Prices have not dropped, it’s a fact
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The series X and PS5 are in no way the same just because they play similar games at more or less visuals and performance doesn’t equate to price. The systems are built differently with different features. The Ps5 for example can’t do Quick Resume. In any case we have seen breakdown of both consoles, and they aren’t the same. Also, I think it was shown in the FTC leak where they spent over a billion in subsidy FTC leak: Xbox hardware was subsidized $1.5B in FY2021 (largest in history) + lots of info (9.6M XBS planned for FY2022) | Install Base
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Quick Resume isn’t a big selling point. In fact I’ve had the Series X console for over 3 years now and I’ve barely ever used it. The SSD loading times sort of make it a redundant ‘plus’ feature tbh. If you want to talk about advantages the Series X has over the PS5, the main one is its 120hz setting for all games and a better VRR range. It makes some titles (like Elden Ring) run much, much better on the Series X compared to the PS5 for anyone with a 120hz TV. It’s something outlets like Digital Foundry never spoke about enough.
As for the multiplatform discussion, I’m of two minds. Even though over the past year or so I’ve come to see this as inevitable, I can’t help but look at some negatives as well. For example diluting the ‘Xbox console community’ - even by launching day one on PC - has invariably led to a point where big Xbox event releases (like Indy or Avowed) just feel… much less impactful than similar such releases in previous generations. It means when Fable 2 or 3 were released on the 360, it was a big event for the Xbox ‘faithful’, so to speak. Whereas now? Meh, there’s so little buzz.
Consoles aren’t just boxes under a TV. They’re an actual ‘culture’ within the entertainment industry in and of themselves. Being an Xbox owner and player used to mean certain things - like brand loyalty and a predisposition towards consuming releases on the platform - and in turn it meant the hype cycle for exclusives was usually enough to carry them to success.
It’s that ‘people element’ that MS might be overlooking in all this. In layman’s terms it means when someone dropped $500 on a games console back in the day they were geared towards purchasing whatever dropped on the platform.
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I never said Quick Resume was a selling feature but a differentiating feature for the guy that was saying PS5 and Xbox series X are or perform the same and therefore expects the cost of their build to be the same. Quick Resume for me is a big thing it works well with my style of play.
I am fine with the multiplatform move as I would love to see a world where my games are not defined by plastic boxes. It’s my hope to see games get to where movies are where you can buy a game and play it on any device just like I can buy my Blu-ray movies and play them on any Blu-ray player. Like Spencer said it’s the games and the experience they bring not the box. Also, what game on any system has seemed impactful. I don’t think that has anything to do with exclusives but more with traditions that are gone, for example with physical phasing out there aren’t the long lines at launch anymore and E3 dying was also something that took out a lot of hype. Consoles are just boxes in a way, that is why they seem to be going irrelevant and honestly, I think the days of boxes are close to end if they can’t evolve into digital platforms. Steam had almost 20,000 games released last year how do you expect exclusives to thrive in such a big pool. During the 360 days you had less games, you had like hundreds in a year but today there is a multiplat replica for every exclusive To me I think Xbox has more people element than any of their competitors, it one of the reasons no one can keep talking about something Xbox. To me I think console gaming has matured and now is evolving into something else that suits the new generation.
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I’m curious how you’ve manged this? As far I know there is no way to turn off the feature on a system level so do you go in and deliberately remove games you are playing from quick resume or quit to main menu at the end of each session?
If so why?
PS5 could do quick resume though, it’s just a software feature more than a hardware feature as all it does pretty much is a snapshot of your RAM and it stores it on the SSD for later.
I’m also of those that doesn’t think the difference in manufacturing between PS5 and Xbox Series is that big, just that Sony is willing to lose more in order to achieve a bigger mass of users which in turns will give them more royalties.
Consoles will also last over 10 years like Xbox One and PS4 so definitely worth the initial loss imo.
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I always quit the game after I’m done I’m playing. Always. I see no reason to leave it running in the background. Especially when on a couple of occasions doing so has caused some performance slow downs (like I’ve totally forgotten a game was still in its quick resume state and I’ve booted up another). I mean why would I want two games running at the same time anyway? It’s not exactly common to jump from one to another in the same evening - especially when load times are so quick anyway on the SSD. So when I exit a game (like the Tomb Raider remastered game I’m currently playing), I just quit and that’s that.
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A game in QR doesn’t affect the performance in another, I currently have 4 in QR and they all run well when I switch to them. What you’re probably experiencing, as this affected me, was having the Xbox in instant-on mode. That caused me a lot of performance issues in games I had in QR, which ceased once I made the switch to power-saving mode.
Yes, Quick Resume is a software feature but as I said it is still a differentiating feature and there are people that like it. The rumors are PS5’ s are much cheaper to produce than series X. Microsoft also said in court that they sell the consoles at a loss and Phil Spencer said they subsidize between 100 to 200 dollars for the console. Going by those numbers shipping 75million could be about 15 billion which sounds way too high to believe that Sony would spend that much or be profitable with that much cost.
Ok I see, as @Ironfistchinmi said there is never any more than 1 game running in the background i.e. stays running when you swap back to dashboard or apps. Games in QR are just ssd save states and so aren’t running in any way.
So there is no way for two games at a time to be running in the background so as Iron said any performance issues you’re seeing are more likely from instant on or just memory bugs in the game e.g. Witcher 3 next gen update I had to restart pretty much every time I played otherwise it would eventually crash (random so I’m guessing a mem leak of some kind).
I guess like anything QR has specific use cases. For me it’s great because I have kids playing random stuff at random times so it lets me jump back in to a game in the exact spot I left but sounds like it’s not a feature that has any benefits for your use case.
