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[Cyberpunkd]

Correct. It's the model that makes them the second largest company the world. Subscriptions.

Did you see what makes them the second biggest? Hint: it’s not Xbox.

 

[scydrex]

Never forget

I always laugh when i read that.

 

[DragonNCM]

I'm perfectly fine with my Series S so thumbs up Phil

 

[SweetTooth]

Never forget

The little he knew lol.

 

[scarlet0pimp]

They just got split screen working for series s on Boulder Gate so perhaps they are now making use of the console features.
Mark my words the switch 2 being a massive hit will be the device holding us back.

 

[m14]

It seems strange to talk about the parity clause "staying" when they aren't even keeping their consoles in stock.

 

[blastprocessor]

Game devs need to optimise their shit. Also games are running on more handheld devices. I stand with Phil.

 

[laynelane]

Not surprising. Just another 'great' decision to add to the long list of his choices that are responsible for the present state of Xbox.

 

[Conflict NZ]

The Switch 2 is about to be the best thing to happen to the Series S, it's within 15% of it TF wise, the Switch 2 to Series S pipeline should be much closer than SeriesX/PS5 to Series S.

 

[{insert code here}]

Series S really should have been a handheld. With the proper support they could've grabbed some small piece of the handheld market from Nintendo and they would have a massive lead on Sony, assuming Sony re-enters that market. You also would have had a road to selling 2 hardware units (console X/handheld S) to your entire userbase. How nice would it be to have that console/handheld pair and being able to play Starfield at home, then bring your handheld to work and resume your game. It's basically the switch model which Nintendo has clearly proven is viable. Sony would've had no answer to that setup and no i don't believe it would've put MS back on top but I do think they would be in a better position today had they used this strategy.

Pure conjecture but I think had MS done the single console at launch, all those people who bought the S would've bought the X anyway I don't think they lose any sales by not having the cheaper box at launch. Sony had so much momentum at that time that people who bought Xbox were going to buy it no matter what imo.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Do they really have to send this clown out after every Xbox show to put a damper on things?

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Guess they are able to because of Switch 2?

 

[simpatico]

Black Ops 6 and Gears 5 figured it out. There are probably others.

 

[iHaunter]

Omitting the full quote. Nice.

How does that change the outcome in any way?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Series s meant a lot to certain people, Microsoft recognized people’s budgets.

 

[Kumomeme]

more like it is too late to backtrack so uncle phil keep brave face.

 

[ReBurn]

I like my Series S. It's been good to have around. I got it for free, though. Even still, it does a good job paired to the old 1080p TV in my office. The parity clause doesn't really impact me because I don't play the handful of games that were affected by it, but if I did I'd just play them on my PS5 or Series X anyway.

 

[Calverz]

Understandable, I too sometimes feels retarded and go to India for vacation instead of Switzerland..I feel bad afterwards though

Speak for yourself. Not for me

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Here is another take. Do hardware configurations really hold developers back?
They have had to design for multiple different configurations for a very long time and now many devs are publishing on PC as well. Does it really matter?

I'm not sure that it does in terms of the actual games that people are playing under the graphics.

Gamers have been generally playing the same games for 20 years. Genuine gameplay advancement is few and far between, imo, and a lot of it is idea, not tech driven. Resolution, lighting, textures. All better. Gameplay, roughly the same as we had years ago.

Some things like multiplayer games with 100 people are a different proposition, or that splitscreen mode in Baldur's Gate that nobody cared about, until it was a problem for Series S, etc. But generally speaking, most games don't have gameplay features that have been enabled by more powerful hardware, you could take most game designs and envisage them running on PS3/360.

 

[ShirAhava]

The Series S was great during the cross-gen era when Xbox one and PS4 were still being supported but its time to move on

 

[GymWolf]

Fuck you and your forced parity, phil.

 

[TheGodfather07]

The series s never should have existed. Instead, Microsoft should have been super aggressive and undercut sony by $100 and eat the cost with only the series x. I mean they could easily afford it right? They spent like 100b on acquisitions ffs! Sony did it with PS3 and priced it well below its production cost. Its like pocket change to Microsoft. They would have sold much more consoles and get millions more gamepass subscribers.

 

[RaZoR No1]

Series S will be the anker that will hold the devs back this gen...
At the same time it is a blessing for Nintendo and all mobile PC gamers and it will make sure, that all Xbox games will/can run on those devices too.

