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XBox (Games) Microsoft

Microsoft's New Xbox One S Will Go On Sale On August 2 -- Will You Buy One? (betanews.com) 108

Posted by msmash from the new-shiny-gaming-consoles dept.
Microsoft announced on Monday that its new Xbox One S console will go on sale on August 2. To recall, the Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One (also the power supply packed in the console itself), and has the processing muscle to stream video in 4K Ultra HD with HDR. BetaNews reports: August 2 is the big date which also sees the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update. The Xbox One S also features up to 2TB of storage. In all, three versions of the console are available. It's the 2TB model that's grabbing the headlines and the attention of keen gamers, and this model will launch in "limited numbers" priced at $399. The console will launch in Australia, Canada, UK and United States among several other regions. For anyone looking for a slightly cheaper option, the 1TB model will cost $349, while $299 will get you a 500GB version. If you want to add to the single Xbox Wireless Controller included as standard, this will set you back a further $59.99.Are you planning to purchase one of these?
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Microsoft's New Xbox One S Will Go On Sale On August 2 -- Will You Buy One? More

Microsoft's New Xbox One S Will Go On Sale On August 2 -- Will You Buy One?

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  • No. (Score:5, Informative)

    by tatman ( 1076111 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:04AM (#52534083) Homepage
    I just bought the V1 of Xbox One because the price was finally acceptable.

    • I told my kids that they can have one just as soon as they beat every game in MAME.

    • I doubt it. I bought my Xbox One last year because I wanted to play a specific game and it was cheaper to buy a console than upgrade my PC.

      That said, I told myself I wouldn't use it until I finished all the game on my 360 - I still have four of those left to finish. I only turned on the One to initially configure it, and I played a random game for about an hour. It's sat collecting dust since.

      That reminds me, I should really finish those games on the 360!

      • XBox 1: jumped shark, shark ate it (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @12:25PM (#52534817) Homepage Journal

        No. I've seen the XBox one in action. Hours for updates, insert game, hours more for updates... it's a terrible system.

        Sticking with the older gear. Because you can actually play a game when you stick a disk in.

        The console makers have completely lost sight of the customer.

        • Re:XBox 1: jumped shark, shark ate it (Score:4, Insightful)

          by cfalcon ( 779563 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @02:36PM (#52535999)

          > you can actually play a game when you stick a disk in

          This x1000.

          You have to give ALL THE FUCKS to get a current gen console working. Playing a modern console game is as much or more drama as playing a modern PC game.

          First, hook up the box, plug it in.
          Second, turn it on. You probably need to configure it.
          Third, tell it how to talk to your wifi, using the wifi password.
          Fourth, create or login with some console specific account, with a console specific user name and password. You'll probably need email access. You may need a credit card here too, depending.
          Fifth, ensure that the console has all the current advertisements to show you. It won't work unless it can download all the fresh advertisements, so this is hundreds of megabytes. There may also be a code update in here that makes it incompatible with something, hey, who knows. If you lose power during this mandatory step, be sure to RMA your brick. After five to nine business days you'll get another one that you can repeat this whole process for ALL of your games.
          Sixth, insert the disk.
          Seventh, install some portions of the disk to the hard drive.
          Eighth, patch the disk derived program with whatever the hell is needed for it, which is also a lot of data. Some of it may also be ads.
          Ninth, you can now play. Until any of these things change, of course, in which case you'll have to adjust your credit card information, your login password, your wifi password, or more likely download another OS patch or Application patch. Or if the servers are down because the game is more than three years old, just go ahead and stop worrying about ever playing it again.
          Oh, and tenth, be sure to carefully monitor disk usage! You'll run out quickly unless you bought the biggest dude or don't play a lot of games. If you are close on space, you can probably get away with a USB drive or something, so be sure to plug that fucker in too.

          This is about as much drama as maintaining a computer, for something far more transient. I get that the gameplay experience of online play is great, but holy moly what a bunch of junk. And remember- most of this is true of fully single player games too. If you are playing, say, just Super Mario, you get to skip steps three and eight only. Step five, the OS patch needed to play the game, still happens, it just happens AFTER you put the disk in. It's still totally absurd. The only time you can boot up a console and have a game come up within three minutes is if you like, just played it yesterday.

          Feels so bad.

          • Third, tell it how to talk to your wifi, using the wifi password.

