Opinion: Xbox Series X Still Hasn't Been Fully Utilised Yet, But 2026 Could Be The Year

.....and if Series S did not exist, Series X already be hitting full stride or close to it.

Gosh, I wonder why?

totally doesn’t look at Series S

2026. - the year of the Xbox.
All jokes aside, I feel like this generation has come and gone, and it has not stroke out because of use compute power, rather due to lack of imagination and innovation. And nothing in the upcoming lineup actually sticks out as if it will change that.

I don't expect it to ever get fully utilized. It will probably be supported far into the next generation as well. Games take way too long to develop and cost way too much to really push the boundaries of any system.

Add in the desire for developers to target handhelds like switch 2 and mid level pcs, we probably won't see much of a leap in games for a long time.

In terms of pushing graphical boundaries yeah it's fair to say the best is yet to come.

But in terms of number of high quality games? I can't keep up, so it's been an unbelievable gen. Still not played BG3, Metaphor, the lost crown, avowed, elden ring...I could go on.

So my opinion is, the gens been great, and I'll have very little need to upgrade early next gen no matter how many AI/NPU/fake frame marketing is thrown at me

With Microsoft implementing AMD's new FSR4 tech into their DirectSR libraries and the developers using this new tech, the existing hardware will be able to achieve more and so hopefully we should see much improved frame-rates at 4k resolutions.

Having seen all the fanfare around Death Stranding 2 on PS5, with DF among others saying it’s the best example of current-gen yet, I’d say this aligns with what we will hopefully see on Series X in the future too. I think there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic for seeing the full potential of both XSX and PS5 over the next year or two, and I agree with @Coletrain, there have been plenty of bangers this gen already. I’ve loved playing games this gen.

@Coletrain completely agree. There's so much doom and gloom around the hobby at the moment and while there are obviously issues in the industry that shouldn't be ignored, we should also be thankful that there is an absolute truckload of great games to play. Backlogs have never been longer!

Yeah, I feel like we won’t reach the Series X and PS5’s true potential until 2026-2027. Death Stranding 2 feels like the real starting point for this current generation. Hellblade 2 was a great stepping stone for cinematic quality graphics, but it was missing everything else. However, we are on the cusp of what these machines are capable of. I can’t wait for the future of both consoles.

To be fair, I think we have to look past generational leaps these days as we once knew them. There's far too much cross gen compatibility to expect major changes out the gate. I'm hopeful we will see something better next gen across the board, or at least faster movement on a leap, so to speak, but as it stands, I think since X1 (across all platforms) prior platforms have held current platforms back.

We're seeing what the Series S is capable of and unfortunately that's how the gen is going to finish, here's to Microsoft next gen making a digital and physical edition of the same exact hardware 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wonder how many of the original staff who worked on Gears 3 are working on E-Day? 20%? 10%?

@Lrapsody I doubt many of them work in gamedev at all

@somnambulance 2026 will be Xboxs biggest year ever! Youve totally never heard that before

Yeah I guess the problem is games take so long to develop these days that the generation is almost over by the time the first games that fully utilise all the tech actually appear. How many games actually use mesh shaders? Alan Wake 2 and I genuinely can’t think of any others. Then there’s the issue that Unreal Engine 5.0 released in a half-baked state so that set back games by many years too. How long will it take for UE5.6 games to finally surface? Probably not until the next generation hardware is already out sadly.

@BrianRGI2X is FSR4 not hardware based like DLSS?

@Scrubchub honestly my backlog is so long that I've not even considered getting a switch 2, still trying to play stuff on my 2017 switch. I plan out in my head what games I'll do in what order but every now and again a Clair Obscur or an Indiana Jones comes along and just screws the whole thing lol

I personally love my Series X. I play the majority of multiplats on it as it's slightly more powerful than PS5 and I'm not about to drop $1,000 CAD on a PS5 Pro.

Also, I love the Elite Series 2 controller. I'm so used to having the back paddles as replacements for clicking in the analog sticks that it's hard to switch back to the Dualsense for some of the same games.

Call me crazy too I guess but from my experience owning both consoles, the Series X a lot of times has faster loading times than the PS5 even though Sony bragged to no end about how much faster their custom SSD was. Also the Series X is much quieter and even though it's just a box, at least it doesn't look like a giant router or something from an alien ship.

