[Official] Xbox Series X & Series S Discussion

[George P Global Moderator]

Time Zone Lookup.

 

Quick link to help you figure out what time the event starts for your time zone. 

[Sszecret Veteran]

Bit of a long shot at this point, but it's interesting that July 23 also happens to be the day when AT&T - owner of Time Warner and thus WB Games - releases its Q2 2020 earnings (a few hours before MS's event. It's an interesting coincidence to be sure.

[George P Global Moderator]

2 hours ago, Sszecret said:

Bit of a long shot at this point, but it's interesting that July 23 also happens to be the day when AT&T - owner of Time Warner and thus WB Games - releases its Q2 2020 earnings (a few hours before MS's event. It's an interesting coincidence to be sure.

That is, I didn't know that happened on the same date, I found the fact that news of MS interest in buying them came out a few hours after the events date was announced as interesting but this just adds more to it.  If a deal does happen then the timing makes perfect sense because MS would like to jump on the news before it hits the internet from their earnings report.

[George P Global Moderator]

The plot thickens as they say.

[Sszecret Veteran]

We've known that Phil has the full support of Microsoft on pricing, and I'm sure that obviously applies to the vision and acquisitions as well. The question now becomes if we're looking at multiple smaller acquisitions, or two-three big ones (a la WB Games). Them closing Mixer and the physical retail stores certainly points to freeing up money for something.

[George P Global Moderator]

50 minutes ago, Sszecret said:

We've known that Phil has the full support of Microsoft on pricing, and I'm sure that obviously applies to the vision and acquisitions as well. The question now becomes if we're looking at multiple smaller acquisitions, or two-three big ones (a la WB Games). Them closing Mixer and the physical retail stores certainly points to freeing up money for something.

I really hope they reboot Perfect Dark, since Ubisoft refuses to give me a true Splinter Cell sequel I need a stealth focused game to replace it.   If they don't want to go all in on buying new studios flat out, they could just as well spend the money on exclusive 2nd party deals, this time for games that are for sure going to release.    Sony's been dropping money to get PS5 console exclusivity deals, don't see why MS can't, since the deals don't limit devs from the PC, it's more of a safe bet to make.

[spaceelf]

10 minutes ago, George P said:

I really hope they reboot Perfect Dark, since Ubisoft refuses to give me a true Splinter Cell sequel I need a stealth focused game to replace it.   If they don't want to go all in on buying new studios flat out, they could just as well spend the money on exclusive 2nd party deals, this time for games that are for sure going to release.    Sony's been dropping money to get PS5 console exclusivity deals, don't see why MS can't, since the deals don't limit devs from the PC, it's more of a safe bet to make.

I tried that last PD game and it was so weird.  I mean, I can't even say it was bad since I didn't get very far in it.  Just weird.

[George P Global Moderator]

2 minutes ago, LostCat said:

I tried that last PD game and it was so weird.  I mean, I can't even say it was bad since I didn't get very far in it.  Just weird.

Perfect Dark Zero?  Yeah, it was a rushed mess, this is why the rumors of a reboot are interesting.  Plus from what I've seen said, it's got more of a newer Tomb Raider type vibe going.    The rebooted TR trilogy has been great IMO, so if they can take PD in that direction, quality wise, but give me more stealth and gadget mechanics ala original Splinter Cell trilogy, I'm sold.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

[Sszecret Veteran]

An hour seems about right when you take out all of the other nonsense like the stage setup / people having to walk and so on. Sony's show was a little over an hour as well. This'll be streamed in 1080p60FPS and there'll be a 4K60 vod available later.

[George P Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, Sszecret said:

An hour seems about right when you take out all of the other nonsense like the stage setup / people having to walk and so on. Sony's show was a little over an hour as well. This'll be streamed in 1080p60FPS and there'll be a 4K60 vod available later.

Sounds like that long pre-show might be for the other stuff he says isn't in the main show, like devices and business news.  Would make more sense as to why the pre-show is so long now.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

[spaceelf]

I wonder how old Geoff is gonna get before he stops being the guy for this stuff heh.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

On 7/16/2020 at 6:24 PM, Sszecret said:

An hour seems about right when you take out all of the other nonsense like the stage setup / people having to walk and so on. Sony's show was a little over an hour as well. This'll be streamed in 1080p60FPS and there'll be a 4K60 vod available later.

That's good to hear. 

