHOUT ending my manufacturer warranty, then that's the same to me as not being able to upgrade it.

Doing surgery on a system, hoping it works and having no backup if it doesn't is NOT being able to upgrade it.

A true user replaceable mod requires virtually no tinkering, and is merely plug&play.

Microsoft is doing this on purpose while Sony isn't - and that's a clear distinction between the two consoles.

 

[DZillaXx]

Of everything you typed, the only thing I will focus on is that one portion of the sentence.

If I can't upgrade the internal hard drive WITHOUT ending my manufacturer warranty, then that's the same to me as not being able to upgrade it.

Doing surgery on a system, hoping it works and having no backup if it doesn't is NOT being able to upgrade it.

A true user replaceable mod requires virtually no tinkering, and is merely plug&play.

Microsoft is doing this on purpose while Sony isn't - and that's a clear distinction between the two consoles.

You do know you are legally allowed to open up the system...
The warranty sticker doesn't mean anything nor removing it actually void any warranty by law.

But Yes Sony is doing some good things allowing easy plug and play upgrades. Granted on the PS4 you still had to download firmware onto a USB to complete the swap. It just isn't plug and play. Same with the Xbox, either you format it with a PC or do it on the xbox with a USB drive with firmware.

But in regards to 99% of the people using these things. MS's methods will be much easier for users to upgrade their fast storage. And we really don't know the costs yet.

 

[Irata]

Allowing people to game nicely for $299 - what‘s not to like about it?

Personally, I will go for the Series X, but I could see it doing rather well, especially considering the monthly plan.

 

[oldikes]

Allowing user replaceable SSDs allows for lots of really low tier slow SSDs to be used, likely creating an inconsistent gaming experience, as games will now be designed around being able to load things immediately on the fly instead of having loading screens. I don't need to remind anyone here how big the difference in speeds on SSDs can be, even between NVME ones, as we see on benchmarks on this site and others all over the net. This will undoubtedly be a problem in some PS5 games if they are designed around maxing bandwidth on their pretty much faster-than-everything-else SSD. Using a proprietary expandable SSD allows xbox to maintain a baseline for quality of the experience instead of people throwing a bargain bin QLC ssd in and complaining about games hanging for a few seconds or having weird pop in issues. I know it is inconvenient for us who know how to open things up and slot a new NVME in (aka anyone who can google for 10 minutes), but its completely a logical solution. We cant think about games in terms of "loading times" anymore, we have to think about them in terms of avoiding periods of loading all together - look at the new ratchet and clank footage (yes, a ps5 title, but still relevant) where they are taking portals between worlds in real time. This is really a game changer in terms of how games will be experienced - for games with big cities, we could potentially envision every building having detailed and fleshed out interiors loaded as soon as the building is a block away. I don't want cheap hardware holding development back, and trying to keep new games compatible with previous gens is already doing that enough (look at how bad halo infinite looked...)
Reminder that you can also just keep next-gen games on the external HDD and move them back and forth from the internal SSD when needed. Current/last gen games can be run directly off external HDD. Inconvenient, but worth having a top-tier SSD in affordable consoles IMO.

And before I get some ad-hominem shouting fanboy (I'm sure I will regret bothering to comment on this) I plan on extensively using xbox, playstation, and PC, as I have in the past.

I also should mention drive endurance, as with all of the games supporting quick resume (basically memory being dumped to SSD), on top of the consoles allowing devs to use storage space as "virtual RAM" (spencer's words) there will certainly be lots of writes happening to the SSD, and no one wants to worry about customers claiming their xbox bricked their $50 1TB QLC SSD in a few years time.

 

[Vulcanproject]

$299 digital only console with no way of expanding the minute storage of 512GB outside of Seagate's proprietary (read: expensive) storage card solutions. Chained to the Xbox store, prices dictated by Microsoft with cloudy future prospects of digital media ownership. No Xbox One X level enhancements for older titles.

It'll be the poor cousin of the Xbox family and treated as such by third party developers. Will eventually fade into obscurity at the first sign of a Series X price drop lowering the prospect of decent ports even further.

Yeah. I think in terms of value I will hard pass on that. Series X or bust.

 

[Edito]

Both the 360 and XB1 you could replace the HDD. Neither uses locked drives, unlike the original xbox that requires you to format & lock the drive with the same key the original HDD used.

It was pretty easy to upgrade the HDD in the 360, granted you needed some tech knowledge. Also required a WD Drive.

The Xbox One is just as easy. Yes it requires you opening the console, but it is fairly easy to open. The Stock drives are pretty slow and tossing in a 2TB SSHD speeds up the console big time. This time the xbox works with pretty much any drive, but limited in format sizes IIRC.

Yes Sony made it easier, but I would say most people don't upgrade their drives anyways. I like that they give us an easy option. Using USB hdd is by far the most popular way to increase storage size. MS clearly has favored this method.


What I really wish either MS or Sony would allow is network storage. Even gigabit is fast enough for archive and older games (ps4 & xb1). Its a shame these options are left out, as there are few that would use them.

MS using easy to use SSD expansion will make it easier for 99% of people. And will more than likely be used in the future, while Sony much more invasive storage solution will more than likely only ever be used by the few. I feel like both should have included a 2.5mm HDD slot.

"You only needed some tech"'

So it's not user friendly.

 

[LeroN]

The Series S doesn’t support Xbox One X games that have been enhanced for Microsoft’s former Xbox flagships

The Xbox Series S seemingly won’t be able to play the 4K versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games that the Xbox One X could play

Developers confirmed that the XSS is less powerful comparing with the XB1X. So all current gen games will run in lower than 1080p resolution and frame rate even that are supposed to be enhanced for next gen. Actually the XSS will run those games with XB1S game quality presets. The XSS can't do it as well as the XB1X that sounds weird for sure. It's interesting to see how next gen will accommodate the XB1X because current conditions may give a longer life to the past gen console as we couldn't expect.
That sounds ridiculous but the XB1X has some advantages over new budget XSS. While the XSS looks not so bad on paper it runs not so good as new gen has doing it. My opinion is that the XB1X will be supported by developers as long as the XSS exists. Let's see.