The Xbox series S/X, not to be confused with Xbox One S/X

[cave hermit]

So shitty confusing naming conventions aside, I think Microsoft has some good offerings this gen. The series X for the 4K RTX meme, Series S for people who just want to play games. Game pass is a pretty good value, backwards compatibility actually enhances older xbox games quite nicely (Ninja gaiden black in full HD!), just all around a pretty nice game box.

Main weakness seems to be the lack of exclusives, especially since Microsoft considers PC to be part of the Xbox ecosystem now, but on the Sony side of things, I doubt anyone here is interested in the AAA cinematic progressive western developed flavor of the month soon to be 5 dollars or PS plus free products (because they aren't games, they are products to be consumed) that Sony has decided to push while shoving Japanese devs into the dark corner of the basement (Demon souls remake notwithstanding). Basically, unless you need to see Yuffie in FF7 remake or play Demon Souls with a fresh coat of paint, you wouldn't be missing out on much choosing a new Xbox over a PS5. Final Fantasy XVI is coming to PC by the way, Sony is deliberately making Square Enix withhold information and phrase it in awkward ways in order to try and trick people into thinking FFXVI will be PS5 exclusive.

Hatred for Sony aside, I have a PC with a ryzen 3900x and a RTX 3080. There is nothing I am missing out on with this PC and an old xbox 360. Regardless, I have ordered a Series S because game pass seems like a good value, backwards compatibility is quite nice, and sometimes I just want to kick back and play games from the comfort of a couch rather than at a desk in a stiff gaming chair.

I'm not sure what the point of making this thread was, but I guess it's for discussing the new Xbox consoles.

[To Far Away Times]

I don't have either of the new systems yet, but I'm leaning Xbox so far. Gamepass is very enticing. I had a PS4 last gen and that covered everything I needed.

The only big Sony first party exclusive that I'm into is TLoU, which I thought was excellent.

But the trade off of going PlayStation is missing out on Bethesda games like Elder Scrolls and DOOM along with gamepass, and right now I think Xbox is set up better for the future.

Sony more or less gave up on the Japanese market, so I'm expecting parity among Japanese game releases, aside from the occasional paid exclusive.

[Austin]

It'll most likely be a bit before I jump on the Series X bandwagon. Wasn't able to get in on the pre-order and as a result I decided to just roll with a Xbox One X instead, since most of what I play is older B/C stuff anyway. I have read about backwards compatibility on the S/X and unfortunately due to some architecture issue, the S is not able to run the enhanced versions of back-compat titles (it basically runs them like a One S does). So I believe that means no Ninja Gaiden Black or Panzer Dragoon Orta at 4K. That said, MS did just recently announce a new back-compat feature where they are able to boost games from 30fps to 60 and higher without even modifying the game code (https://youtu.be/7dxJFCgkNws). Pretty impressive stuff. Their exclusives haven't been too appealing to me for a while, but their backwards compatibility efforts are truly commendable and it's why the Xbox line is still my primary go-to/modern series of consoles.

[Marc]

I'm kind of glad I wasn't able to make any rash pre-order decisions this time around. If I had, Demon's Souls would have absolutely pushed me in the direction of PS5, but it's still the only thing there I've any interest in.

Other than that, I'm seeing absolutely nothing at all that tempts me on the new consoles, like Austin above, I upgraded my base PS4 to a Pro, and picked up an X1X this year, and spent less than I would have on a Series S.

Game Pass is of no interest to me, I'm actually halfway through a free three-month trial now, but other than the odd game for my kids, I 've so much stuff I've picked up on sales over the years that adding more fluff to the pile doesn't appeal to me. In fact, if I do upgrade, I'll be buying a much more sparse and curated selection of games than I have this gen, where I've ended up sinking bits of time into multiple games in certain genres rather than concentrating on one or two of the better examples.

Paner Dragoon Orta on the X1X.... it's a thing of beauty.

[Cretonne]

Same for me, I was going to offer my old consoles to a little cousin. Finally I still hesitate because of the lack of games on these new consoles. For the moment, I am rather satisfied to play portable games.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I bought an Xbox Series S console with an optional Seagate 1TB expansion card. Transfer data bandwidth rate between the XSS's internal memory & the expansion card is super blazing fast -- a 24gb+ Skyrim game file from the expansion card to internal memory took a mere 63 seconds to complete. I've never seen such a game file transfer that fast & was a pleasant surprise indeed. Of course, the XSS console comes with a paltry 512gb of internal storage & will fill up in no time flat if populated with huge game downloads. The XSS does come with a hdmi 2.1 cable + has two usb 3.1 ports (one in front & the other on the backside) and is capped at 120fps @ 1440p (it still can output in 1080p @ 60fps on the older hdtv setups quite easily).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~