Microsoft might not have utilised the Series X yet, but there have been plenty of games that have. Looking solely to Microsoft to utilise - or, let's face it, what's really meant by that is: justify the purchase of - the hardware might have seemed like a safe bet 5 years ago, but asking that of them now is pointless.

The best way to look at owning a console (or PC, or handheld, or whatever) now in my opinion is: are there games I want to play? Be that first- or third-party. AAA or indie. That's it. Don't look to Microsoft to justify your purchase with good games, because they've proven time and time again that they're as prone to a miss as they are to a hit. And even if a game's good, you can play it somewhere else anyway.

@somnambulance precisely. Every year, it's "it's been hit and miss so far, but next year it's going to blow up!" and then that's not the case. As I've said above, it's best to just play games and not get hung up on the platform holder's output.

Uhhh, what? I mean we're in year 5. If it hasn't been utilized that's on Microsoft.
It's always "next year" or wait until next "showcase" or whatever.

What does "fully utilised" even mean, in the context of gaming in the 2020s?

So far, we've gotten a lot of last-gen graphics, but actually running smoothly this time around. The true limit-pushers (like that Matrix demo) look impressive in stills, but perform like a PS1 game from the '90s (sub-30fps).

Gone are the days of breathtaking, game-changing generational leaps, but I'm actually mostly okay with that. Games have easily passed the point of looking good enough, so all they need now is to work well and run smoothly. If the game has PS4-era rendering tech, but runs smoothly, loads quickly, and doesn't have any major flaws like pop-in or smeary upscaling, then what's the issue? That's arguably maxing out the limits without straining them.

@DaveTheRave I like the Game Pass and Xbox way because gaming is just a hobby for me. I don't collect as they take up too much space. I rarely replay what I've already beaten. I have a massive amount of games to play at any given moment. Makes perfect sense to me and others. We probably don't share the same gaming mentality, which is cool too. Options are always better than being locked into one console and one way of experiencing gaming.

@SleeplessKnight the one thing I have to 100% agree on is it's more silent than the ps5, it's honestly so impressively built.

The other stuff with loading times, graphics etc. I am not wading into that debate coz I think the ps5 definitely has it's merits, but overall I've been a happy XSX owner (MS conduct aside...)

@Markatron84 nicely put. I categorise my gaming in two ways: AAA titles for the series x, and indies on a handheld. Something so special about both experiences that way

The new xbox comes out next year for their 25 anniversary hopefully they don't make the same mistake and have a, "s" verision. Just make one and make it powerful if someone can't afford it then have them play on the cloud

I agree with the point of this article, there are no good games for the Xbox (so far).

@Coletrain I haven't had a Series X for a few years now, not since I moved to PC, but yeah your mentality/setup mirrors my own. I have the PC for the 4K extravagant AAA experience and a Steam Deck for indies/less demanding games and (allegedly) playing retro games. 👍

@Bigcoffinhunter not even one? I smell something...

I think that consoles are no longer going to be squeezed to the limit, nowadays all games are developed for PC with graphics engines open to all platforms.

The exception will be Switch 2, which still has Nintendo behind it developing exclusive and specific games for it.

@Reek20 If MS absolutely has to tier-distinguish the next console, let it be a version with or without optical drive, ala the PS5. Not that I expect MS to even have optical drives in the next gen of consoles given their massive push on digital/gamepass, but…

I’ve never been a massive MS fan (honestly, I hate MS and have for decades. I’m still shocked I bought a Series X last year, but it’s a nice chunk of hardware. Credit where credit is due!) but splitting your base consoles into two different tiers and mandating that all games have to support both the good one and the underpowered one is just silly. Even for MS.

I honestly hope MS just releases ONE console next time. Just one. We don’t need an S or X, just a freaking XBox. Keep it simple.

Well to me Ghost of Yotei even if of no interest to me seems to be putting the SSD use well for the young/old idea, I like that. It's what I wanted Rift Apart to do, but it just replicated PS3 2009 HDD use again and also poorly.

