Xbox Series S/X: Thread 02

[MartyG]

They were already at 10 million in April 2020 - you're underestimating just how deep Microsoft's pockets are. In terms of cash in the bank they don't owe to anyone, only Google and Apple have bigger piles of Gold.

Microsoft's ability to keep adding stuff is backed up by their substantial bank.

[Neon Ignition]

Depends on the pacing though as the lack of prior figures make it hard to judge the growth. There were reports a year before that Game Pass coudl be circling 9.5m subscribers which would mean the service balooned fast but plateued in the last year. That would make sense given the cheap sub costs but stagnant userbase numbers for the system.

Like Nintendo also, MS has huge sums of money but they won't sink cash into Game Pass if they don't feel the returns will pay off. If Game Pass doesn't expand rapidly over the next two or three years it's safe to assume MS will scale their investment in it back and refocus resources and money into expanding Xbox via other methods.

For me, everything hangs on Series S/X for Game Pass. If they happened to get back to 70-80m units sold then Game Pass should easily triple or quadruple in size. Ballooning subscriber numbers via PC and Android? Nah, not going to work.

[MartyG]

Given they are sinking huge sums of money into Game Pass (I imagine assimilating EA play wasn't cheap), I think it's fairly safe to assume that their board of directors do think it's going to pay off

[nonny]

That lack of growth could be attributed to... You know, the fact there's a new generation of consoles coming and people aren't buying the existing ones as much.

You'd expect a lull now and a surge once the Series go on sale. Especially if all access is popular.

[Neon Ignition]

That's how I'd see it. I get little sense the PC Game Pass made much of a dent because it holds little value to PC users and XBO was the only format to cease selling in decent numbers which would limit the pass. That's why it'll be interesting to see how much subs increase in comparison to S/X sales as it might be also be one of the first indicators as to whether the systems are bringing in new users or selling mostly to upgrading XBO owners.

[nonny]

Well the PC version was in beta for a year. It's only now about to exit beta and over that time they've only improved on it.

There's been all the Halo MC ports, Gears Tactics launched on PC... Age of Empires and now Flight Simulator.

So the PC side has gone from strength to strength in terms of content. Now today we've got game pass effectively going into the cloud for streaming officially and EA play joins before the new consoles launch.

I'd say MS are very much in a strong position to swell the numbers and I'm sure they've got other things up the sleeve for game pass.

[nonny]

Game Pass app just updated on my phone and now there's a cloud section.

Just been playing HotShots Racing using the Kishi controller on my phone and it works flawlessly.

Beautiful.

[hudson]

Just been playing HotShots Racing using the Kishi controller on my phone and it works flawlessly.

Beautiful.

Okay, now I'm jealous.

[nonny]

Okay, now I'm jealous.

This is how it looks/plays on my Huawei P30 Pro with the controller. The audio messed up a bit, I think because of the screen recording software (just used the inbuilt Huawei one).

[hudson]

Looks great. No sign of controller latency or much in the way lag, video artifacts?

Would love to see you play a triple A game too. Really cool.

[teddymeow]

I've been pretty impressed with xCloud (cue sharp intake of breath from people who think I'm a stalwart Sony fanboy).

It was great the other day when my wife had a couple of friends over the other day and I sat in a comfy armchair playing Halo Reach while they were watching some wedding dress prog on the TV.

EDIT: I guess I'll be taking my One X controller to the hospital with me when the wife goes into labour!

[nonny]

Razer Kishi controller teddy... Has analog triggers as well as usb C power pass through

Leave the Xbox controller at home.

The latency with it minimal because it's not using Bluetooth. In that video there is some because I know the screen recorder adds some. Without it running it's pretty flawless but not sure how best to record that without a load of hassle.

Only downside to the Kishi controller is using my Bluetooth TWS earbuds there's a lot of lag on audio, at least a second. It's off-putting.

The controller has its own app (you can see that in the same folder in the video) and can update firmware but I'm not sure if they'll fix it or if it's even an issue with the controller or just using xCloud?

I also wish they'd allow zooming a 16:9 screen ratio in so it fills a phone screen. Most phones are 18:9 or greater these days. Would make it more immersive at the expense of overall screen on display. Worth it

[nonny]

This is what I am using. I got mine on preorder from razer direct for £79. There's an official Xbox one for £99 but all it does is gives you I think 3m game pass and the home and back button are the correct Xbox style logos.

It's the exact same controller otherwise.

[Team Andromeda]

The new series x is the most powerful but looks dull and has no games and the series s is just confusing because it’s tagged as next gen but is graphically inferior to their best last gen machine.

Next, you'll be saying the Switch Lite is less powerful than the Wii U, simply because it only outputs at 720P.

The GPU is going to be more capable to run next-gen games; it's based on Navi tech that offers support for hardware raytracing backed up by a much better CPU the velocity architecture, VRS and a soundboard that more powerful on its own, than the One X CPU cores .

You're having a laugh if you think the One X is going to be a more capable system than the Series S, or will have 'inferior' graphics...

[Brad]

Next, you'll be saying the Switch Lite is less powerful than the Wii U, simply because it only outputs at 720P.

Of course not. The wiiu game pad screen was
Only 480p wasn’t it? 720p is better than 480p you silly billy.