Xbox Series X

Revealed at The Game Awards 2019, the Xbox Series X - formerly known as Project Scarlett - is Microsoft's next generation console, due out by the end of the year. We have some limited information about the console specs, as well as the vague statement that they "understand what reasonable price points are for a console" whilst at the same time refusing to state an actual figure, so make what you will of that.

One thing we DO know however is that the console will not have any exclusives for at least two years after launch, an unprecedented strategy and a stark contrast to the PS5, which will have exclusives from the get-go.


What are your thoughts on the Xbox Series X? Is the lack of exclusives a good move on Microsoft's part, or does it remove any and all incentive to purchase the system at launch? What sort of price are you expecting the system will have? Will Microsoft be able to undo the absolutely disastrous Xbox One launch - and it's generally poor performance compared to its competitors - with the Series X, or are we looking at another failure with this new console?

or does it remove any and all incentive to purchase the system at launch?

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This is the case for me. I plan on eventually getting one, yeah, but PS5 has exclusives, so that's more important to me to get first. Though I like PS more anyways so I'd be getting it first anyways. But for me that's the kind of thing that would make me pick the PS5 over the XBox for my first choice even if I liked the XBox more.

Also, the shape is horrible. It doesn't look so terrible at a glance but its dimensions make it hard to fit in existing setups. Assuming one does what a lot of others do, switch out the old console for the next-gen version, it would require rearranging your setup to fit it in, as opposed to the 360 and XBOne/every PlayStation ever being roughly the same "flat rectangle" profile. And I for one don't have the space to fit this new XBox tower in, so that makes it more difficult for me.

I will always prioritize getting Sony's platform at the moment, because I feel they have the better first party studios. Obsidian and Ninja Theory are the only good studios that MS have imo. Though I think Sony and MS should get together and discuss getting Hellblade a multi-platform release since Sony will be devolping MLB The Show for both platforms starting next year.

For price I think both platforms will be about the same price and MS with no exclusives will be a issue at the beginning of next gen.

I guess its going to come down to what the exclusives are, looking at the PS4's launch alot of it was relatively unremarkable when it came to exclusive titles at launch. Killzone was nice in showing off the graphics, and Knack was cuteish? I guess the question is which one is more powerful, if it is a stark difference like say PS3 and X Box 360, I may go with the X Box, if both are the relatively close like the current generation I will probably just stick with the Playstation and hope that the exclusives are better this time around.

EnglishALT said:

I guess its going to come down to what the exclusives are, looking at the PS4's launch alot of it was relatively unremarkable when it came to exclusive titles at launch. Killzone was nice in showing off the graphics, and Knack was cuteish? I guess the question is which one is more powerful, if it is a stark difference like say PS3 and X Box 360, I may go with the X Box, if both are the relatively close like the current generation I will probably just stick with the Playstation and hope that the exclusives are better this time around.

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Yeah but if XBox has no exclusives for two years, then if you get a PS5 first you'll still be able to play all the XBox's games and whatever exclusives Sony has, so worrying about better exclusives is a moot point.

I do wonder what this no exclusives stance means for Series X's sales, especially in the long term. At face value it looks like a very consumer-friendly move, because not everyone is going to have the money to buy this immediately and they're not going to gate off titles people really want to play behind a new console price tag, but...well, doesn't that give them more leeway in setting a higher price for it? I have a horrible feeling that Series X is going to be quite a bit more expensive than PS5 because of this...because who cares? People who want it will buy it, and people that don't aren't going to miss anything because the Xbone is going to be viable for another couple of years, by which point the price of the Series X will probably come down to equal the Xbone at launch or something. There could be some very clever anchoring going on with this.

I'm also reminded of that time Don Mattrick told people who didn't have a stable internet connection to just buy an Xbox 360, when the Xbox One was going to be an always-online console. I get the feeling this will send the message "if you can't afford a Series X, buy an Xbox One" only in a kinder fashion, as Xbox One support will still be going on. Microsoft seem to be marketing it as more in the way of a system upgrade rather than a replacement system with this move, which is definitely interesting...or perhaps it would be better to say they're using the Xbox One as a gateway into the next console generation until such time as the Series X is affordable. The Xbox One is much cheaper compared to it's initial launch price - I've seen them for around £150 second-hand, and the Series X will drop the price further - and it's not about to become essentially obsolete the way the PS4 is. Pretty attractive investment for the future, perhaps?

I have no doubt it won't perform as well as the PS5 initially without any exclusives, but I wonder if in the long term it might not perform better than the PS5 by giving consumers some breathing space before the next generation...breathing space they can also use to drop the price, so that it looks more affordable and appealing than Sony's offering. Although Sony will also be in a position to drop the PS5's price after a couple of years too probably, so perhaps not. This might even boost Xbox One sales, if Microsoft play their cards right.