To me games are trying to work around the tools while having mixed ideas, leadership and mentality they themselves have as staff or leaders make a challenge, which I am not surprised. I myself don't even care for HDR or RT, I have learned the differences from SDR and baked in lighting, subtly but even still I don't care. So if games are just being too much focused on graphics, the design is all over the place of worlds, the stories are hit and miss, gameplay is so basic either to be accessible or they don't have time to make it, so at that point why even bother. Gameplay is so basic I am so put off by many games at this point.

Plenty of OG Xbox/360 era games were more exciting of mechanics in many genres, nowadays they don't even have a strong hook, oh we have insert this license, insert this decent world, nothing actually exciting. I literally buy shooters, platformers, racing and more genres like tactics, hack n slashes off of gameplay ideas. Psi Ops/Fracture are a lot of fun 6th/7th gen shooters.

The fair mix of rocks, trees, grass and other objects is also noticeable (Star Wars Outlaws canyons or dust and other things weren't that convincing I find, Indy did an ok job of hiding natural light behind trees in the beginning area, I can't say for the rest of the game) in it of environment details in games, I don't care for that but I get why they offer them.

Also the fog in the Yotei showcase, you can see the mountain, looking at Horizon Zero Dawn you can tell even if intentional the fog in the mountains they can barely show, in Yotei it has fogs but it's also still able to be seen through, an interesting detail and large coverage of land for render distance like that is insane.

Even Valkyrie Elysium I noticed PS4/5 the grass objects being less on PS4. So yeah some games even if linear scale like that did (also had a lot of particles that game but the Wanted Dead/other team did a fair job with Elysium I think), but many western devs do like to show off environments and Yotei seems to do that.

Xbox I don't have enough reference of games in showcase or otherwise. I can't remember, but there probably is some out there that may.

Racing games vary of course in car models/track details, sounds, physics/CPU wheel data I don't even care about then focusing on decent progression that isn't boring and terrible let alone more that isn't just boring racing and repetitive. XD

I mostly care for more the young/old and other gameplay changing benefits of Yotei to utilise the console.

If we see others offer more enemies on screen, particles and more then sure but to me I don't know what to expect with current geming other then mechanics being so weak.

Xbox I can't say for sure as I don't play or have interest in any they have offered at all. So I don't know what they offered towards power of the console other then the GPU usage being probably fair for some things above the regular PS5.

They all seem to be fair uses of the hardware, but I don't know for sure.

I have no interest in GTA 6 at all, it will have fair execution of things sure, but I still don't care.

GTA 6 will be the turning point for Series X and PS5, from a CPU and GPU standpoint it will push those consoles to thier absoulte limts like RDR 2 did with the last gen machines. Even PS5 Pro will get a full workout.

This entire generation has been a lame duck. Scapegoating the problem as the Series S or Microsoft or even Playstation or last gen or UE5 or upscalers just guarentees nothing will change. It's not ONE problem, and it's not one platform. It's everything. It's the fact that the biggest games, the games that make up most of the money on consoles and which every publisher is chasing, are playable on the freaking iPad. It's the fact that we've pushed "innovation" to mean "realistic graphics" and now developers are just chasing unsustainable gains that gamers don't even really notice. I mean look at how much of a mess the un optimized games that don't come to series S (like Black Myth Wukong) are. Look at how much of a mess many games that ARE supposedly optimized to run on the weaker machine end up being even on more powerful hardware. This issue is even worse on PC where everything is just being brute forced.

It's crazy that we're even saying "next gen" at this point. I bought the Series X and S day one in 2020, meaning I pre-ordered them the summer BEFORE I started university. I have now graduated university and have since been working for the past year. I've entered and exited an entire stage in life; I've passed a major milestone; achievement unlocked: I graduated high school AND university, moved out, and got a job, and we're still waiting for next gen to start?? Nah, "next gen" ain't coming. I'd argue it's just more accurate to say that generations, as we traditionally know them, are just done.

