The Xbox Series X

Vicxas

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-12-13-the-next-xbox-is-called-xbox-series-x

Looks like Microsoft are moving very quickly to the pc for the living room. Be interesting to see what they do with this.

CatInABox

Vicxas wrote: »

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-12-13-the-next-xbox-is-called-xbox-series-x

Looks like Microsoft are moving very quickly to the pc for the living room. Be interesting to see what they do with this.

Not sure I love the name, but I assume that they'll have a "Series S" at release as well, the rumoured 1080p/1440p version, so maybe it'll make more sense when there's two of them.

As to the looks, I've gone from liking it to really liking it. It's certainly blocky, but it's still really small, at least judging by the controller for scale. I'd say the thermal demands of the next generation will require some creative engineering to deal with all the heat, and to keep it quiet.

The Share button on the controller is a long time coming, surprised they didn't rip it off the PS controllers sooner to be honest. Nice that it'll work on existing Xboxs as well.

ShadowHearth

It's a black box, not very, very, very, very dark blue... I like it.
At least we got it confirmed officially. I just woke up and it was first thing on Reddit was this. Did MS just dropped the bomb on everyone? No teasing, no bull****? I like that too.

They already won me over with accessories, games of current generation working on new one and ofc Game pass.

Varik

Looks fine, be nice that next gen consoles aren't both going to look like old giant VCRs. You can see the benefit of the deigned, there's a lot of passively cooled stuff that uses that. Since they've gone in such a different direction for heat management it's making me think that the PS4 dev kit might be closer to the retail model that people think.

Not a fan of the name, saw the video on youtube without context just the thumbnail and name. Wasn't sure what it was until I saw the release date. Might be another WiiU problem with the general public/parents.

Controller was good already, so in addition to the obviously now required share button I want to know that internals changed.

Zero-Cool

Not a fan of the tower, I'd have nowhere suitable for that in the sitting room. The PS4 Pro just about fits under my tv so i don't have to have it inside a unit. Has me worried that the ps5 will be fairly big as well.

Xbox SeX is an awful name :pac:

I am very jealous of Hellblade 2.

SSr0

If they are going down the PC road with this, I wonder will this be keyboard and mouse compatible?

Mickeroo

SSr0 wrote: »

If they are going down the PC road with this, I wonder will this be keyboard and mouse compatible?

The current Xbox is so I'd be surprised if this isn't. Not many devs make use of it though.

Penn

When you see the controller beside it, okay it's not *that* big, but even so man that looks kinda crap. Even if you laid it on its side it's an awful chunk of a thing. The name is a bit bland too considering I thought they had said the name would show their intentions for the system or some such.

I'm not dissing the whole thing, because ultimately they're crushing it with Gamepass and I'm excited to see what their new studios come up with, but in terms of the console reveal... that's pretty awful.

CatInABox

Mickeroo wrote: »

The current Xbox is so I'd be surprised if this isn't. Not many devs make use of it though.

I'd assume that this will be pushed more on this time around.

Rumour is that the Series X will be able to pause and resume more than one game, which isn't actually that surprising now that I think about it. With the bandwidth provided by the NVMe SSD, I'd assume that the game state will just be loaded from ram into the SSD, and back again when required. I'd wonder how much of the drive would be usable space for storage then. I'd also assume that this will be a PS5 feature as well.

Varik

Think it looks fine/good, you will have to have out in open but that's only minor and probably it be very quite on low load for watching media.

Might be capable of cooling passively in rest mode or while downloading.

Stone Deaf 4evr

looks like we're finally reaching that point where they're all just called xbox from here on out.
I like the look of it myself.

2Mad2BeMad

They really could of came up with a better name.
Looks cool though. Like a mini pc

jones

Yes the name is a bit funny but i'm intrigued by the look of it. I've always been a Sony man and it would be hard to leave Sony first party games but i have to say i like how this looks and i'm approaching the next gen with an open mind.

I love the pre next gen season

CatInABox

CatInABox wrote: »

I'd assume that this will be pushed more on this time around.

Rumour is that the Series X will be able to pause and resume more than one game, which isn't actually that surprising now that I think about it. With the bandwidth provided by the NVMe SSD, I'd assume that the game state will just be loaded from ram into the SSD, and back again when required. I'd wonder how much of the drive would be usable space for storage then. I'd also assume that this will be a PS5 feature as well.

The resume thing is actually confirmed in this interview, seems Gamespot have the exclusive interview this time.