            And I hit a dealbreaker right there. There's no way I'll allow a console to talk to the net. If a console can't work without doing so, then that's one I won't be buying.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cfalcon ( 779563 )

              So if that's your restriction, then you're obviously not interested in online gaming on the console. You don't NEED to talk to the net for most (any?) single player games. But the process doesn't change much: you still have to patch the OS with an OS patch included on the disk, etc. The big advantage is that you can leave the console around for a year and it will work immediately when you turn it on, without it begging for new ads or whatever.

          • OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT IN!!! STEP ONE KILLS IT FOR ME RIGHT THERE!!!

            It's ten minutes of setup when you first buy it, and then when you put in a game for the first time you have to wait a few minutes (which, granted, is kind of a bummer), and every few months when you turn it on you have to wait a few minutes. Sure, waiting a few minutes every once in a while is kind of a drag, but in no way does that come close to the annoyances of PC gaming.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by guises ( 2423402 )
            ::sigh:: This is just not true. Only the Xbox and Playstation have this problem, I have never connected my Wii U to the internet and it has never given me any trouble.

            Forgot about that one, did you? If the other two are so bad, and they are, why do people keep ignoring the one that actually does what it's supposed to, and does it really well? I am sorely disappointed in how readily gamers have bought into this marketing meme that there are only two current-gen consoles. The only functional console of the

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Smiddi ( 1241326 )
          Agreed 100%. Almost every time I boot up either the PS4 or XBOX it needs some form of update, ranging from a few hundred Mbs to often Gbs. No point in having fast boot times if you need to wait for updates. If you need to update the game then the game isn't finished.
    • Most looking to upgrade will probably wait for the xbox "scorpio" next year.

  • NO (Score:5, Insightful)

    by invictusvoyd ( 3546069 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:07AM (#52534101)
    Nope

  • YES! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:09AM (#52534111) Homepage

    But only after a couple of months go by.

    I will move the current one to the Theater room and then the new one takes over the living room duties. the smaller footprint will work fantastically to keep the wife happy with "smaller is better" insanity that the females of this species seems to have.

    • Re:YES! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Admiral_Grinder ( 830562 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:15AM (#52534159)

      smaller is better

      Thats what she.....wait, no she didn't say that

      • smaller is better

        Thats what she.....wait, no she didn't say that

        It's just what she tells him because she respects his feelings.

    • But only after a couple of months go by.

      >

      The new Microsoft CEO Satay Nutella probably also has a bonus tied to this . . . so wait a while, and Microsoft will be giving them away . . . just so Satay Nutella can meet his installations goal . . . .

      • At first, your misspelling of the man's name struck me as humorous. So I googled the right way to spell it. Oddly, there are about half as many hits for "Satay Nutella" as "Satya Nadella." Most of those were indeed posts about the CEO of Microsoft. That would imply either this is a pretty common misspelling, or that it's intentional. Interestingly, there were a couple of hits that were links to recipes for a hazelnut dipping sauce for chicken skewers. YUM!!

        But to your actual point. It is amazing how often t

        • Well, in case you are creative, I'm still looking for misspellings of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.

          For Trump, maybe something like "McDonald's Trumps" . . . little cocktail sausages . . . ?

          For Clinton, maybe their are some kind of pickles named something close to "Clintons" . . . ?

  • I've already got one from launch, so I don't really need this. Project Scorpio might be a purchase when that hits the market though.
  • Consoles? Nope. Console games are more expensive than PC games because of licensing costs that the console builders charge devs to make up their hardware losses.
  • This will likely lead to me buying a first generation Xbox One finally. Nah probably not. Only got a 360 because I was buying a laptop and they told me after that I got a free xbox 360. It will likely take a similar occurrence for me to get an Xbox One...which will be difficult because I have no plans to buy another computer for a few years...

  • Nah. A new console would be wasted on me. I still have way more good games on old consoles than I have time to play them, and new stuff goes best on the PC anyway.

  • I highly doubt Slashdot cares whatsoever if we're going to buy the console or not. This is just an ad with a survey at the end.
  • A do have money saved up for gaming but for new GPU.

  • $100 to go from 500 to 2TB? (Score:3)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:26AM (#52534227)

    You can buy an 2TB disk for under an $100 so why not just get the 500GB and buy your own HDD for less? + get to keep the old 500GB Will MS ban you for doing that?

  • WTF is up with all the NON-Poll questions... (Score:3)

    by CrashNBrn ( 1143981 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:29AM (#52534249)
    What the Hell Slashdot? Make these polls already.

  • It's too soon (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hasaf ( 3744357 ) on Monday July 18, 2016 @11:36AM (#52534297)

    Many people have just (as in, within the last year) purchased an X-box One. This might be attractive to those still playing on a 360, and people who just have to have the latest; however, I think most people who do not fit in those categories will sit this one out.

