shikamaru317 said:
I think you guys are missing out on the bigger picture with Series S. Yes, it is selling very well and really helped out with the pandemic caused chipset shortage, but you have to remember that a pandemic of this magnitude is rare, chances are one won't be around to boost an entry level console next-gen. For all the positives associated with Series S this gen, there are also alot of negatives associated with Series S:
- The more it sells, the more we move to an all-digital future. An all-digital future is something none of us should want. You never own digital games, so your access to them can be revoked at any point. You can't resell them used to get some quick cash that you need to buy another game you want. Digital game sales are significantly rarer than physical game sales (and this will never change, due to most physical game sales being initiated by retailers trying to clear up space on their shelves and in their backrooms/warehouses, not by the publishers themselves) and those rarer digital sales we do get often have smaller discounts than comparable physical sales. A dying physical market is costing retail jobs as well.
- Physical retail presence in non-core Xbox markets is insanely important, but Xbox is never going to be able to attain that retail presence as long as an all-digital entry level console exists. Take Japan for instance, Xbox had great physical retail presence there with Xbox 360, most games got a physical release and Xbox had lots of shelf space in stores, and had shelf space even in smaller, more rural retail stores. All of that was lost during the Xbox One generation due to it's failure in Japan. Xbox has managed to rebuild some of that lost retail presence in Japan this gen, but it is almost exclusively in large retailers in urban areas, smaller retailers still aren't carrying Xbox Series like they did Xbox 360. Why? Well, because S is the model being pushed there primarily, publishers are refusing to release physical games for Xbox Series (it's my understanding that to date, Xbox Series has only received like 15 physical games in Japan in 2 years on the market). Because there are no physical games to stock on the shelves in Japan, the smaller retailers in smaller cities and more rural areas of Japan just don't stock Xbox Series at all, "why waste valuable shelf space on an Xbox section if all we will sell is consoles and a handful of digital code cards" they think. And we're looking at a similar situation in many other smaller markets, not just Japan. Playstation will continue to dominate Xbox in these markets unless something is done about these issues.
- Xbox Series S will increasingly be seen as an anchor holding back development by devs over the course of this generation. While the stories about developers currently seeing it as an anchor are being overblown by the gaming media, we are still in the cross-gen period, we're seeing games that have to run on the much weaker Switch, PS4, and XB1 still, so of course Series S isn't seen as the anchor on development currently, by any except a handful of devs, primarily indies who just aren't good at the technical aspect of making games. However, all of this is going to change once last-gen support is dropped, when that happens either Series S or Switch 2 will be the weakest platform planned to be supported by developers depending on the game, and Series S will inevitably start to be seen as more and more of an anchor. Year by year over the course of what is shaping up to be a long, 8-9 year generation, Series S will be seen as starting to drag down development. This will especially be the case when/if the 3rd "Pro" console releases for Xbox, devs will then be expected to try and optimize games for 3 different Xbox platforms, ranging from 4 tflop at 10 GB of RAM at the low end on S, all the way up to probably 18 tflop and 24 GB of RAM on the high end Xbox released in 2025, and when that happens, many devs will be annoyed.
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1. That would be something that Microsoft and every publisher/developer in the industry would love though, so it wouldn't be a reason why a Series S-like console in the future doesn't happen.
You can argue whether that is a good or bad thing or whether you simply don't care. I don't think we'll ever see a future (at least not anytime soon) where major releases are consistently releasing digital only, there will always be a group of people who enjoy physical to cater to.
But I will say that the evidence from publishers is already suggesting that consumers are moving towards digital by large, the ratio between physical/digital is becoming really wide, consumers are already speaking with their wallets on this subject.
2. Xbox Series S is being pushed almost everywhere more than Xbox Series X because they simply don't have the stock for Series X, I think you're mixing availability with demand, if the Xbox Series X was regularly in stock then there's no reason retailers shouldn't stock Series X even if they don't want to stock Series S.
The same logic would apply to PlayStation because they have a digital only console and consumers are moving largely towards digital anyway. If Series X was steadily available like Series S, then there would be no reason not to stock it and if you don't stock it because "Xbox is largely digital" then you might as well not stock any console because that trend if true even if Series S didn't exist and true on PlayStation as well now.
If anything, I would speculate that a large part of Xbox's success in Japan is largely down to Japanese consumers liking Series S.
3. This remains to be seen, as you stated yourself, we're still in a cross-gen period, many developers are still supporting Xbox One/PS4 and low-end PC's. Thousands of developers are supporting Switch, which is weaker than them both, even many AAA's have released on Switch from major developers. Switch 2 will still likely be weaker than Series S and yet be heavily supported by the indie industry and a few AAA developers.
Developers will find a way; they optimise for multiple different platforms all the time, from Xbox to PlayStation to low end PC to mid end PC to high end PC to sometimes Switch, etc.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 27 November 2022
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