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Norion on 18 September 2020
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Mr Puggsly said:
Norion said:

You're right it's uncertain but with how poorly late gen games can run on consoles it makes me feel pessimistic about it. Control is a great example. It also depends on someone's standards since if by 2025-2027 the Series S is running games at 720p 30fps I'd consider that really poor performance but other people might not. It won't be $200 right away but it should get there by 2023-2024 and at that price it will be very attractive. Either way people should look at stuff like digital foundry videos before deciding if the Series S would be fine for them.

The 8th gen has arguably had arguably more stable frame rate than previous gens. Maybe because developers can make great looking games without sacrificing too much performance.

Control is an exception and was a poorly optimized. From my understanding it has improved greatly post launch, but I can't confirm how much better. Also, the game ran best on X1X I believe, partly because it has a considerably more capable CPU. Series S is avoiding that by having virtually the same capabilities there.

I will entertain the idea that Series S may get 720p content. You need to consider 720p in the 7th gen, 8th gen and 9th gen aren't equal. Post processing effects has changed over the years. 720p often didn't look as jagged on Xbox One, but could look blurry depending on the method implemented for performance sake. 9th gen consoles will likely utilize image reconstruction techniques, something Digital Foundry has touched on many times. For example, they showed Control at 540p could resemble 1080p with DLSS. So things are different now, a low native resolution may look surprisingly sharp with new tech.

I look forward to Digital Foundry examining Series S games. Thus far it appears Series S titles are gonna look and run great. Even Gears 5 maintained 120 fps seemingly with ease. Down the road I suspect Series S will hold up well even if compromises are apparent.

I assume Series S will do well given many consumers will simply notice it plays the latest games at a low price. But when it hits that sweet spot of $199, I imagine its gonna have some great holiday sales. The soonest that may happen is holiday 2022.

The image reconstruction part is a good point I didn't fully consider though DLSS will be more advanced I imagine. My concern is I doubt the PS5 and Series X will be running games at 4k for the entire generation and suspect that an increasing percentage of games will use lower resolutions as the generation goes on and those two systems will have far more ability to decrease resolution if needed down the line. Also certain developers expressing concern about the Series S makes me worried though I will be happy if that worry and concern doesn't come into fruition. I think the Series X is better value for what the hardware offers but if someone can't afford it or wants a secondary console for their kid or something like that then the Series S when it gets down to $199 could be a good option for sure.