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Should Microsoft discontinue the Xbox Series S when next-gen only games become more common and Series X production improves next year?

Should Microsoft discontinue the Xbox Series S?


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I know that there are a lot of mixed to petrified opinions on the Xbox Series S, the entry level SKU of the new Xbox Series consoles, but should Microsoft consider discontinuing the Xbox Series S once next-gen really begins and cross-gen becomes rare and uncommon?

I noticed the biggest complaints not from forumers but professionals, is that unlike a PC game optimized to work on lower settings, the Series S itself is partially a closed garden and requires extra work to do the same thing. This combined with it's weaker graphical capabilities means that developers for future next-gen only 4K, advanced effect, raytracing, etc. game engines, would have to manually downscale in these areas, or create compromised versions of the game that will load up when played on the Series S.

Now whether that's actually true is still in the air since there are other professionals saying the opposite, but both sides have a non-insignificant amount of people arguing both for and against the hardware from a developer point of view, and that tells me at the very least the hardware is polarizing even if the statements against the Series S are false or grossly fabricated.

At the same time, Microsoft has given two months of crazy deals on the S making it hard to raise the price back up, most likely the Series S will be able to reach $199 for a permanent price, and if they discontinue it, they will remove the opportunity to bring in those players who don't care about the graphics and will just want Fifa and roblox playing on a 1440 or 1080p screen at a mass price point.

HOWEVER, it's also true that 4K, at least the basic 4K without much in the way of features or HDR beyond minimum, has become more affordable and has been taking the place of 1080p on many store shelves, and in 2023 onward that will become more and more true so it does bring to question how future proof the Series S could be.

The Series S was expected to be losing to the X, and was predicted to be the winner by the end of the gen, however unforeseen production issues with Series X have changed the plans, and the Series S ended up being there to fill the gap in production of the X becoming the leading console earlier than expected. But now that the X is becoming more prominent with production heading toward being fixed in some months, it brings that into question.

BUT, at the same time, with 72% of console games being digital downloads, just being able to play Fortnite at 60fps on a machine that costs $199 in the future, is a good entry level device into next gen.

As you can see, many different views circulate online, what do you think? Should Microsoft discontinue the Xbox Series S as cross-gen dies and the X has better stock, or should Microsoft keep it going?
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I know that there are a lot of mixed to petrified opinions on the Xbox Series S, the entry level SKU of the new Xbox Series consoles, but should Microsoft consider discontinuing the Xbox Series S once next-gen really begins and cross-gen becomes rare and uncommon?

I noticed the biggest complaints not from forumers but professionals, is that unlike a PC game optimized to work on lower settings, the Series S itself is partially a closed garden and requires extra work to do the same thing. This combined with it's weaker graphical capabilities means that developers for future next-gen only 4K, advanced effect, raytracing, etc. game engines, would have to manually downscale in these areas, or create compromised versions of the game that will load up when played on the Series S.

Now whether that's actually true is still in the air since there are other professionals saying the opposite, but both sides have a non-insignificant amount of people arguing both for and against the hardware from a developer point of view, and that tells me at the very least the hardware is polarizing even if the statements against the Series S are false or grossly fabricated.

At the same time, Microsoft has given two months of crazy deals on the S making it hard to raise the price back up, most likely the Series S will be able to reach $199 for a permanent price, and if they discontinue it, they will remove the opportunity to bring in those players who don't care about the graphics and will just want Fifa and roblox playing on a 1440 or 1080p screen at a mass price point.

HOWEVER, it's also true that 4K, at least the basic 4K without much in the way of features or HDR beyond minimum, has become more affordable and has been taking the place of 1080p on many store shelves, and in 2023 onward that will become more and more true so it does bring to question how future proof the Series S could be.

The Series S was expected to be losing to the X, and was predicted to be the winner by the end of the gen, however unforeseen production issues with Series X have changed the plans, and the Series S ended up being there to fill the gap in production of the X becoming the leading console earlier than expected. But now that the X is becoming more prominent with production heading toward being fixed in some months, it brings that into question.