Here's the thing, even Microsoft and Sony have moved on (which btw don't even get me started on how the PS5 Pro barely even feels like it has a purpose when the PS5 is still under utilized). Xbox is popping out with a new console at the latest in 2027 with more and more rumors suggesting 2026. As in next year; as in when we're supposed to finally get use out of the consoles. It's not like there haven't been games this "generation" that made proper use of what's under the hood of these consoles. Alan Wake 2 for example was fantastic and fantastically optimized for the Series S too. I will also say that the Series X and S have been my favorite consoles ever. The available games, how they've played, and having my full Xbox One library and some of my 360 library has been amazing. My only real complaint is that they didn't try to enable FPS boosts for more games (that should really be nearly every Xbox One game minimum and then as many 360 and OG as possible). The games themselves have also been great from both third and first party. I've liked game pass. The Series S STILL astonishes me with its weight and size. All that said, I'd argue the LAST true console generation was the Xbox One/PS4/Switch 1. I don't see that as a bad thing, but I also think we're running around like chickens without heads the more we grasp at straws trying to pretend the traditional console generation isn't dead. There's no one thing at fault. We can't JUST blame the Series S, Nintendo Switch, Fortnite (live service and forever games), cloud gaming, COVID, upscalers, UE5, lazy devs, or any of the other so called bottle necks. It's everything. Consumers spending and gamer playtime habits just don't support true generational gaps anymore. Technology just isn't going to improve that much anymore. Publishers are just going to keep chasing these long behind dev cycles and cut corners trying to being 300 million budget games that please shareholders. Innovation has unfortunately kinda died out as most studios chase hyperrealism (there's not enough creativity in game design). There are exceptions to all these rules, but on the whole it just won't ever truly feel like we're in a whole new "generation" of gaming again. Just like no one talks about generations in TV, smartphones, computers, or any other industry. There are gradual changes in each iteration overtime, but no generational gaps between each individual iteration. The iPhone 12 isn't seen as a GENERATIONAL leap over the iPhone 11. The Wifi standard is an even better comparison. Wifi 7 is a massive improvement over Wifi 6 that took a long time to make, but no one really considers it a generation because no one cares enough to even know what WiFi standard they are on. The majority of internet users today, just use Wifi as it is. They don't rush to upgrade and developers and software engineers don't make exclusive software or hardware that does stuff it can only do if you have the latest Wifi standard. That's where gaming is going: the hardware innovations will be there for those that want to take advantage of them, but the vast majority of games will be playable across multiple iterations of hardware. And most gamers won't care just like honestly most gamers (not just hardcore console gamers, console gamers at all, and especially not the people like us who frequent gaming forums) don't care now. They don't care what "generation" they are on as long as they can play Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft.

@Reek20 Reading these comments, man we've failed the Series S so bad. Microsoft probably won't make a budget console and we're all going to regret that. Again, just look at what's been happening with those games that skip Xbox that cited the Series S specifically. Black Myth Wukong struggled even on the PS5 Pro and even Baldur's Gate 3 only got real good optimization for ALL platforms when the devs used the Series S as a baseline. Not to mention pricing. This generation has blown the lid on that. It's incredibly unlikely we get new hardware that costs less than the PS5 Pro. At best I can see an all digital selling for $600, but actually no because the PS5 Pro is already all digitally. Golly, hardware pricing is going to be insane when we get into the next Xbox console successor and PS6. Even the Switch 2 is crazy at $450 for that hardware. And the tarrifs going away or inflation dying down (which might not even happen) aren't going to magically change that. Companies don't go back on pricing if they've successfully convinced consumers to deal with it, and the PS5 Pro predates the tarrifs.

I don't expect a Series S successor (at least a true one; maybe we'll get a handheld that's optional to develop for) will exist as part of Xbox's future hardware plans, and that blow will be felt by all gamers. It's just going to be brute forcing everything on the high end and we'll be paying upwards of $1000 USD for the privelege. Honestly, I'm really curious how consoles justify themselves in the coming years. We're already hitting PC gaming prices while still having the console expense quirks (paid online, paid cloud saves everywhere except Xbox, and only one store). Maybe some of that goes away, but still it's just... baffling to me that we're here. And people seem to want us to be here. Heck me personally, I'd rather Xbox have a series S successor priced at $400 than a Series X successor priced at $800 (or even $600 (and let's be real it's not going to be cheaper than a starting price of $700 for an all digital model)). Especially, if Xbox is moving forward with plans to coalesce with PC. Leave the high end expensive hardware to PC. I don't want to need to sell a kidney just to play games in my living room.

@dskatter Just speaking generally I feel like the only disc drive that'll exist for either console is as an accessory you can buy separately. The PS5 Pro being all digital signals that to me. I'd be really surprised if Xbox or Sony release a physical model at all. At this point it's even looking like Nintendo is moving away from actual physical games (or at least not the bastion for physical games it was).