    Microsoft is not going to be able to convince people to "churn" their consoles. Part of the reasons people buy consoles instead of gaming PC's is platform longevity.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      Many people have just (as in, within the last year) purchased an X-box One. This might be attractive to those still playing on a 360, and people who just have to have the latest; however, I think most people who do not fit in those categories will sit this one out.

      Microsoft is not going to be able to convince people to "churn" their consoles. Part of the reasons people buy consoles instead of gaming PC's is platform longevity.

      If you already have an XB1 there is no compelling reason to purchase an XB1-S unless you have a 4K TV and want to play 4K movies.

      Now for the confusion. If you already have a 4K TV then you should be aware if it supports High Dynamic Range (HDR). Even if your 4K TV does support HDR you still need to know if it supports HDR10 and/or Dolby Vision HDR. Yes we have another format war [hometheaterreview.com].

      What is important here is that if you wish to play 4K Bluray movies the 4K TV must support HDR10 which is actually an open s

  • Nope (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    But if this finally makes the original Xbox One cost less than $200, i'll probably get that.

  • Probably will be better off just spending the $350 on a GTX 1070 to make my computer better and selling the 970 in it for $150 or $200.
    Will be a cheaper and more capable upgrade path.

    So. No.

  • I have an original XBOne, and it works fine. for 4K media I have Nvidia Shield TV.

    Only gaming upgrade happening this year is an EVGA GeForce 1080 FTW. A fair bit more expensive than a console, but worth every penny to me for the games I prefer to play.

  • Why should I buy a fake one?

  • Its hilarious to watch these idiots thrash about and waste millions trying to one-up each other and their imaginary fears of whatever Nintendo will do next year, all the while systematically screwing over their core constituency and early adopters who clearly must all suffer from Stockholm Syndrome by now.

  • or some sort of take at a hybrid internal/external like Nintendo pulled with the 64.

    Since, with the exception of the X-Box One or course, the power supply was one of the most likely things to fail (somewhere behind optical drives) making that an external device just makes sense.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      or some sort of take at a hybrid internal/external like Nintendo pulled with the 64.

      Since, with the exception of the X-Box One or course, the power supply was one of the most likely things to fail (somewhere behind optical drives) making that an external device just makes sense.

      Designing an internal power supply is not that complicated although in Microsoft's case it seems to be, but they may have finally solved it with the XB1-S. I can understand having a power brick for very slim devices such as some laptops where an internal power supply would radically change the form factor, but the XB1 is huge while the PS4 is quite small and that has an internal power supply. In fact all the commercial Playstations had an internal power supply.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bmk67 ( 971394 )

        In fact all the commercial Playstations had an internal power supply.

        That was - IMO - one of the big negative points for the PS3 (yes, I own one). Damn fan sounds like a jetliner.

  • Skipping this generation (is this part of the XBone/PS4 gen still?) in lieu of rebuilding my gaming PC up to reasonable standards [for a gamer]. Actually have not been gaming as much as I used too, wondering if I'm finally outgrowing it at 32...?

  • No (Score:2)

    by JohnFen ( 1641097 )

    It gives me no good reason to.

  • "Microsoft" *anything* is banned in my household. I've found that this policy not only lowers blood pressure, it also saves money and leads to an overall increase to the quality of life.

    Microsoft: When not-really good, is good enough.

    -or-

    Microsoft: Do Evil.
  • Definitely yes, but only because I need a 4K Blu Ray player. I'll probably sell the old one.

    • What sort of circumstance would lead you to need a 4K Blu ray player? Are you sure you didn't mean "want"?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfsmith ( 960400 )

        What sort of circumstance would lead you to need a 4K Blu ray player?

        His Slashdot profile page links to his professional page, and his profession is actually a good candidate for requiring 4k Blu Ray. It's either that or his nerdy A/V club kid neighbor kidnapped his cat and is holding it to ransom.

  • I stopped voluntarily giving money to Microsoft years ago. This product is no different. Now, I wish they would stop acquiring exitsing products & services that I already use (i.e. Skype, LinkedIn).
  • Is the XBox as hostile to non-US gamers as it used to be? That was basically what made me purchase a PS4 to begin with.
  • Yup, but I have the 2TB Gears of War model preordered instead. Definitely looking forward to shrinking my console.

  • Will it play more than 75% of my XBox360 games, including 100% of the good ones?
    Yes -> then maybe I'll buy, depending on price.
    No -> then no. I can get a PS4 or PC instead.

  • A console with a mouse + keyboard input plus MS Office suite will smash the market.

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