 

[Three]

I'm not sure that it does in terms of the actual games that people are playing under the graphics.

Gamers have been generally playing the same games for 20 years. Genuine gameplay advancement is few and far between, imo, and a lot of it is idea, not tech driven. Resolution, lighting, textures. All better. Gameplay, roughly the same as we had years ago.

Some things like multiplayer games with 100 people are a different proposition, or that splitscreen mode in Baldur's Gate that nobody cared about, until it was a problem for Series S, etc. But generally speaking, most games don't have gameplay features that have been enabled by more powerful hardware, you could take most game designs and envisage them running on PS3/360.

This simply isn't true though. You already gave some examples with splitscreen and player count. Here's another, did you know that Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was held back by Series S? You probably didn't because you play the games that release and don't think much about what's happening with decision making in the background. Inventory sizes, map sizes, types and number of enemies on screen, etc.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

The little he knew lol.

Considering what they sold last year, he’s not entirely wrong!

 

[asdasdasdbb]

The series s never should have existed. Instead, Microsoft should have been super aggressive and undercut sony by $100 and eat the cost with only the series x.

The Series S was meant to be the undercut console.

Plus the BOM on the Series X is probably decently more than the PS5.

 

[UltimaKilo]

If the series S is their top selling of the two. Sales for either one have slowed. The Switch 2 right around the corner. What would launching a new console do for them once the diehards and new toy enthusiast buy it? Honest question. I honestly think they would be better off pushing Window and game pass devices such as helds , 3rd party collabs, etc. They scooped up some of the industry biggest names and still sold less than what they previously sold. Which is sad because more competition is how we keep the other competitors in check.

They have made it clear they’re not abandoning video game hardware, but rather going into this space ala Windows: “you can run Windows and MS Office on a Dell, but we also offer a Surface” strategy. With that as a new strategy, of which I am not debating the merits, it would be worth releasing hardware more regularly, say every 4-5 years.

Maybe even (this might be a bad idea) replacing the Series S with the Series X as the entry-level machine and dropping support for the former.

 

[RCX]

The "I know I'm falling but refuse to use a parachute" strategy.

Hope it goes well for him.

 

[Negotiator]

good...
keeps devs somewhat grounded.

Why is the new LLM out of china so much more efficient than Open AI's trash? because the devs were hardware starved and had to overcome those limitations through optimisation.

As long as the Series S exists, developers have to at least somewhat optimise their games.

I would agree with you if gaming was equally important/profitable as AI... but it's not.

 

[Negotiator]

The Series S was meant to be the undercut console.

Plus the BOM on the Series X is probably decently more than the PS5.

This indicates MS has worse engineers than Sony.

Sony went with a less wide GPU, higher clocks (thanks to liquid metal) and overall smaller die size -> better yields.

MS needs to abandon the brute force mindset. Satya Nadella is not happy to throw billions at a problem.

 

[poppabk]

I can't believe they are dropping the parity clause and screwing over Series S owners.

 

[Fat Frog]

A lot of publishers don't ditch Series Series S...

A lot of publishers just ditch Xbox...

 

[Banjo64]

Even though it is a gimped machine I don’t mind the Series S. As far as baselines go, could be worse.

What I don’t agree with is the parity clause.

It’s not hard to say ‘ok, you’ve bought a weaker machine for less money so you might not get every single game’. Even Nintendo did this with the New 3DS. Even Netflix do this with their ad tier. Do I want GTA 6 or The Witcher 4 locked down to this thing? Absolutely not.

 

[wolffy66]

He wants all xbox games to be multiplat.

He wants the hardware to distinguish itself as the reason someone chooses an xbox.

He removes any possibility that the hardware can distinguish itself by forcing parity with a low power option.

He's lost the plot.

 

[Shmunter]

He wants all xbox games to be multiplat.

He wants the hardware to distinguish itself as the reason someone chooses an xbox.

He removes any possibility that the hardware can distinguish itself by forcing parity with a low power option.

He's lost the plot.

The distinguishing hardware line is pure comedy. Everyone knows through decades of services and platform offerings…Content Is King.

But Teflon Spence gotta keep failing while stating it tastes like peaches.

 

[Codeblew]

I can't wait to play GTA6 at upscaled 480P/24fps on XSS.