As most of you know I used rant about this from day one of the great series x release.
And basically it’s come true, well true enough.

Have your in house studio make a game and engine ground up for one console, the series x and you will get the very best out of it.
And that had never been done.

That is how Sony and Nintendo get the best from their respective consoles.
One console and nothing else, focus and develop just for that one console and sometimes a game engine for that as well.

It's basically a mini PC, using tweaked laptop GPU/CPU, from AMD.
And it's already being fully utilised.
It's not like older generations, when consoles where still REAL consoles, that had unique special built components, that developers had to learn how to use, and push to the limits.
And there is a reason why we're starting to see more 30fps games, and the resolutions/settings getting lower again.

The days of "fully utilising" consoles are gone, these are just PC components cobbled together these days and then you have the fact that we've long since past the point where all the big graphical jumps have already happened. Even on a high end PC you can't really push much past the visual fidelity of the PS5/Series X outside of RT features

If (software wise) xbox series x (somehow) gets fully utilised next year, I'll be happy to witness that... I may even consider to buy it, with no disk drive and 2 TB solid state disk, if offered for a right price.
Otherwise, I'll look at the next flaghip xbox console, if such thing gets to be released.
As you know, mixed signals keep coming and makes us look like group of kittens watching very long ping pong match.

@ozkrmz

As you know, mixed signals keep coming and makes us look like group of kittens watching very long ping pong match.

That is the most spot-on analogy I've ever heard.

@WildConcept6 And I hate every single bit of it.

The moment consoles no longer have optical drives/game card slots even as an option is the moment I spend my remaining years finally attacking my backlog!

@WildConcept6 I think PS6 will carry on with the optional drive stye, and personally I think its a very clever, practical solution to a modern problem. One SKU that can easily be sold at two price points if they package a bundled box.

If they somehow manage to use the same optional drive as the PS5 then this would be even better for the consumer in the long run. I'm not sure if that would happen however due to the effect it would have on deisgn and income.

@Coletrain Same here. I still have a lot to play on Switch 1 (just upgraded to Switch OLED) and, most of all, Series X, where we have access not just to all the great first-party but third-party games that have been released this generation and earlier, with superb quality of life features like Quick Resume and better frame rates than ever before. The build quality of Series X is excellent and I don't have a single reason to be disappointed with it. A different story is my opinion about the cancellation of Perfect Dark 3 instead of giving it to Crystal Dynamics, that was already working on it after the mess that The Initiative was doing since 2018.

There are a lot of good things that can be said about Xbox this generation. That's why I don't know where all the doom and gloom regarding Xbox in the comment sections on Pure Xbox come from.

@Banjo- switch oled, nice!

The doom and gloom from my perspective is just the total lack of clear messaging from Xbox. And I know that's likely down to MS as the parent company, but with Sony you know that next gen you'll be able to get a ps6 and you know what it is, no drama.

I personally find it exciting because it's the first time we're moving to a new gen with no idea what we could get. But it doesn't sell the brand too well!

Dear friend @Markatron84
You really made my day
Thank you.

@Coletrain I think that bringing Xbox and Windows games together (including the different stores) is the way forward and what the next Xbox console will be. It's not what the console fans are used to, but it's the most consumer-friendly and future-proof environment. Not that console exclusives are a thing anymore outside Nintendo's bubble, which may be the only traditional console in the near future, or at least the only one with exclusives. That said, with most Switch 2 games being digital keys, the traditional console is already a thing from the past.

@Millionski Yeah I fell for the "mid-gen upgrade" last generation as I bought the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. To be fair the One X was quite a leap from the base Xbox One. I got the PS4 Pro basically to have an excuse to buy a 4K TV and also it was supposed to boost performance of PSVR games.

This generation I've been happy with the base PS5 and the Series X. I bought 2 Series X's, one for me and one for my son about 4 years ago and we've played 95% of our multiplatform games on them ever since as we game share digitally, saving thousands not having to buy 2 copies of each game. We both have the Elite Series 2 controllers and love them too.

Plus, I have a buddy who works at Microsoft so we get a friends and family discount with Game Pass at half price and we can get peripherals (controllers, headsets etc.) for half price through him as well.