Regardless, I get the feeling this generation it's going to be all about price, and I fully expect the Series X to be the more expensive console initially - more powerful, but no exclusives, so it's optional.

Dawn said:

I have no doubt it won't perform as well as the PS5 initially without any exclusives, but I wonder if in the long term it might not perform better than the PS5 by giving consumers some breathing space before the next generation...breathing space they can also use to drop the price, so that it looks more affordable and appealing than Sony's offering. Although Sony will also be in a position to drop the PS5's price after a couple of years too probably, so perhaps not. This might even boost Xbox One sales, if Microsoft play their cards right.

Regardless, I get the feeling this generation it's going to be all about price, and I fully expect the Series X to be the more expensive console initially - more powerful, but no exclusives, so it's optional.

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With the specs that have been said about both platforms, they will both pretty much be in equal footing power wise. The reason why the ps5 will have exclusives is the fact Sony wants to get ps5 consoles into homes asap. I don't think price will be the factor that determines which system will sell better and lets be honest Sony is a beloved company world wide and that is why their consoles have always sold very well even with thier big mistake during the ps3/360 era since Sony made a huge comeback and won the generation console wise.

Paige said:

With the specs that have been said about both platforms, they will both pretty much be in equal footing power wise. The reason why the ps5 will have exclusives is the fact Sony wants to get ps5 consoles into homes asap. I don't think price will be the factor that determines which system will sell better and lets be honest Sony is a beloved company world wide and that is why their consoles have always sold very well even with thier big mistake during the ps3/360 era since Sony made a huge comeback and won the generation console wise.

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Sony had a very rough start with the PS3, and it took them a very long time to overtake the 360 in terms of lifetime sales - almost 7 years, by which point the PS4 was about six months around the corner. I don't think they could be said to have "won" the seventh generation at all in terms of anything other than lifetime sales - which go beyond a generation - really. Even then, there isn't much of a gap between the two systems (around 3 million) and the PS3 is actually Sony's poorest performing home console as well. It didn't even come close to the PS2 and it's about 20 million behind the original Playstation. They recovered some ground in later years with price drops and different models, but outright beating the 360? That's a bit of a stretch.

Price was a major point of contention back when the seventh generation started, and if Sony think $600 is going to be any more acceptable now than it was back then, they're kidding themselves. I don't think $500 is going to be acceptable to a lot of consumers either really. I doubt it'll come to that, nor do I think there will be a $100 difference between the two systems, but...well, talking about a system's power rather than its games is a pretty clear (and very flimsy) excuse for an over-inflated price, and you can't use exclusive games to justify it either. I think it'll depend on what the price actually is, but if it's as high as people are expecting it to be, and if there is any noticeable difference between the two at all, then yeah, price will definitely be a factor.

But just because Sony made a comeback with the eighth generation doesn't mean that they can sustain that moving forward, and whilst there is no current indication that they won't, I don't think the Series X is being marketed as a direct competitor to the PS5, at least not initially. That could make a difference in the long run, and maybe we'll see the Series X's lifetime sales overtake the PS5's in much the same way the PS3 eventually overtook the 360's. If, hypothetically, the Series X is cheaper than the PS5 - Sony using exclusive games as a means to justify a higher price for the hardware, rather than Microsoft using system specs and no exclusives to justify a higher price for the Series X - and the price drops further when the exclusives start to roll out, it's going to become a much more appealing platform than it currently is. With Microsoft boasting the best subscription service option out of any of the three in Game Pass, it's only going to be more appealing for that as well.

As a final point, both Sony and Microsoft have their own share of first-party exclusives, but Sony are losing some of their major ones to PC already and I expect that to continue, because PC is a very popular platform and developers want to make money, so it only makes sense. Microsoft have lost some of theirs too, but take out exclusives and there isn't much of a difference between the two systems, and it seems to me like Microsoft are planning for that and playing a long game. Maybe it's too early for a system that has no exclusives right out the door, but I wonder if we'll see a shift in the future. There are other things to consider too - Microsoft's willingness to work with Nintendo and support cross-party play, etc. There are plenty of things that could in the long run make them the more appealing choice. Sure, Sony are more popular now, but they haven't always been this popular.

I realise there is a lot of speculation in this, but you never know how things will go. Sony messed up with the PS3, Microsoft messed up with the Xbox One. Neither of those things means that Sony won't mess up with the PS5 or Microsoft won't mess up the Series X. Painting Sony as the winner before the generation has even started because of this would be jumping the gun, though.

Microsoft started this with the Xbox One, to debateable degress of success, but they've been trying to make Xbox less of a "games console" and more of a "multimedia hub" that also happens to include games. While they have been in the past, it's getting more and more difficult to really call Sony/Microsoft direct competitors in the console market nowadays, and I can only see that difference getting greater over time.