Except a lot of people only buy a handful of games the entire generation, and those are usually sequels (CoD, Madden, FIFA) that mean the old version of the game won’t be installed anymore, so the 512GB is going to be just fine for those people.
As for the expansion, even at $150 it might be a better option for some people than upgrading to the X. The X only gets them double the space (and increased specs, obviously, but if they don’t care about 4k then that won’t matter to them) whereas the expansion gets them triple the space (1TB plus the original 512GB).
Sony had brand loyalty going into 360 gen too. More, in fact. And Nintendo had it in droves a few cycles prior. The vast majority of gamers aren’t loyal to the console brand, they are loyal to the game franchises. And I’d bet the 1P comparisons invert this cycle with MS having the better viewed teams compared to Sony.
There are other elements too, like Sony’s dwindling presence in Japan and MS’s potential for an opening in PAL regions. They have always been set back in PAL largely due to their services and pricing not being up to snuff with those markets, but that looks like it might change this gen, so those regions are gonna be much more competitive.
Lastly, MS is genuinely doing something different with their offerings and we dunno yet how it will play out. It’s ambitious and if it plays out in the favor, the Xbox platform will be way bigger than ppl imagine it can be. xCloud can reach an insane number of ppl, especially with it being tied into Facebook gaming. It can also offer next gen streaming to far more than just the XSX/XSS userbase (PC, mobile, maybe even X1 consoles). So I dunno what will even be relevant in terms of the metric to compare these platforms for ‘winning’. In the past, winning meant more hardware sales. But now, what’s the metric? If 2 mil ppl are using X1 to stream next gen content, does that count since for all intents and purposes it is a box that plays next gen Xbox games? Do we count mobile devices that use xCloud? What about PC’s that use xCloud?
I genuinely do not think that single, outdated metric works anymore.
I’d imagine the vast majority of ppl buying an XSS will also get GPU and just download, delete games as needed. Note that they are gonna be smaller in filesize than the XSX version. Also note that you can just use an external HDD to store the games to avoid re-downloading them. Just transfer them to the SSD or vice versa as needed.
^^^ This. I’ve seen no evidence that hardware support for DXR is lacking for Series S.
As for the SSD size, that’s what Smart Delivery is for. No need to download 4K textures for a 1080p console, the 1080p textures will do just fine. Ditto language packs which aren’t needed for the current user downloading the content.
XCloud is MS’ best bet in Japan, not the Series S. I’m sure they’ll offer the systems there but xcloud has a lot more potential to catch on there.
Totally agree. My comment was directly related to actual console sales but xcloud is easily their best bet to crack Japan. We still need more details on that too though. A big selling point of xcloud could be to take your library with you but we haven’t received any news on that yet. Also the service won’t be available at launch unfortunately.
I would argue that it honestly doesn’t matter what MS offers Japan - they aren’t interested. OTOH, if Sony offered something like XCloud it might succeed there.
What’s the end-game for a consumer like me who will probably purchase the X? It doesn’t make a difference to me how much msft makes as a business. Is the hope that the install base grows wide enough that a publisher like Square-Enix would never consider being PS exclusive? Basically I have to hope success “trickles down” to the X base and good things magically result from that for real publishers?
I dont see how its possible for the PS5 to do better then or match the PS4 when the xbox series s/x is bound to sell more then the Xbox one family, some of these new xbox customers are going to be leaving playstation.
Another interesting element is the role of Xbox as a 2nd console via All Access. PS5 gamers buys their console and sees the no money down option for XSX. They grab it and suddenly the best versions of multiplats are gonna be played on the 2nd console, along with anything on GP since it’s free to them at that point. At some point that no longer really is the ‘2nd console’ so much as the primary console.
I still think Sony’s momentum and mindshare is still far too strong for this to make a legitimate dent but S long as the platform improves from this gen then it’s fine.
The end game is you get to play the best version of multiplatform titles, get to play them (eventually) on your PC/console/mobile via xCloud, along with hundreds of other games thanks to Game Pass + EA Play + XGS’s exclusive titles that have the potential to rival Sony’s output in a few yrs. All for a low monthly cost that likely ends up saving you $$$ compared to buying day 1 (options are a good thing).
If all ya care about are jrpg’s, then Xbox might not be the way to go. If ya care about basically any other genres, Xbox is gonna be the place to play em.
One thing about the xss being a ps5 companion device, is if that user gets gamepass, it could be a real possibility that they spend most of there gaming time on there xss because of gamepass. Which would be kinda funny because most people theorise that in this scenario the PS5 would be there big powerful multiplat box, but due to gamepass they could end up playing multiplats on the xss.
This is the reason im getting an xsx because I would personally feel like im not getting the best experience of I had to play gamepass games on the xss.
I wish sony where doing a xss style ps5 too, as i only really care for naughty dog games.
Yup, that was part of the point I was making there. It isn’t something I had thought about til now but it is a real interesting tactic potentially. Build a better box and ecosystem and make it an impulse purchase.
We don’t disagree often Shpeshal Ed but, I think you’re going to be quite shocked this time. Covid polarized the market and Sony can’t afford to release two consoles above $399. Effectively by design or by chance MS has cornered Sony into a certain pricing bracket and they (MS) don’t have to reveal the XSX price now. They revealed a system price Sony hasn’t! Also, Sony created it’s own mistakes. When the public see’s the size of the PS versus Xbox’s combined with a power difference some are going to wonder what Sony’s been doing all this time? XSX price won’t be revealed because MS has size and power. Now they want lowest price to complete the marketing juggernaut. Now combine those three with MS marketing group of the hardware and you have a stellar marketing setup!
Yeah, I’ll be getting PS5 for sure. Life is too short for unnecessary, stoic, self restraint for eventualities.
Play the games you want(exclusives), when you want(not eventually and with no end dates), wherever you want.
So for me, Series S will only be a success if it gets to the point of directly preventing restrictively-exclusive games from existing. That’s a much harder thing to gauge. It doesn’t matter if joe dirt gets to play games he otherwise wouldn’t otherwise.