@Banjo- oh man I hate the digital card thing from Nintendo, I understand it from a cost perspective but it makes the switch 2 lose a bit of magic for me. Unless CEX still do good trade in on them!

Yes, I agree windows looks like the direction of travel, much as it's hard to see how they do it I'm still intrigued by the thought of it man

@Millionski always been intrigued about a user point of view, did you use the ps5 pro with a VRR TV and oled all the bells and whistles etc?

It always looks to me like the upgrades aren't totally worth it (subjective of course, I'm sure there are many happy users)

@GuyinPA75 You obviously don't understand how game development works. Games are made for the series X. Then toned down for the S. The game wouldn't be any different on the X if the S didn't exist.

I'd love to see Halo and Fable ported for Switch 2.
Recent reports suggest if it's on the XS it shouldn't be a difficult port to S2. Without suggesting they're on par, it sounds like the S2 has the tech to help get it 'close enough.'

If Halo MCC was ported, and maybe a Fable 1-3 collection, that'd probably drive the hype towards the next games and provide another instal base for MS to sell.

Wishful thinking from a fan of these franchises that stopped upgrading my Xbox. If Xbox as a whole is going more and more multiplat, this would be a good introduction to some beloved franchises for those in the Nintendo ecosystem.

@Deformedpye You obviously don't understand how business works. The lowest common denominator will always win out first. In this case the Series S. Then will progress from there.

It is complete waste of money and time not start at ground floor and establish the base before moving on. Games would be much different on the X if the S didn't exist.

@GuyinPA75 Yeah, that much was obvious when PS2 was the dominant platform. You'd sometimes see GameCube exclusives brought over later on (and those had to be heavily cut down in their graphics and/or performance), but most of the time, the PS2 was the lead platform, and the GameCube/Xbox versions had relatively few advantages over it.

Though I can't agree with your very last statement. The X and S have basically the same CPU, the S's RAM limitations more or less line up with the savings of using a low render resolution (and low textures to match), and the X is often pushed pretty hard by today's games, even if they run in some form on the S.
Only scenario I can think of where the S could hold game design back is where the X does something truly revolutionary in its gameplay, and that somehow relies heavily on its graphical muscle, rather than on CPU speed, and it can only run at 30fps on the X (so the devs can't just drop the res and fps to make it work on the S).

The most powerful console that will not be taken advantage of for 6 years. - Microsoft 2020

I said this back in 2020:
"Horrendously overpriced graphics card era, offers uncanny opportunity to both microbe-soft and sony. If they come up with a good value compact pc, instead of usual console. They can sell it even more than the total number of consoles in their history. It is all about the contract they make with "nvidia/amd/intel" triopoly.
With a very simple motto, like: JUST FOR A MIDRANGE GPU PRICE, YOU CAN GET A FULLY FLEDGED PC. EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS HERE
microbe-soft and/or sony could skyrocket their balance sheet.
They do not even have to include a controller to the package, as all controllers in last 25 years may easily work with it.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/games-apps/apps-help/troubleshoot-movies-and-tv-on-xbox-one

One more nail in the coffin as they discontinue movie and TV show rental and purchases.

@dskatter I "hope" the option will carry on like it has for DVDs. But the problem with gaming is that everything in the console space is proprietary. I can go out to my local goodwill or any second hand store and buy an old VHS tape and find literally any VHS player to watch it. In a perfect world all physical games would be on the same non-propietary standard. That way we wouldn't have to worry because any third party could make an optional disc drive. Instead, I can't play even play my Nintendo DS games on my Nintendo Switch. I feel like because it's completely up to the console makers themselves, there will come a point when they just don't bother anymore. Eventually they'll see it as too expensive to even produce optional add on disc drives.

@InterceptorAlpha I mean, just to keep it fair, Sony did this FOUR years ago (https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/02/playstation-store-to-discontinue-movie-and-tv-purchases-and-rentals/). I'm not trying at all to say this is a "he said, she said" type deal where it's okay because Sony did it, but also... is this a nail in the coffin? If we're going with that Xbox is in a more precarious position console hardware wise than Sony then to me at least the fact that Sony pulled the plug first is suggestive. And by such a wide margin of years too.

