Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

Hey all,
I have a question regarding migrating from a One S to a Series X, I have had the trusty little One S for a few years now. But I am planning to move to Series X soon. My question is about the transfer of all the saves and data. How does it usually work with Xbox, you just log in on your new console and all your games and saves are there? Because I have close to 15 games in my backlog where I have different amounts of progress in the game but for example with 65 hrs into AC Valhalla, I cannot really lose that save. Are they all always backed up to the cloud? Or should I get a membership active like GP Ultimate?

@BrilliantBill All saves should be in the cloud and your 'digital' Library should be ready to re-download - if you don't use an external Storage option. As long as you set up your Series console with the same account details, you should have your saves but obviously would need to redownload and/or update to the Series X version - needed for AC: Valhalla for example. I believe Cloud saves are the 'norm' for everyone on Xbox. I can redownload 360 games for example and still carry on where I left off despite not playing since the 360 days. I know from jumping between my Series and One X consoles, sometimes they may need to 'sync' but as long as you are/were connected to the internet the last time you played and saved, it should be saved to the cloud.

What's a good difficulty/starting position for Forza Motorsport for a newer player?

I've been floating around 4-5 with a position of 10-12 and enjoying it, but sometimes it feels like I'm not getting the full experience.

@VoidPunk The point is that Forza allows you to tweak a whole host of settings - from the full racing line being shown to braking only to no assistance. Same with things like automatic/manual gears, traction control etc so you can tweak virtually everything to suit your ability.

I don't know what you mean by 'Full' experience - short of buying a Racing Sim set-up with steering wheel etc and 'Racing' with no 'assistance' so you get the 'full' Racing experience - or as close as Forza gets to driving a real car around a real track.

The point is with this is that you set the amount of Assistance and/or difficulty to suit the experience you want. If you want to, turning off the ability to 'rewind' for example adds to the difficulty and risk. As everyone is 'different', what you consider the right balance for you as a 'newer' player could be too much for another 'newer' player so its best to play around and adjust things as you go. You may start off with the racing line today but a week later decide the Braking lines are all you want or maybe no assistance there at all...

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance will be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

6.21. 2024

I wonder when games will stop being released on PS4 / Xbox One?

@Dimey When devs/Publisher either can't 'port' their game down and spend months on trying to get it working or decide to focus purely on Current gen Consoles.

Whilst there are still gamers on XB1/PS4, there is still a 'market' for games and if they can sell to enough people to 'justify' a PS4/XB1 version, regardless of 'how' bad it looks/plays compared to the 'current' gen, they will do it.

Look at the PS3/XB360 era - games like Call of Duty or Fifa continued well into the PS4/XB1 era - that was with quite a big difference in Specs. 512mb of RAM to 8GB is a 16x leap for example - yet it still proved to be 'financially' worth porting games - even if they were missing Single Players and/or simplified graphically so much.

Its a bit like the Witcher 3, Doom/Wolfenstein or many other 'Switch' ports that were 'worth' porting to that system because the Sales justified the work to bring those games to that system. The difference is that Switch is/was a 'current' system with a growing user base, where as last gen systems are no longer in production and have a shrinking user base. At some point, devs will decide that there isn't enough players likely to 'buy' their game to warrant the work or decide that their game will only be on Current hardware.

@Dimey @BAMozzy Another way to think about it is with past history, PS2 had its last game in 2013 (Pro Evolution Soccer 2014). Xbox 360 (Just Dance 2019) ended in 2018. Nintendo Wii (Just Dance 2020) in 2019. With PS3's last game was in 2020 (Shakedown: Hawaii). About 13-14 years of existence, which would mean we're 2-3 years away from final support if we go with that pattern.

@BrilliantBill You will be gold. Evetyhing is linked to the cloud.

Happy Gaming!

Hm is not a little bit strange that the sales of Xboxes have fallen recently? Given MS acquisition of Acovison/Billzerad should not the sale of Xboxes have been rising instead becuse more pepole should want to have the console right?

To me it seem not have been a better time to own the console so it seem like it should be sold out now hehe. Not the ohter way around.

Microsoft makes a lot of hardware, most of it high-end. They will be making consoles as long as there is a console market. There is absolutely zero reason for Microsoft to stop making consoles. PS5 has sold exactly 1.99x (twice) times more than Series S|X, but it doesn't really matter, because the only important income these days is software sales and subscribers and now Microsoft is ahead in that regard. That's why Sony is struggling with PS5, in spite of the higher hardware sales.

The Xbox business includes console, computers and mobile devices, so Microsoft has all the important markets covered, plus smart TVs. The console market is the smallest of the three, but not for Microsoft but for the gaming world. Publishing Xbox games for other consoles like Switch and PS5 is striking, but at the end of the day is just another additional income and probably some kind of marketing. PC games crush console games in sales, but PC has made Xbox stronger. If PC doesn't kill but makes Xbox stronger, the same happens when Xbox has some games available on the other consoles. There are some vocal players that jump from console to console each generation or have them all depending on their mood and/or the news, but that's almost anecdotical.

The console market is not growing. The last time that somebody broke the mould was Nintendo with Nintendo DS and Wii, that sold 255.65m together at the same time, 1.8x more than Nintendo Switch, Nintendo's first console to merge the home and handheld userbase. Nintendo is the only company that depends on the success of their hardware, because they earn money with their overpriced consoles and accessories and because most of its software output is cheap to make, especially when they are full-priced ports. For Microsoft and Sony, it's a completely different story.