 

So disappointed with Sony's stream from a quality stance. Here's our latest and greatest, limited to 720p

[George P Global Moderator]

From the sounds of it, if you take the pre-show into account for any 3rd party stuff, that's a total of 2 hours of content if done right.

[George P Global Moderator]

Seagates Xbox Series X expandable storage nvme card website is live now.  No prices yet but maybe in the pre-show?

 

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/consumer/play/storage-expansion-for-xbox-series-x/

[spaceelf]

24 minutes ago, George P said:

Seagates Xbox Series X expandable storage nvme card website is live now.  No prices yet but maybe in the pre-show?

 

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/consumer/play/storage-expansion-for-xbox-series-x/

This is the one aspect of the XSX I already hate.  I wish they hadn't decided to do this.  I'm sure there was a reason but I have no reason to believe the expansion kit won't be obnoxiously expensive.

 

I'm still getting one but this is a huge turnoff either way.

[George P Global Moderator]

23 minutes ago, LostCat said:

This is the one aspect of the XSX I already hate.  I wish they hadn't decided to do this.  I'm sure there was a reason but I have no reason to believe the expansion kit won't be obnoxiously expensive.

 

I'm still getting one but this is a huge turnoff either way.

It might be to start but I think MS will open it up to other SSD makers next year.  The cost could be a factor depending on how aggressive MS wants to make things, besides I think we could see 3rd party adaptors at some point so you use your own.

 

The thing that makes these a bit different is that they've got custom cooling going on, which keeps the SSD from heating up and thus helps it last longer.  Heat kills your SSD.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

1 hour ago, LostCat said:

This is the one aspect of the XSX I already hate.  I wish they hadn't decided to do this.  I'm sure there was a reason but I have no reason to believe the expansion kit won't be obnoxiously expensive.

 

I'm still getting one but this is a huge turnoff either way.

The console is launching with 1TB out of the box right? I figure that should be enough for a while. It's worth pointing out that these drives are mainly designed for XSX games. For anything else I have a mechanical drive. 

[George P Global Moderator]

15 minutes ago, dipsylalapo said:

The console is launching with 1TB out of the box right? I figure that should be enough for a while. It's worth pointing out that these drives are mainly designed for XSX games. For anything else I have a mechanical drive. 

Yup, 1TB inside,  You could also use your external hdd to hold XSX games, you'd just have to transfer them to the internal when you want to play.  But from what I remember they can be moved to a external hdd as a backup option to gain space so you don't have to re-download.

[spaceelf]

49 minutes ago, dipsylalapo said:

The console is launching with 1TB out of the box right? I figure that should be enough for a while. It's worth pointing out that these drives are mainly designed for XSX games. For anything else I have a mechanical drive. 

External drives will still work with Xbox One games at least, and they've been very unclear on whether external SSDs have the same limitations.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

1 minute ago, LostCat said:

External drives will still work with Xbox One games at least, and they've been very unclear on whether external SSDs have the same limitations.

At least for now, I'm pretty sure anything other than the Seagate drive won't be able to use the Velocity Architecture. 

[George P Global Moderator]

10 minutes ago, LostCat said:

External drives will still work with Xbox One games at least, and they've been very unclear on whether external SSDs have the same limitations.

Since it's a custom port, any external SSD will still connect via USB, so it's limited to USB speeds.   I expect we'll have future 2TB options for this thing, at better prices.  We'll see options from others for sure, and heck, maybe MS got a very good price from Seagate for this starting exclusivity deal, so maybe the cost isn't crazy?

 

Either way if you look online for 1TB NVMe SSDs right now it's not like they're that cheap either.  If this thing is around the same prices or a little higher I think it's fine.

 

[spaceelf]

41 minutes ago, George P said:

Since it's a custom port, any external SSD will still connect via USB, so it's limited to USB speeds.   I expect we'll have future 2TB options for this thing, at better prices.  We'll see options from others for sure, and heck, maybe MS got a very good price from Seagate for this starting exclusivity deal, so maybe the cost isn't crazy?

 

Either way if you look online for 1TB NVMe SSDs right now it's not like they're that cheap either.  If this thing is around the same prices or a little higher I think it's fine.

 

USB speeds are pretty badass these days, you can use NVMe over USB also and the Xbox Series X has USB 3.2 support, which has absolutely no purpose if not for SSDs.

 

I'm not going to say they will treat external SSDs differently from external HDs given the lack of clarification, but they damn well should.

[George P Global Moderator]

So just to add more fuel to the fire, so to speak, about MS maybe buying WB Games.   They did this today.

 

Interesting timing for sure.