Series S for multitude of reasons, right when it was rumored, was pushed back from pretty much all quarters on here (Yes, even the Xbox zeitgeist). The idea of building a cutting edge box, only to saddle it with rocks in it's boot, never sounded appealing. Because, it was going to have a cascading effect throughout the consoles life cycle, which will stretch well into cross-gen period of next-gen consoles. Things were in unison, when the box was (supposedly) canned. But, then once again, MS went into "influencers" overdrive. Most drank the kool-aid. "Oh, it's just a budget Series X, it'll run all the games identically, just at a lower resolution". For those, who knew, game dev is never linear, knew there'd be issues. The biggest one, which everyone is ignoring, is RAM. Which was initially rumored to be 12GB, but due to cost, ended up being 10GB, with only 7.5GB being usable. Another issue, is the weird RAM configuration, which means available memory bandwidth is extremely low for a next-gen console. The game is struggling with RT, because well RT among other things, hogs bandwidth like no tomorrow, it's starved of memory, hence the aggressive cutbacks. I see, memory bandwidth being an issue on PS5/Series X as we move towards the last phase of this gen, so never mind, Series S.
Also, this mythical "value" of Series S. Which was the primary reason, even the forum enthusiast thought it'd be a good idea to split the gen with different hardware configurations, as it will allow to reach a "broader" audience. Well, how about the sales then? Save for US, Series S can be easily sourced elsewhere in the world. In a number of countries, it's already at a discount. This is during a global pandemic, where everything gaming related has been flying off the shelves and yet, Series S is failing to breakthrough the wider audience, despite it being so "budget friendly". Xbox Series is lagging behind sales of Xbox One, a console which was marred with controversy right from the launch, not to mention, Xbox One launched in just 13 countries, whereas Xbox Series was much global. So, why is adoption rate of "cheapest next-gen console" so low?
Well, for one thing, the idea of a $299 console, with $15 a month GP sub flying off the shelves sounded like a swell idea. The reality is that, vast majority of gaming in general is F2P games. Yes, even on consoles. Next up, you have folks, who buy 2 or 3 games, of their favorite franchises year on year, such as CoD/FIFA/Ubisoft AAAs. These folks are simply not interested in playing "more games", they are content with what they have, besides, a sub cost is a burden on them, because the selective games, which they do play, aren't available Day 1 on the service. There is a reason, MS have all their eggs in cloud basket when it comes to expanding their market, hardware is a tertiary business for them, till they try to bring that dream to fruition. So, ultimately, this "VFM" box, is failing to reach the target audience which it was aiming for. Whatever utility this console had, at $299, was killed in it's track, when Sony announced a PS5 Digital for $399. For, $100 more, one gets a proper next-gen console, with no half-steps in between. But, "GaMEpASS EqUIvaLEnT???????" Well, see above about buying and playing habits of the masses. As, for one poster who's saying Series S shouldn't be compared to PS5 Digital since latter is a "marketing gimmick". First and foremost, lol. Second, PS5 Digital availability being super rare is working against your entire argument, you realize that? Because, despite lack of availability of a Digital PS5, folks aren't picking up it's alternative, in a "cheaper" all-digital Series S. Once, the production is normalized, it won't suddenly mean, Series S starts selling like hot cakes. If anything, the gap will only widen.
Microsoft, like Sony, should have taken the bath and build an all-digital Series X at $399. They are losing money hand over fist, with acquisitions, hardware, cloud etc. What's few hundred million dollars more to a corporation? But, now this meme machine has to be managed for next 8-9 years. Oh well!
Thanks for asking. I have been enjoying gaming actually, finished a lot of games, trying newer stuff.
Don't post as often on forum anymore, because there's very little worth discussing. Hardware discussion is what drew me to this forum in first place, and it's going pretty much like I expected. Not, a lot to work with on a forum. Opinions aren't going to be swayed, lol.