Poll: *** Xbox Series X|S - General Discussion Thread ***

Which will you buy?

  • Series X

    Votes: 529 59.8%
  • Series S

    Votes: 104 11.8%
  • Not interested

    Votes: 230 26.0%
  • Both

    Votes: 22 2.5%

  • Total voters
    885
Caporegime
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So I wanted clarification on the whole Gamepass Ultimate (GPU) issue if you were to buy an S/X via All Access.

I found out via live chat that the All Access 24 months GPU will be baked into the console. So you’ll get an option to activate it there and then on the console when you’re setting up or later (which is done in settings). So if you have GPU until 2023 for example, you can let that sub go down, then activate the 2 years All Access whenever you want.

But I went further....

I wanted to know about the situation regarding buying outright so called Microsoft. Seems a bit unfair that people buying via All Access get GPU for 2 years and not those buying outright.. Now I can’t say whether this person had the right info or not but he seemed very confident that there was going to be a code of some kind (in the box of the S/X, emailed to you or on a receipt) saying that for £/$24.99, you get 2 years worth of GPU....

I literally got him to confirm this 3 times to make sure I had it right (only a technical support dude after all... ) Because for me, £449 + £24.99 (for 2 years of GPU) = £473.99 is a substantial saving. But he seemed adamant that this was a thing and would be announced soon (when pre orders go live perhaps?).

Just thought I’d share what I found out. I’ll believe the outright info when I see it but the All Access stuff is a lock.

That would be amazing. It could be possible that there is an offer like that if they want to make sure they get cashflow with people buying consoles upfront as well.

£25 for 2 years does sound a bit too good to be true though. That's basically a pound a month.

I guess it depends on just how much they want to pull Sony's trousers down.
 
Soldato
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The 1440p target resolution is about 1/2 not 1/4 of 4k, so I expect textures to be about 1/2 the size too.

Hey look, an SSD at half the size will fit the same number of games as the 1TB on the Series X.

No chance, the install sizes won't scale that way based on resolution alone, and a game install isn't comprised entirely of textures so there are other things to consider.
 
Associate
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Sounds unlikely, MS won't want to lose money on both the hardware and services surely.

They're getting your money regardless?

Like I'm just looking at what incentive there is to buying outright at this point? Eurogamer has said/worked out that it works out cheaper to buy the Series X via All Access, where you'd get the 2 years GPU as opposed to buying it outright and then buying the same amount of time yourself....

I fully get why people would be sceptical, hence why I asked him a few times. But he seemed adamant that a a deal of this kind was going to be offered regarding buying outright and details would be coming so people know what they're getting when they pre-order. As I said, just felt I should at least mention it as I asked and might be of interest.
 
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You can only play XsX/XsS games off the internal SSD. However, you can still use an external USB HDD to hold your games and just transfer them between the internal or external depending on whether you are playing them currently............you can also play BC games off an external HDD as well.

I may well just purchase a cheap 4tB USB drive to hold the games on (and then I can put all my existing game library on it ready for when I upgrade).
 
Soldato
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You can only play XsX/XsS games off the internal SSD. However, you can use and external USB hdd to hold your games and just transfer them between the internal or external depending on whether you are playing them currently............you can also play BC games off an external dd as well.

I may well just purchase a cheap 4tB USB drive to hold the games on (and then I can put all my existing game library on it ready for when I upgrade).

I'd go this way too. Be interesting to see how long it takes to move 100GB over to the SSD. 4TB external HDD are cheap as chips.

Same thing for XB and PS5 you can play older games off the HDD.
 
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No chance, the install sizes won't scale that way based on resolution alone, and a game install isn't comprised entirely of textures so there are other things to consider.
There has been quite a lot mentioned on game sizes with next gen consoles. A large reason that current games are getting so big is that the storage is so slow that game assets need to be duplicated so that delays in loading are minimised. One of the advantages with the ultra fast SSD is that they won't need that duplication, and so we should see smaller overall game installs.........couple that with smaller texture and asset sizes at 1440p and you should get quite a decent reduction in game install size for XsS.
 
Caporegime
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They're getting your money regardless?

Like I'm just looking at what incentive there is to buying outright at this point? Eurogamer has said/worked out that it works out cheaper to buy the Series X via All Access, where you'd get the 2 years GPU as opposed to buying it outright and then buying the same amount of time yourself....

I fully get why people would be sceptical, hence why I asked him a few times. But he seemed adamant that a a deal of this kind was going to be offered regarding buying outright and details would be coming so people know what they're getting when they pre-order. As I said, just felt I should at least mention it as I asked and might be of interest.

I agree with you. I think that it is very plausible that there will be a GPU offer for those that buy one outright as well. I think Xbox just want to get as many subscribers as possible, at almost whatever the cost.
 
Soldato
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There has been quite a lot mentioned on game sizes with next gen consoles. A large reason that current games are getting so big is that the storage is so slow that game assets need to be duplicated so that delays in loading are minimised. One of the advantages with the ultra fast SSD is that they won't need that duplication, and so we should see smaller overall game installs.........couple that with smaller texture and asset sizes at 1440p and you should get quite a decent reduction in game install size for XsS.

Yep and I'm not entirely discounting that, but games also get bigger with each generation and over time so those savings are going to be quickly wiped out. The chances of having smaller game install sizes than we do now seems incredibly unlikely, it'll just reduce the rate at which they grow.

Obviously MS and Sony will have thought about this quite a lot in while determining what storage sizes and options to offer (with cost being a particular factor), but I personally think both will end up outgrowing their on-board storage far more rapidly than we've seen in the previous couple of generations (20/40GB PS3 aside, perhaps). An external USB HDD is going to end up becoming a necessity.
 
Soldato
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How is additional storage planned to work when using a hard drive as developers will have had the SSD in mind when the games are made?

You can store the data on a HDD and install the game to the SSD later.

You can't play next gen games from a USB HDD.
 
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Soldato
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How is additional storage planned to work when using a hard drive as developers will have had the SSD in mind when the games are made?
Thats just it, if you want non SSD storage it'll just be stored. You can only play them if you move them to the SSD. There is going to be an official SSD external but it won't be cheap. Anything up to £200 possibly.
 
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image0-1.jpg
 
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Is there anything official which states this?
The official SSD memory upgrade is a cartridge that slots into the back of the console........I'm wondering if the original SSD is in that cartridge format inside the console (like they use to with SD cards in mobile phones)? If so, then I wonder if the XsS SSD is usable in the XsX and vice versa..........might be useful if you have issues with your XsS, as then you could cannibalise it for the SSD and controller.
 
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