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You look over how now 5 years down the line, sourcing components and manufacturing the components should be at their lowest, easiest point
The more components you buy and the faster you manufacture those components means you make more and save more by buying in bulk and being more productive. That’s basic engineering mass production principles that we’ve followed since Henry Ford
I don’t believe Xbox is losing hundreds of dollars more than Sony for each console sold to retail, sorry.
Quick Resume isn’t going to add $200 dollars to a Series X . In the last generation, Sony had a more powerful GPU but also faster and better memory and that never resulted in a $200 manufacturing difference for Sony.
Also, the FTC leak is on about 2001 when were still coming out of lockdown and the manufacturing lines of both consoles still weren’t in full swing and the world had all sorts of raw material supply issues
Not that’s new I remember Peter Moore saying each Xbox 360 sold lost Microsoft over $200. Did people call for Microsoft to slow and limit production of the 360 to save costs?
I never said Quick resume makes the 200 dollars difference after all it’s a software feature and it was the hardware that was said to have a 200-dollar margin lost. Also, the FTC leak happened in 2023 not 2001. Comparing the 360 doesn’t work because there was no other option or means to sell games other than the console and PC which Xbox did use, however there are means now like cloud and other devices that make it easier for them to find users. As for the PlayStation they almost went out of business according to Yoshida and were saved by their TV division. The PS4 did not have that kind of loss and was able to become profitable quickly. The only other console from Microsoft with that dire loss was the OG Xbox which I believed they were losing 150 dollars per console. They only sold 24 million before moving stopping it and going with another GPU company for the 360. Also, I’m not asking you to believe just saying what Phil Spencer said and maybe you’ re right about the price. The 360 was analyzed to lose between 75-130 dollars not 200 but then again games sold much better then and the option for other distribution means did not exist.
You look over how Sony has a more advanced SSD feature in terms of its raw speed but don’t think there’s a major manufacture cost difference between either corp. My view is that, Xbox have deliberately slowed down production because of the Activision deal and they wanted nothing to scupper the deal
SONY would never have gone out of business the Japanese PM of the time said he was ready to step in to help Sony.
When Xbox and the 360 were losing billions they had Windows and Office to help pay the bills and I never saw calls to slow production of the HardDrive based 360 despite the massive loss for each unit sold to Microsoft
Also, it’s not a dig at Microsoft. I don’t believe what any big corporation tells people, including my own employer
I’m probably just too impatient about Xbox’s plans for next gen hardware, I assume that they will want to have another traditional system but I’m with Destin on that it will be a hybrid of some sort and allow Steam in it, I also wouldn’t be surprised if they make the next Xbox a PC themed console and we get the option to upgrade but yeah that’d probably be too complicated, I still believe that while it will be able to play all your old Xbox games that it won’t be a traditional console, I think it will be a PC/Console hybrid, just seems like a natural next step for Xbox imo.
And I fully believe that the Handheld will happen too.
I think a great way to start would’ve been to have a Series X Pro just like Sony did with PS5, yeah I probably wouldn’t buy it but it would be nice if Xbox’s games didn’t have a better version on another console right now or they will soon anyway, I know there’s PC but that’s a different story, I remember the Xbox One X and how amazing that was back in 2017, looking at the way Avowed looks on high end PCs, would’ve been cool to get that same level of visual quality on a console at locked 60FPS. Anyway, not that the current version looks bad, I think it looks very good on the 60FPS mode, it’s apparently around 1080P but playing on my 65" 4K TV and I thought it was like 1440P at first so not bad.
Just because Microsoft says something doesn’t mean it will happen but I think we can believe we’re having a new console.
I hope it is basically a PC in a Box and is far more like the original OG Xbox . Which was not only a wonderful and powerful console (and really a PC in a Box) but when modded had state-of-the-art media functions way beyond other consoles.
More of that, without the need to mod one’s console.
I have to say that I think it disappointing that in the year the Series console shines with Fable down as one of the best-looking games ever and Xbox In-House pumping them out while Sony has nothing. Xbox comes to PlayStation 5 rescue with Doom, Forza , Indy Ect, etc.
This could have been the year that even Sony fans looked to buy an Xbox console and where maybe Xbox consoles could have won some of their 360 fans back from Sony.
What could have been 
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Why have a series X pro when you just said you wouldn’t buy one what makes you think it would sell. I do think the way Xbox has their games is good, you decide at what fidelity you would like to play at, and they’re integrated with Xbox features like quick resume and Play Anywhere also in the future when they move to their next console these games would be automatically upgraded. To me the Xbox versions will always be the best simply because I can play them on PC and stream them on any device.
I think we can all say Xbox has fixed the games issue so my guess is they will now be looking to revolutionize on the hardware front. My guess is the hardware will be built with console, PC, cloud and handheld in mind to make sure it covers their entire ecosystem.
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Here in Brazil, a country that has always had a strong Xbox community, not even the Xbox Series X is officially sold today, imagine if there was an Xbox Pro. In addition, Microsoft’s excellent communication doesn’t explain anything at all and leaves everything open. Other countries are also suffering from the same problem. Microsoft is slowly taking the Series off the market, yet another trust issue that the brand passes on to consumers.
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People need to let go of the Box, your going to replace it anyway when next gen starts, the main concern should be digital library which is as safe as it has ever been.
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Logic goes out the door when all some want to do is rage and play the antagonist… see the state of the world as a macro example.
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Microsoft publicly talked about the fact they couldnt cut prices before the consoles came out and before we had a pandemic / massive inflation.
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