CatInABox

jones wrote: »

I love the pre next gen season

One of the great things about it is that this time around we won't get one company totally screwing up. I'm pretty confident that both Microsoft and Sony will put out a great console each, with no major screw ups like the last two generations.

Penn

CatInABox wrote: »

One of the great things about it is that this time around we won't get one company totally screwing up. I'm pretty confident that both Microsoft and Sony will put out a great console each, with no major screw ups like the last two generations.

Sony need a proper GamePass competitor though. Not even to necessarily beat Gamepass, but to just compete with it because MS are full on going gangbusters in what they're offering with it and it could be the biggest decisive factor for people if the consoles are that close. As great as Sony's exclusives are, they're not free.

Sony need proper backwards compatibility and a strong Gamepass alternative or they'll lose what they gained with the PS4.

ZiabR

I like it, what are we thinking on price? 499?

skerry

I'd prefer it look like a PC tower (albeit one that can lay sideways), than sound like a jet engine cos they tried to stuff all that hardware into a form factor similar to current gen consoles which just won't work. I think it looks beastly.

theteal

Horrible design for a living room device. How dafuq will that fit in a TV unit? I've done a decent job to hide our sub woofer in a purpose built cabinet beside the TV unit but I can't do the same for this as it'll need to be accessed to put disks in it (although becoming an increasingly rare task).

heebusjeebus

It wouldn't work in my living room as it wont fit in the cabinet. My toddler will have it pushed off the counter in days.
Is there a thermal issue with these chips as the PS5 is due to be a whopper based on the size of the dev kit.

K.O.Kiki

Design is similar to the Corsair One .

A good benefit of using this tall-tower form factor is that it can be cooled well, although this design seems to be a bit small - expect 92mm or 120mm fans instead of the Corsair One's 140mm.

ERG89

Penn wrote: »

Sony need a proper GamePass competitor though. Not even to necessarily beat Gamepass, but to just compete with it because MS are full on going gangbusters in what they're offering with it and it could be the biggest decisive factor for people if the consoles are that close. As great as Sony's exclusives are, they're not free.

Sony need proper backwards compatibility and a strong Gamepass alternative or they'll lose what they gained with the PS4.

I really think the Gamepass route is a dangerous road to go for consoles. I'm not sure how much money companies get putting their games on there but it really must absolutely tank their sales & when people view the game as '"free" the way people view it is different. Something like God of War or Breath of the Wild I think you would be nuts to release that free on day one as they took years to put together on large budgets that likely need the retail release to claw that money back & yield a profit. Whereas me paying a few quid to get 3 months on a Gamepass can't be considered as getting your money back. Its handy for Microsoft as this gen they have comfortably been 3rd in exclusivity but when Halo infinite drops day one and you lose a load of sales as it's on Gamepass there is no way to maximise your profit there; doing it is fine with Crackdown or State of Decay sequels is one thing but Halo is the Xbox's flagship software.

CatInABox wrote: »

Rumour is that the Series X will be able to pause and resume more than one game, which isn't actually that surprising now that I think about it.

Wow, is this feature as pointless to everyone else as it is to me. At this stage I only want smooth 60fps games with faster loading times, full backwards compatibility not piecemeal & for the machine not to sound like a hoover when you are playing games beyond the heft of stardew valley.

Homelander

Looks grand, can be turned on its side as well so should fit most stands fine. I wouldn't be worried about thermals, performance parts are decreasing in power consumption not rising. For the next gen, a gpu using similar power to the original consoles would be twice as fast and the processors will be the real game changer, there is no reason for any game to run at anything less than 60fps next gen.

Rossi IRL

Hope they sell it in white from release.

CatInABox

ERG89 wrote: »

I really think the Gamepass route is a dangerous road to go for consoles. I'm not sure how much money companies get putting their games on there but it really must absolutely tank their sales & when people view the game as '"free" the way people view it is different. Something like God of War or Breath of the Wild I think you would be nuts to release that free on day one as they took years to put together on large budgets that likely need the retail release to claw that money back & yield a profit. Whereas me paying a few quid to get 3 months on a Gamepass can't be considered as getting your money back. Its handy for Microsoft as this gen they have comfortably been 3rd in exclusivity but when Halo infinite drops day one and you lose a load of sales as it's on Gamepass there is no way to maximise your profit there; doing it is fine with Crackdown or State of Decay sequels is one thing but Halo is the Xbox's flagship software.

Seems counter intuitive, but the few developers that have talked about it have said they saw an increase in sales.

marcbrophy

Just wanted to see a size comparison vs Scorpio but these were the best images that I could find...

