Kyuu said:
I don't think I'd have to wait that long to gather that Microsoft made a serious miscalculation. Actually the bolded pretty much shows why it's indeed misfired. MS thought this generation will play out like X1/PS4 vs X1X/PS4 Pro where the low powered/cheap SKU sees higher demand or sales. They kept the Series S a secret until not long before launch as if to checkmate Sony. It seems that by design, the Series X was positioned to be their limited-quantity/enthusiast SKU that's just there to assist the Series S, their primary SKU. This would not pan out well in a long generation. Series S has very little room for effective long term pricedrops compared to PS5 and Series X (see Wii vs PS3), and it's underpowered right off the bat, meaning it will age rather poorly especially if a midgen upgrade is planned. When/if midgen upgrades are launched, a lot of AAA developers will push for fidelity high enough for base (by then cheap) PS5 and Series X to struggle in achieving 1080p+/40+ fps (You wanna go higher? Get the PS5 Pro, or the Xbox Series XL, or a capable PC!), Series S won't be able to adequately handle games with such high workload. We're not yet feeling the S limitations because we're still stuck in the crossgen period, the vast majority of console-grade games are souped up/upgraded Xbox 1 games. If Series X meets demand and continues to sell less than the S, I'd blame it on Microsoft's marketing and people giving up and switching to PS5 or PC. As always, I may be wrong and Series S does manage to appeal to a new large dempgraphic, but so far I'm not feeling it and I don't think it'll happen. The Series X and PS5 aren't priced as "hardcore gamer" consoles. With inflation in mind, they're priced in line with typical powerful consoles. I don't know why you're assuming demand will decrease over time in favor of the Series S. The only notably underpowered home consoles I can think of are the Wii and Wii U, one managed to find huge success by appealing to a new dempgraphic early in its lifecycle, but ultimately having weak legs because it aged poorly (I predicted that), and the other was a commercial disaster. It's less that PS5/Series X are "hardcore", and more that Series S is too cheap/underpowered. The existing console playerbase have no problem paying up to $500 ($400 for digital editions) for a powerful console, the Series S is trying to solve an issue that doesn't exist. |
Na... We knew about Lockhart for ages. Possibly years before it was called the series s.
It's clearly a winning strategy. Is it enough to beat Sony? No. Certainly enough to claw back marketshare though.