@Ilyn My concern is what those price points will be if it's one SKU. If the all digital PS5 Pro costs $700 are we really looking at a launch price of $800 or $750 with a disc drive bundle and $700 without for the PS6 and next Xbox before taxes? Even $700 and $600 would be wild. Last gen the Xbox One was dead on arrival charging $500 and now we're looking at base models being $700? This just isn't what I want from a device I want sitting in front of my TV to casually play games on after work. Gaming is an enterainment hobby for me and one that's already incredibly expensive (buying a solid TV/monitor, internet, games, and the hardware (a console)). Yet now even a Switch 2 launches at nearly $500 (actually $500 if you want the $80 game or either way with standard tax). I'm very happy with a lower SKU for a budget device that accomplishes playing games. From how the internet has reacted to it, I don't expect Microsoft to go down that route again, but boy will I be sad that they won't.

@WildConcept6 I couldn't care less what Sony did.

All I care about is Microsoft made both my Series Xs less valuable to me.

At this point might as well just stick to my PC since it has a BD drive.

@InterceptorAlpha You mentioned nail in the coffin and I took that mean "Xbox killing consoles". I only offered Sony having already done this to say otherwise. Or at least say it's a bigger issue than just Xbox.

However, if you you're just speaking about less value. Oh, man yeah. I literally commented this on the pure Xbox post that brought it up. This is awful. Both consoles are looking to cost more than ever and they're literally taking value away from consumers, wtf? These are supposed to be devices that sit under your living room TV and you can't even buy movies and TV from them anymore?? Man, I miss the Xbox One. It is such a shame Microsoft botched that console so hard because as a result it feels like the entire console market has been on a downward spiral. I also brought up how the biggest games are on everything from tablets to PC, so if you're a kid and you want to play fortnite... why in the world would you buy a console over a freaking iPad? And yeah an iPad can't play all the AAA games (yet), but kids don't really care about that. Games like Fortnite and Roblox and Minecraft are taking up most of the playtime on consoles and earning them the most money anyway. I don't see how consoles can survive if they shove themselves even harder into being niche while also raising prices.

@FarmDog08 I have very little time to game these days with a family so dont have time for multiple eco-systems so I choose the platform that offers the most 🤷‍♂️

@DaveTheRave And that is equally valid. I only game an hour or so each evening due to life and family. That's why Game Pass works for me. I will never play everything that comes out anyway and Game Pass has never shortage of games. I'll buy something if Im that interested in playing. Happy gaming brother!

@FarmDog08 happy gaming pal 👍

@dskatter Blaming the Series S, as if it is responsible for the Series X not being fully utilized is so bizarre to me, when Sony hasn't released a single game (aside from maybe Death Stranding 2) that has taken full advantage of the PS5 or the PS5 Pro. Clearly you are not seeing games with drastically better graphics on PS5, and the Series S certainly isn't to blame for PS5 exclusives being unable to take advantage of the console.

@Questionable_Duck glances at the BG3 and Black Myth Wukong devs who both mentioned tbe Series S as holding things back and says nothing

@dskatter Didn't Larian say that optimizing for the Series S helped improve BG3 as a whole?

https://gamerant.com/baldurs-gate-3-xbox-series-s-memory-optimization-better-performance-improvements/

Besides, that and Wukong are literally the only two games in the last five years that have actually been impacted by the Series S. You would be hard pressed to find literally any other examples of games being delayed or downgraded on Xbox because of the Series S.

@Questionable_Duck That we are aware of.

It’s not like every dev gets on a soapbox and starts shouting, “Holy moley, this freaking Series S is annoying, we had to neuter the game to make it run on this thing!”

Only reason the other two dev teams were able to is because they had the benefit of already selling well on other platforms and didn’t have to worry about possible MS blowback from their criticism. At least in my own head anyway, I have no proof of this obviously.

Either way, we have two documented examples of it being an issue. Which isn’t all that many, but it’s still interesting that it HAS happened!

That said, imagine what MS/their array of devs could do with a game if they were NOT held back by having to scale down for the S as well.

"That said, imagine what MS/their array of devs could do with a game if they were NOT held back by having to scale down for the S as well."

We don't need to image, we can just look at the games that Sony has made for PS5, none of which were "held back" by the Series S. And, from a technical standpoint, these games pretty much look exactly the same as Series X games.