CastorTroy

ERG89 wrote: »

Wow, is this feature as pointless to everyone else as it is to me. At this stage I only want smooth 60fps games with faster loading times, full backwards compatibility not piecemeal & for the machine not to sound like a hoover when you are playing games beyond the heft of stardew valley.

Was wondering myself why you'd want 2 games running, but then I figured you could be playing a game by yourself, get a message telling you to jump on Call of Duty multiplayer or something, so can suspend what you're playing, play CoD then go back when done.

As for backwards compatibility, I wonder if it'll be proper BC or the same as the Xbox One, where they choose what they're adding when they want.

K.O.Kiki

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Design is similar to the Corsair One .

Reminds me of the Silverstone FT03 mini from a few years ago

ShadowHearth

I think the best way to try and grasp its size in real life is to stack to CD cases to see how tall it is and maybe on CD case as base? I judging it by the gap for discs to go in. I dont think its that big. Will fit behind behind TV like Xbox one x does now.

TitianGerm

marcbrophy wrote: »

Just wanted to see a size comparison vs Scorpio but these were the best images that I could find...

If some Photoshop wizard could scale the photos so the controllers are the same size it'd give a good idea of console size.

BloodBath

Looks A lot like the PS2. The ugliest playstation ever. Also has the same upright or sideways options.

Terrible naming convention as always too.

Retr0gamer

Think it looks ugly and the name has a bang of WiiU about it.

marcbrophy

TitianGerm wrote: »

If some Photoshop wizard could scale the photos so the controllers are the same size it'd give a good idea of console size.

I'm sure some scientician is on is as we speak

Retr0gamer

If it's too big it's impractical and in countries like Japan where living space is at a premium It can pretty much sink a system.

CatInABox

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If it's too big it's impractical and in countries like Japan where living space is at a premium It can pretty much sink a system.

Ha, as if Xbox has a chance in Japan, I think it's still being outsold by the Atari Jaguar there.

In terms of size, Windows Central extrapolated the size of the entire console from the USB port.



You can see the rest of the article here.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Sony deal with the heat/noise problem. I can't see many ways of dealing with the heat other than designing around a deep 120mm fan. I wouldn't be shocked of Sony end up with a similar platform, I really don't think that final console will look like the dev kit.

Grumpypants

It will fit into my Ikea kallax shelf so but only just. It has 13inch square shelves. So half an inch to spare.

Calhoun

Interesting times if Microsoft are to retake the title of console king for the next generation they need to have decent release titles, they also need an anchor game like Halo.

Saying that Microsoft is killing it with the ultimate gamepass/live combination. After saying I would not be an early adopter after the xbox one the package they are building has meant I will be.

I am loving the idea of playing stuff on my pc and when I get tired of that going and playing on the couch.

CatInABox

CastorTroy wrote: »

Was wondering myself why you'd want 2 games running, but then I figured you could be playing a game by yourself, get a message telling you to jump on Call of Duty multiplayer or something, so can suspend what you're playing, play CoD then go back when done.

Perhaps it's because I've got Game Pass, but I swap between games pretty regularly these days. I currently playing through Metro Exodus, but I've dipped into Dishonoured 2, The Outer Worlds, and Rise & Shine.

CastorTroy wrote: »

As for backwards compatibility, I wonder if it'll be proper BC or the same as the Xbox One, where they choose what they're adding when they want.

It'll be the same as Xbox One, and it's not that they're choosing which ones to add, it's which ones that they can program the emulator to run. Still hundreds of Xbox One games, and a good couple of dozen original Xbox games. There's also licensing to consider as well, they need to get permission to add the games in the first place, and sometimes that can be extremely difficult even with the best will in the world.

Grumpypants

They decided 2 or 3 years ago to move from being hardware focussed to being software/service focussed.

I turned on the xbox and Gamepass had Rage 2, metro, Outer worlds, gears 5 waiting.

As long as you have their sub it doesnt matter if you are on xbox one s, one x, pc, series X, switch, mobile you will be able to play their games.

Sony will have to up their game. For once i think gamers are going to get a great deal.

Calhoun

Grumpypants wrote: »

They decided 2 or 3 years ago to move from being hardware focussed to being software/service focussed.

I turned on the xbox and Gamepass had Rage 2, metro, Outer worlds, gears 5 waiting.

As long as you have their sub it doesnt matter if you are on xbox one s, one x, pc, series X, switch, mobile you will be able to play their games.

Sony will have to up their game. For once i think gamers are going to get a great deal.