In any case, this is the best time to be an Xbox console owner, because of Game Pass, large amount of Xbox studios, enhanced backwards compatibility, cross-buy, cross-play, Microsoft Rewards, flexibility, digital rights (best outside PC) and because basically every relevant publisher supports Xbox now, including Square Enix, because Sony's userbase and money is no longer enough. Xbox is expanding, not dying.

@oliverp I would maybe have to assume it could be that they have been diverting attention on growing Game Pass, as well as their software. Since Game Pass has been successful, they have, unsurprisingly, been focusing efforts on it, and some have been saying that they seem to be more focused on selling Game Pass and growing its userbase than hardware; however, I am very doubtful Microsoft will exit the console market and become a third-party, not to mention they said in February they were working on the next Xbox console. Even though sales are down, there still is a large amount of people who play Xbox, not to mention they poured a ton of money into gaming, so I am expecting them to keep releasing games and consoles until the Sun blows up.

I also think people could possibly be waiting for more of Activision/Blizzard’s titles to hit Game Pass too, since I saw a ton of people looking forward to that while the acquisition was still going on. So far, they have only released Diablo 4 on there, but they plan to add more of their games sometime this year, so I think some people interested could be waiting for the time they add them.

So, even if hardware sales still seem down, they are likely to improve later on.

Ngl, it's very hard to be an Xbox fan right now. I thought this was going to be their year and since what, February, it's been nothing but negative press. Yeesh. Tough times.

@NintendoByNature yeah... I will stick with Xbox for the current gen as I have lots of things to play from the library I amassed so far (both physically and digitally) but I am not so sure I will keep GP for long if it is not their priority anymore and I feel something would need to change A LOT for me to buy the next one. As I see it Xbox as a brand is imploding and it won't return from it as a platform (and I thought they would get closer to playstation this gen...)

@oliverp The Problem with the Console is that it is NOT required at all to play Microsoft's First Party games - inc those Bethesda and ABK games they have now acquired. In fact you don't even need to upgrade from your XB1 S/X consoles either.

The 'entry' level isn't the Series S (despite all the conversation about how it can't compete with PS5/XSX), its actually their Game Pass Cloud that enables gamers to play on 'Hardware' they own - not just 'mobile' phones - but last gen Xbox, New Samsung TV's, Laptops etc. Instead of having to pay out hundreds for Hardware, they could use Game Pass and still play these games.

Obviously, the Series S is the 'entry' point for next gen games running locally on 'Hardware' with Series X for the Premium experience to match PS5, but if you own a Gaming Laptop/PC that's at least as capable as a Series S, you don't need to buy the Console. All the games will be available to play on your existing PC hardware so why spend money just to play on Console - especially as Console means paying for Online access too.

The point is that for the Gamer, they have many choices on where to play these games and they may already have options at least as good as a Series S, some even better than Series X with DLSS enabled GPU's. With Sony, if you want to play God of War or Spider-Man, you only have 1 choice, PS5 (until they release on PC years later). You have 'no' choice but with MS, if you have a gaming PC, you have access to Xbox games day and date. Therefore it doesn't make sense to buy the Console when they can get Game Pass on PC for example and play Starfield, Black Ops etc. Instead of buying a Series S, maybe someone opts to buy a Handheld PC like a RoG Ally or Lenovo Go to play games.

Consoles are for those people that 'prefer' that type of System, a locked box but simple 'Plug and Play' where the Devs should have optimised for the 'fixed' spec of that Console. Although more 'limited' on games versus PC, its the ease, the convenience and/or price that suits. However, you may also have 'hardware' that will also let you play these games saving you the 'need' to buy the Console to play those games.

PC gamers are much more likely to buy a PS5 or Switch because they can play Xbox on their PC. Even Steam Deck can play Xbox games...

It was very nice chatting with the usual ones on the chat today. I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as I did! No new controller nor Banjo-Kazooie, though.

My gosh, that was a great showcase. It’s nice to see already announced games show up again! Perfect Dark looked so freaking great, and, although I don’t intend on playing a lot of the games in the showcase, they looked really good too! The aesthetic of the new CoD was cool, and the new DOOM game being set in the medieval era is interesting. The people in the chat room were so amazing too, and holding off-topic conversations before the event was fun. It did shock me that a lot of the leaks and rumors that released beforehand were correct.

Wish there were more release dates attached to some of the titles there, but we will learn more at a later time. I hoped Everwild would have appeared and I had a tiny bit of hope that the rumored Banjo game would have made an appearance, but oh well! The show still satisfied me.

@Pastellioli Likewise. Because of the backlog, I'm not too concerned about the release dates, but we'll get more specific release dates soon, hopefully.

It was fantastic watching Perfect Dark for the first time and the rest of the trailers, with no filler and just a few indie trailers at the end. Nothing against small games because some are excellent, but the majority of the show was a solid show of AAA Xbox games in the pipeline:

Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Doom Dark Ages
State of Decay 3
Perfect Dark
Fable
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Avowed
Gears of War E-Day

It's worth mentioning that there are six Series models, as if it was a Surface lineup. This is what I predicted Xbox consoles will become and this is how the Xbox hardware makes sense: many choices that are just another way to sell Xbox subscriptions and software along PC.