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Microsoft XBox (Games)

Xbox Series X Launches Nov. 10 for $499 (polygon.com) 68

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Microsoft's next-generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, will be released on Nov. 10, Microsoft announced on Wednesday. Microsoft also confirmed the price of Xbox Series X: $499. Pre-orders will open on Sept. 22. From a report: As part of Wednesday's announcement, Microsoft also said it will expand Xbox All Access program to 12 countries. This program essentially allows players to purchase a console and Xbox Game Pass on a monthly payment program -- $24.99 a month. Xbox All Access will be available in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. Microsoft's localized Xbox Twitter accounts have also been tweeting regional pricing: In the U.K., the Xbox Series X will cost $499 and the Xbox Series S will cost $299. This holiday Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC members get an EA Play membership at no additional cost.
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Xbox Series X Launches Nov. 10 for $499 More

Xbox Series X Launches Nov. 10 for $499

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  • Question, why not just get a PC? (Score:3, Informative)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @10:41AM (#60488112)

    One thing that I find interesting at this point, is that if I were tempted to get an Xbox, it just seems to make a lot more sense to get a PC.

    Are there any games that really will be Xbox only, and can't run on the PC? With the GamePass focus it sure seems like anything I wanted to play, would playable on the PC as well.

    It could be the Xbox Series X is just a good deal for what is essentially a PC, but I'm not sure if that is the case or not.

    • PC costs more, MS is offering financing with a game pass, ease of use. To make a PC living room friendly takes some work and compromises. Things like you have to keep a full sized keyboard around because most living-room friendly keyboards dont have function keys so you are going to need one to access bios and other fail-to-boot scenarios.

      • To make a PC living room friendly takes some work and compromises.

        Wouldn't it just take getting an HDMI signal over to the TV? Then you could use whatever wireless controllers you prefer from the couch. You could just carry it over and carry it back when done.

        It could be good solutions for HDMI transmission are nearly as expensive as the S model Xbox though...

    • Some people don't want to mess around with the operating system, drivers, patches, etc. A game console does that much more easily than a PC running Windows.

      • Some people don't want to mess around with the operating system, drivers, patches, etc

        Is that all still true anymore though?

        If you just got a PC but didn't plan to change out the GPU ever, wouldn't it be nearly as stable as a console?

        Consoles these days also take in a lot of updates, so if you just had a PC with auto-update turned on and a mainstream GPU, wouldn't it be nearly as trouble-free as a console?

        • Windows updates are way more unstable then console updates, and thats mainly because consoles are locked boxes, you can't mess with them like PCs. Consoles are also made for TVs and computers, in general, aren't, maybe if Microsoft ports the box interface and adds it Windows so you can do steam like big box mode maybe. In the end I suggest consoles for most people like I make my Mom get an iPhone, its locked down and less likely to have issues that I need to fix.

      • My console gaming experience.

        Finally get a day to play games, sit down and turn it on. Boom patch time, wait 30-45 minutes. During this time get bored and do something else. Come back a hour or more later to see it's ready, but then it's lunch/dinner time. So you shut it off. Then I'm out with friends or family. A week later I get a day to game, repeat.

        • Aren't the latest generations of consoles supposed be in "sleep" mode when not used, so they can do these downloads while you're not using them?

          • Aren't the latest generations of consoles supposed be in "sleep" mode when not used, so they can do these downloads while you're not using them?

            I have a PS4 and have it set up like that - it is true that sometimes I start it up, and some updates have been applied...

            But also at times, I have fired it up and found I couldn't play multi-player without doing a system updates.

            It seems like maybe game updates happen automatically, but system updates don't happen until you manually tell it to go ahead?

        • Also, the same damn thing happens to me with my Windows gaming PC so it's not a console-only problem.