This is it, they seem fighting ready for the next gen. I will still buy the sony offering as well but right now its good to see Microsoft have learnt from the xbox one launch.

Potential-Monke

I don't like it, but at the same time I don't hate it. It's actually growing on me, and I think it wouldn't look out of place beside a tv. Doesn't appear to be that big either, just above 2 discs tall, and I'd imagine just above a disc wide all around. I didn't delve in MS at all this gen, and I don't feel like I've missed anything with the One and One X. I'm a bit worried about all the studios MS have purchased, so I can already see myself getting 1 of these, but I'll still be a Sony fan and have a PS5 anyway.

Like others, I couldn't care less if you can suspend multiple games, even with the recent purchase of PS Now I still won't be playing more than 1 game at a time, and I never really dip in and out of games, I either finish them and move on, or just move on. Also couldn't care less about backwards compatability, just having PS4 support would do me. With PS Now, I have loads of PS2 and PS3 games to play, and not an interest in any of them really. I move with the times, and most games I find very hard to go back to if there's a drop in graphics compared to modern games.

As long as they're not jet engines, I'll be happy!

CastorTroy

I wonder if this comes as a surprise to Sony and if it'll change their reveal plans. I don't think it will as they revealed the PS4 after the One, leading to them being able to take digs at them.

I think Game Pass could go the way of Plus next gen. Plus was an option on the PS3 so they had appealing games but when it became more of a necessity on PS4 they cut the number of games and the quality, for the most part.
So if Microsoft get a decent install base next gen they could stop making new releases available day one on Game Pass

Potential-Monke

I'm gonna take a guess, based on absolutely nothing at all, and say that when the SX appears, you will still get the One version on release date and a discount for the SX version. Can't see them putting brand new releases on the SX in games pass. It was grand to do it for the last while, coming to the end of a consoles life (technically - it's about 3 years from when MS stopped producing the 360 after 11 years), but doing it at the release and early life of a console is surely madness?

SMC92Ian

So can this lay sideways?

Retr0gamer

Calhoun wrote: »

Interesting times if Microsoft are to retake the title of console king for the next generation they need to have decent release titles, they also need an anchor game like Halo.

Saying that Microsoft is killing it with the ultimate gamepass/live combination. After saying I would not be an early adopter after the xbox one the package they are building has meant I will be.

I am loving the idea of playing stuff on my pc and when I get tired of that going and playing on the couch.

They need a usp and I'm just not seeing it here.

Mickeroo

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I'm gonna take a guess, based on absolutely nothing at all, and say that when the SX appears, you will still get the One version on release date and a discount for the SX version. Can't see them putting brand new releases on the SX in games pass. It was grand to do it for the last while, coming to the end of a consoles life (technically - it's about 3 years from when MS stopped producing the 360 after 11 years), but doing it at the release and early life of a console is surely madness?

Remember all their first party games are going to be on pc too where no one would be using their store front if it wasn't for game pass. They'll also be pushing their streaming service big time too where the main selling point to people with no console or PC will be the game pass library.

Excluding the SX from that would be closer to madness than what you're saying imo. What better selling point for a console than not having to shell out full price for the games on launch.

Microsoft have said it is designed to be virtually silent which limits their design options especially considering it needs to be sub €500 retail.

goon_magee

Calhoun wrote: »

Interesting times if Microsoft are to retake the title of console king for the next generation they need to have decent release titles, they also need an anchor game like Halo.

Saying that Microsoft is killing it with the ultimate gamepass/live combination. After saying I would not be an early adopter after the xbox one the package they are building has meant I will be.

I am loving the idea of playing stuff on my pc and when I get tired of that going and playing on the couch.

Pretty sure it's been confirmed that Halo Infinite will be a launch title for the Series X.

jester77

Really like this new design, something very minimilistic yet very elegant to it. Will sit nicely along side my sub. Hope they also release a white version of it.

Riesen_Meal

goon_magee wrote: »

Pretty sure it's been confirmed that Halo Infinite will be a launch title for the Series X.

I am on board with the new Xbox, I skipped the One this time around so will get this at launch

I think the new Infinite game is also on PC isn't it?

I was playing Reach last night on PC and it looks spectacular, mechanics on the game haven't aged well to be fair...

I think "Xbox Series X" is not the name of any single console.

I think it'll be Xbox X-suffix as in : Xbox XS, Xbox XR etc. Or for example Xbox X Slim, Xbox X Pro.
With this type of naming scheme you can see how they would all be Series X consoles.