BUT, at the same time, with 72% of console games being digital downloads, just being able to play Fortnite at 60fps on a machine that costs $199 in the future, is a good entry level device into next gen.

As you can see, many different views circulate online, what do you think? Should Microsoft discontinue the Xbox Series S as cross-gen dies and the X has better stock, or should Microsoft keep it going?
man you launched this thread right when i made mine ;-; now i'll get no replies
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
No.

The Xbox Series S is more than capable of holding it's own for current generation only games and once the developers start using those resolution techniques and publishers actually give their development studios the time needed to properly optimize games, they'll be just fine.

I will never understand the hatred towards Series S. It's not for those who want the high end console in Series X. Series S is for parents with kids who aren't playing on a 4K display as well as those who just want a complimentary console and those who just want it for Game Pass.
 
The day the series S genuinely becomes a problem they just stream the next gen games. Discontinuing it is silly because it can drop to 200$ by end of generation and be a steal.
 

OuterLimits

Member
The Series S is going to be supported this entire generation. Killing the system(after only supporting it for a couple years) and telling people to buy the X would create immense backlash. They aren't that idiotic.
 

clampzyn

Member
lmao, ask developers to discontinue supporting multiple graphical options to cater for minimum specs for PC users first because a lot of PC builds are inferior to series s hardware, it will be always PC that will hinder next-gen only games due to devs supporting/using resources to have multiple graphical options for PC while they only need performance/quality graphics options for series s and x
 
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clampzyn

Member
How is the series s like a walled garden? Your posts make less and less sense.
He thinks series s is holding back next gen games while don't know PC platform is the one that devs used most of their resources because they need to develop their games based on the lowest PC specs their game can handle.

If games were made for Series X/Ps5 using those consoles hardware, lmao, can't think of how many on the PC platform will be able to run those games, just the VRAM requirement alone will kill majority of PC GPUs, imagine using 10-12gb vram as a minimum on a game. Those laptops with 1650/3060/3070 won't be able to run those games.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
No Way GIF by MOODMAN
 
Of course no. The Xbox Series S has enormous upside once game engines are built with Sampler Feedback Streaming in mind. Just that one change alone will leave Series S with access to a lot more effective RAM, meaning less games that skip features such as RT due to not wanting to optimize for the lower RAM machine.

Many people doubting the Series S' ability to go the whole gen will sing a vastly different tune when sampler feedback streaming ready engines are built.
 
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FutureMD

Member
Why? Any semi-decently optimized game running normally on series X can just be rendered with lower resolution and/or frame rate and/or graphic settings on the series S. The cpu is still strong importantly, so no need to cripple physics much.
 
The S will be here for the full gen. I do expect at some point though, the S versions will have compromises such as being 900p to 1080p, 30fps, and no ray tracing.
You living under a rock, we are getting that right now. Most games are 900p to 1080p lol and no ray tracing. also ms has mandated games cannot go below 900p. Infact rumours sate, the game has to run mostly 1080p.
 
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Razvedka

Banned
The S will be here for the full gen. I do expect at some point though, the S versions will have compromises such as being 900p to 1080p, 30fps, and no ray tracing.
That's already happened.

As for the OP, no of course not. That ship has sailed. Like the S or not, many people now own it. It would be a costly PR disaster to shut it down now, not to mention creating at least some amount of friction with developers who have games in the pipe.

I just don't see how it's feasible.
 

reksveks

Member
Never going to do it so ehh.

If you live in fear that the series s is going to meaningfully impact games (any more than other platforms) , you better hope that publisher are going to drop Xbox as a platform.
 

Kagey K

Banned
oh, absolutely. & fuck everyone who bought one...

like me...
Don't worry it's not happening. The stupid Series S is not next gen thought is almost as bad as the MS needs 2 consoles to compete with Sony ones.

People don't get it, just like how can they make big budget games and give them away on gamepass. It takes times for them to see the big picture.
 
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Pallas

Member
No but I wouldn’t be surprise if they end up releasing a series X digital only and that may eventually replace the S.