        • Same with PC mate. COD Warzone, Apex Legends, Fortnite, pretty much every game that's on both console and PC get patched at the same time and they're often very similar sized patches.
        • This is my experience exactly. I just can't be arsed.
    • I've never understood the draw of a console gaming system. When I want to upgrade my PC to take advantage of new technologies in gaming it's simple and readily available. The notion of being stuck with a gaming box that you can't upgrade seems silly to me.
      • With a console you turn it on and play. You know whatever game you get for the console will be playable on it, no needing to go reading the specs to see if you meet them. 7 years on new game releases are just as fast on that console as earlier ones were, you're not there wondering if your 7 year old GPU will manage to scrape 60FPS. Then there's the whole cheating and hacking business. Consoles win that one hands down and now with mouse and keyboard control becoming more common even the "but controllers" arg
        • The first part isn't true anymore as consoles now have variants with differing levels of performance. But man, you're right about PC gaming being ripe with cheaters and hackers. It is a freaking mess. So yeah, I'd definitely list the lack of cheaters on consoles to be a big plus. Good point.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Windows 10 is sufficiently locked down, sufficiently filled with spyware and sufficiently spamming you with ads to the point where MS probably doesn't care which one of the two you get.

      Because they get you about as much either way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )
      Because on the X-Box, I can play offline. And playing "online", as enforced by basically every PC games these days, has never been an option to me, both for technical and for privacy reasons.

    • Worthwhile Gaming PC: North of 650 Euros in hardware. Fiddling with the hardware, OS and installations. Bulky, fussy, noisy.

      Xbox One S: 200 Euros. Unpack, hook up, turn on, works.
      Hardware and OS and System and Software Delivery and Services all built by the same people.

      Just like Apple, only way cheaper.

      I've got a complete setup with 27" screen, soundbar, keyboard and multiple controllers and still have spent less than for a gaming PC setup.
      I got a gaming PC back in 1996. A Cyrix P200+ rig for 6000 Euros. It

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by maitas ( 98290 )

        Yep. A Gaming PC that is capable of raytracing is way more expensive than Xbox Series S $299.

        • RDNA2 (what the Xboxes use) utilizes already existing texture units to do ray tracing, so all new AMD GPUs are capable even though it doesn't have dedicated hardware like the Nvidia cards.
          Of course no matter what hardware you're using any computer is "capable" of making the calculations, it's just a matter of how complex a scene it can render in real-time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
        lol, I had forgotten about the Matrox Mystique. I had one of those as well. Thanks for the flashback, I greatly enjoyed it!
      • Wut. So...your 1996 technology can't keep up with 2020 technology, so consoles are the way to go? That's stupid.

    • Re:Question, why not just get a PC? (Score:5, Informative)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:34AM (#60488442)

      Consoles are still king when it comes to convenience (ie worrying about drivers, system upgrades, etc).

      Plus its a solid investment - buy a console once and you're more or less guaranteed to have a system that can run everything that comes out for that system for the duration of its lifetime (about 7 years typically). With a PC you have to make the determination of "is my system fast enough" on a game by game basis, upgrade if needed, etc.

      And frankly though PC looks best graphics on all of them have long passed the point where I care. I catch those IGN or Gamestop comparison videos in my Youtube feed every now and then where they do a graphics comparison between PS4, PC, and Xbox, and while I can notice subtle differences when they change back and forth, not once have I ever seen a change in the image that would affect my actual enjoyment of the game at all.

      • I read comments like your before I bought the Xbox One, and believed them. After buying the console, I found the experience much more restricting and annoying than PC gaming. Was there an update released? Well, you gotta update your console before you can go online. An update to your game? Gotta download the 60 GB update and wait for it to install before playing. Oh, you want to just sit down in front of the thing and play a quick round? Hope you remember your Microsoft Live (whatever) password! Games are m

        • An update to your game? Gotta download the 60 GB update and wait for it to install before playing.

          Exactly the same on PC.

          • Well, I'd argue that this is to a different extent, as I can leave Steam open and it auto updates in the background. With the console, it doesn't seem to update unless I'm logged in, not just when the thing is left powered on, and it seems to require a re-login every time I revisit it. Now, I may be wrong as I'm not a console guy. Regardless, for a console to be appealing to me, it's got to be much simpler than a PC. Not just equivalent in annoyance.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              Well, I'd argue that this is to a different extent, as I can leave Steam open and it auto updates in the background. With the console, it doesn't seem to update unless I'm logged in, not just when the thing is left powered on, and it seems to require a re-login every time I revisit it. Now, I may be wrong as I'm not a console guy. Regardless, for a console to be appealing to me, it's got to be much simpler than a PC. Not just equivalent in annoyance.

              If you have to log in constantly, you probably have it set

      • ie worrying about drivers, system upgrades, etc

        What are you talking about? The results these days are pretty much identical. New game is released, the first thing that ships out is some driver and system update that you have to do (both on console and PC), then bugs are identified (on both console and PC) and after several weeks the final version gets pushed out via updates, sometimes with new drivers (on both console and PC) instead of the beta which was shipped on release date.

