Phil Spencer confident after seeing PS5 presentation - Gamelab 2020 interview

[DonFerrari]

Ryuu96 said:

DonFerrari said:

The problem was when zero and sales suggested Lockhart as the lead platform and where MS would concentrate their sales with Series X being just their premium console. If that was truly to happen then most games would more likely be designed to it and then improved for Series X, that could really lead to constrains in the scope for the game.

Personally I think Xbox's top studios (Playground, 343, The Coalition, etc) will target Series X as the lead platform and port down, Playground did it with One X to One and I believe The Coalition did it as well but I'm not 100% sure.

Lockhart will likely be where most the sales come from Tbh given the price difference might be pretty big, who knows but I don't think that means Xbox's studios will necessarily design their games around Lockhart - Developers want the best for their games too.

I also don't think Lockhart will hold back Series X all that much, I try to stay out of tech discussions but folk that know better than me say the same, at the very least it is a substantial upgrade from One X and will still feel next gen with stuff like SSD combined with improved CPU/GPU/RAM, etc.

I'll wait and see (I do think they should drop Xbox One ASAP though, my personal theory is they will drop it when xCloud launches).

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Brad Sams take on it as well.

"One of the misconceptions about Lockhart is that it is going to hold back next-generation games. It’s a valid concern and the idea sprung up about a year ago when details were murky about the path ahead for the next generation consoles. Specifically, developers were not fully versed in how development (or profiling as it is now called) was going to actually work on the hardware which resulted in myself, and others, hearing mixed messaging from those briefed early on the plans.

As we have learned more during the past year, those concerns have faded as Microsoft has built a strategy of using the same base components across both devices (like Raytracing support and CPU specs) that should make it easier for developers to target the same visual fidelity for both consoles but at different resolutions. Meaning, the series X will be optimized for 4k gaming while the series S is optimized at 4TF for 1080P displays."

https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/237240/the-latest-on-lockhart#

Agree and think it is very reasonable to expect the flagship series of MS to be made focused on Series X best scenario and then do as many cuts as necessary to launch it on Lockhart (normally would be just pixel count and some cases framerate, sometimes if the series X version let's say is 1440p then some other cuts may be necessary so Lockhart don't go lower than 1080p or worse 720p).

For games that aren't flagship they may go the cheaper route of making the Series S and them putting bells and whistles for Series X, but really nothing would be lose because those games wouldn't be pushing series X by definition anyway.

That's is the reason I said my reply was countering sales and zero saying Lockhart to be the main system for MS. Sure I can understand it possibly will sell more, but if it becomes the focus of MS (let's say it sell 80% of the systems, like do Pro and possibly X1X) then there is a possibility that very few will care to make the best version possible on Series X (like again happens this gen), but I don't think that will be the case. I believe MS focus is Series X and they are making Series S just to increase their market possibilities.