I don’t get the concern though, series S is a budget next gen console for those that can’t afford series X or even find one. Makes gaming more accessible to the consumers.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I don't think it needs to go away, but Microsoft could probably cut production. There seems to be plenty of stock, and it caters to people who either still have 1080p TV's or simply prefer to game on 1080p - 1440p monitors. Which I think seems to be a shrinking breed, but I dunno.
 

Kagey K

Banned
I don't think it needs to go away, but Microsoft could probably cut production. There seems to be plenty of stock, and it caters to people who either still have 1080p TV's or simply prefer to game on 1080p - 1440p monitors. Which I think seems to be a shrinking breed, but I dunno.
My son asked me for a Series S for Xmas even though we have 2 series X and 2 Xbox one X in our house right now.

He wanted it to hook to his cheap hisense 4k TV in his bedroom just to have it.

Even though he already has a 360 and a 1X in there.
 

Del_X

Member
These games are all still heavily rasterized so… no? Drop the resolution, lower texture detail, stop using UE4.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
lmao, ask developers to discontinue supporting multiple graphical options to cater for minimum specs for PC users first because a lot of PC builds are inferior to series s hardware, it will be always PC that will hinder next-gen only games due to devs supporting/using resources to have multiple graphical options for PC while they only need performance/quality graphics options for series s and x
To be honest, many games are already asking for minimum a 1060 3gb which is around the Series S GPU power... Actually the Series S is more akin to 6gb model which is like 15 to 20 percent faster in most games.

Low end PCs won't be an issue as long as they're minimum and devs never care about PC gaming that much anyway, people always upgrade if they have to... Online games are another story though, they actually try to cater to the lower end as much as possible most of the time, but that's a different niche.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
To be honest, many games are already asking for minimum a 1060 3gb which is around the Series S GPU power... Actually the Series S is not akin to 6gb model which is like 15 to 20 percent faster in most games.

Low end PCs won't be an issue as long as they're minimum and devs never care about PC gaming that much anyway, people always upgrade is they have to... Online games are another story though, they actually try to cater to the lower end as much as possible most of the time, but that's a different niche.
You really smoking the Crack huh?

Most PC gamers buy one that works and play it until the wheels fall off.

They only upgrade when absolutely necessary.

Steam charts show this over and over. There is a reason the 1060 is considered high end by most PC gamers.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
You really smoking the Crack huh?

Most PC gamers buy one that works and play it until the wheels fall off.

They only upgrade when absolutely necessary.

Steam charts show this over and over. There is a reason the 1060 is considered high end by most PC gamers.
Because it's a great card for 1080p which most of gamers have, the ones using higher end cards are those that play on big 4k screens or at high framerates.

The ones not upgrading just won't play those games, the people that will keep lower end cards for longer are those which games they play run perfect still, like those LoL players that couldn't care less about upgrading as long as the game runs, that's a different niche, same will happen to many current Fortnite players.

But the people expecting to play AAA frequently... They have to upgrade unless money or any stronger reason gets in the way, and players with cards above the 1060 are millions anyway, devs won't need to worry about install base.
 
My son asked me for a Series S for Xmas even though we have 2 series X and 2 Xbox one X in our house right now.

He wanted it to hook to his cheap hisense 4k TV in his bedroom just to have it.

Even though he already has a 360 and a 1X in there.
Give him a good spanking /jk
 

Kagey K

Banned
Because it's a great card for 1080p which most of gamers have, the ones using higher end cards are those that play on big 4k screens or at high framerates.

The ones not upgrading just won't play those games, the people that will keep lower end cards for longer are those which games they play run perfect still, like those LoL players that couldn't care less about upgrading as long as the game runs, that's a different niche, same will happen to many current Fortnite players.

But the people expecting to play AAA frequently... They have to upgrade unless money or any stronger reason gets in the way, and players with cards above the 1060 are millions anyway, devs won't need to worry about install base.
Nah they can run those AAA as long as they turn down some settings. You have lost the plot if you think most PC players are upgrading regularly to play "AAA" games.
 
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twilo99

Member
this mistake is that people think of the series s as a GPU and not a whole system. It’s capable of all the “modern” features a developer needs to make a modern game, and it does all that at a ridiculously low price point.
 
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