        If you think console are some kind of trouble free experience I suspect you

      • With a PC you have to make the determination of "is my system fast enough" on a game by game basis, upgrade if needed, etc.

        Not like I buy a lot of AAA titles, but I haven't had to worry about my system specs for about 10 years. Every game engine scales pretty well these days, so if a game doesn't run well, just tone down the graphics a bit.

        Graphic quality may be an issue across upgrades, but getting things to "just work" typically isn't a problem on the PC.

    • Re:Question, why not just get a PC? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:36AM (#60488460)
      Honest question (not a gamer) but can you come anywhere close to getting a PC that can play the latest gaming titles at 120fps and 4k, for $499? Or even the $840 you'd pay for the XBOX with GamePass Unlimited over a 24 month period?

      • can you come anywhere close to getting a PC that can play the latest gaming titles at 120fps and 4k, for $499?

        That's what I am kind of wondering with my question, it seems like at this point that should be possible.

        I've not priced out PC parts for a while though.

        it's real even competing against the lower priced S model I think though - I'm assuming they both have the same GPU power, just that the cheaper model has no physical disk drive and maybe greater storage space?

        • The cheaper S model can't run 4k, only 1440p. It also includes 1/2 the storage, and lacks the disc drive, as you mentioned.

          • Ahh, thanks... come to think of it, it seems like a disc-less version should include more storage, not less!

            The not being able to run 4k is a surprise to me though. I just assumed all models would be around the same level of graphical power, seems annoying to develop for with a spread.

        • The new Nvidia 3070 GPU which has performance equivalent to a 2080 TI will be able to game at 4K 60FPS and it'll cost you $499 just for the card. Throw in another $600 on Ryzen 3700X CPU, X570 motherboard, 16GB DDR 3200 memory, 1 TB NVME drive, case and Blu-Ray drive and you're about there.

      • The xbox won't run the latest titles at 4k @120fps either.

        The closest you could get on PC is probably by sticking an RTX 3080 into a used i5/i7 office desktop, although the CPU will definitely bottleneck in some games.

        • The Xbox Series X will 4k @ 120fps, which is what quoted the price from. It also has the ability to do 8k in the future.

        • The xbox won't run the latest titles at 4k @120fps either.

          That's not what Microsoft or reviewers have said. One of the reasons that the LG 48" CX OLED has been mentioned as the best display for it is because the console can do 4K 120FPS.

          • I wouldn't trust this set of reviews. The initial reviews are done under NDAs, by people selected by Microsoft, and if they piss off Microsoft by publishing negatives, they won't get the opportunity in the future. I'd wait until someone buys this thing from a retailer and reviews that specific console.
      • Well, with the announcement of the 3070 for $499, yeah. Apparently it is better than a 2080ti which can certainly do 4k @ 120, depending on settings and game. Pair it up with a 3700x, and you are golden for somewhere around $1000. Fact is, most people have decent PCs already. I have a 6700k I've been using for development and I could pop this card in and make a fine gaming rig.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by batkiwi ( 137781 )

          Most people do not have decent PCs, or desktop PCs at all. Most people have laptops.

          Maybe most people on slashdot? Even then I'd guess the majority of readers don't have a desktop, only the hardcore commenters.

    • For the upcoming holiday season there does not seem to be a lot of compelling reasons for me to get an Xbox. Maybe next year when there are more titles.

    • Microsoft recently changed it's stance so that not all Xbox Series X games have to be playable on PC. ie: there will be console exclusives but how many is unclear

    • I have less than zero desire to mix what I use my computer for (work, personal business, web browsing, etc) with what I use my game console for (playing games obviously, but also a player for Netflix/etc).

      So even if I were to believe that a gaming PC hooked to my TV would provide a better experience, we're talking two PCs now. My thought is then why would I play PC money to do only what an Xbox does? And I see some people here claiming the appropriate PC here could be had for only twice the price, what I

    • I look for the good man. I would be your Mistress!! Punish me! =>> http://bit.do/fJeXZ [bit.do]

    • One thing that I find interesting at this point, is that if I were tempted to get an Xbox, it just seems to make a lot more sense to get a PC.

      Are there any games that really will be Xbox only, and can't run on the PC? With the GamePass focus it sure seems like anything I wanted to play, would playable on the PC as well.

      PC gaming is lonely. My wife has even tried to adapt date nights (she likes games too) to PC and it was just sad. I've been a PC gamer most of my life. I love to relax in an office chair with a keyboard and mouse. That said, when I do so, I am alone. I can't invite friends over to play with me. I can't easily play games with my kids.

      I prefer a keyboard and mouse greatly, but am moving to a console alone to play with my kids and wife. Even before kids, I kept an XBox around for parties. No one wa

      • I thought the same thing but when I bought the Xbox One, I found that I couldn't just play as I had to manage logins and passwords and setup such for guests and yeah, it's really not as straight forward as console gaming used to be.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )

      One thing that I find interesting at this point, is that if I were tempted to get an Xbox, it just seems to make a lot more sense to get a PC.

      I'm not sure it's at all interesting at this point, it isn't like gaming PC vs console hasn't been an ongoing discussion for 20+ years and the calculation isn't vastly different now from most times in the past. The GPU will outperform the 5700XT which is currently a $400 GPU, and even accounting for there upcoming release you won't get a GPU to match or outperform the

    • more if you didn't want to build it yourself. Yeah, if you built your own you'd have the option to upgrade for less over time, but that means fiddling with components and drivers and reading reviews (you can buy a 1050 TI for $200 bucks if you're not paying attention or a 1660 Super for the same).

      • It'll definitely cost more unless you've already got a decent computer that you just need to shove a new GPU into. I had a 360 and a Wii. I could buy a new console, but I wouldn't be able to play my existing games on it. On the PC, I can play 30yo games no problem. Pretty much everything I had on my 360 was also available on PC, and for the Wii I just hooked up the Wii controllers and play all my Wii games through Dolphin without needing a separate box.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      One thing that I find interesting at this point, is that if I were tempted to get an Xbox, it just seems to make a lot more sense to get a PC.

      Are there any games that really will be Xbox only, and can't run on the PC? With the GamePass focus it sure seems like anything I wanted to play, would playable on the PC as well.

      It could be the Xbox Series X is just a good deal for what is essentially a PC, but I'm not sure if that is the case or not.

      If you're PC savvy, sure, a PC is better. And Microsoft has GamePas

  • I think covid related financial situation might have played a role, but the pricing is better than I expected. For both the low end and high end models, it costs slightly more than a comparable GPU for a PC.

    It looks like Sony will have an event soon. Hopefully they too would announce a reasonable price, and us gamers, regardless of the platform, can benefit from it.

  • Does that matter anymore?

    i know Cyberpunk 2077 will "look better" (supposedly) but I've got an XBox One X and it's holding up fine and I bet Cyberpunk 2077 will look good enough!
    I s'pose I (and a lot of other people) will upgrade to it eventually but maybe in a year or two once the exclusives are out.

    Of course by then MS will have released the XBox Series x X which will be more refined anyway. (and don't get me started on this bizarre naming convention - what's wrong with XBox 5?)

  • As a mac+linux user, I'm stoked (Score:4, Informative)

    by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:40AM (#60488476)

    I'm a compiler developer, who does all my development on a MacBook connected to a Linux server. So I've been without a PC, hence without many games. I just didn't have the heart to buy and administer a whole new PC solely for gaming.

    I'm excited to have such a powerful gaming machine soon, cheaper and with less administrative overhead than a new PC! My SeriesX launch games will be the ones I've missed out on over the past couple of years - Star Wars Battlegrounds now that they've removed microtransactions, Star Wars Squadrons due out on October 10th, Outer Wilds. As for Cyperpunk 2077, I'll wait until the next-gen remaster due in 2021.

  • It's $25/mo for the smaller Series S that was announced yesterday, $35 for the Series X that was announced today. Also it's for a 24 month term.

  • You want me to spend $300 a year to rent games? If that's to be the new norm, that comes out to $2,000 over a 5 year span, including the console, at the end of which you own only a console with no games. You'll get back about $200 selling it.

    I move to new generations of consoles by selling the last gen. You can get a lot more money for a console plus games, especially around the holidays. Don't fall for the trap of digital everything. Physical copies unless unable, and even then seriously consider passing b

  • another console which I will buy, crack it, install one piece of homebrew on, and then it will sit unused for 5 years under the television until the next one comes out

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