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SvennoJ on 24 August 2025
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DekutheEvilClown said:

Some people really hate the Series S for no obvious reason, like its mere existence just seems to irk people. I think it was a great idea, implemented well, that had the misfortune of launching during the generation in which Xbox hardware imploded.

If MS had went with just a Series X and a Series X Digital edition then they would be even further behind this gen, I’m very confident of that.

For consumers it’s great. A very cheap console that lets you actually play all next gen games(regardless of the resolution or FPS, some people are just happy to have that opportunity to play at all.)

I do suspect MS made quite a large loss per model though, especially at the start of the generation.

Aren't the two related... The Series S was always considered the gamepass machine. Gamepass led to the decline of XBox hardware, as the pursuit of gamepass everywhere made xbox hardware optional. 

Some games and features did get delayed because of Series S (Baldur's gate 3 for example) and the lower amount of RAM remains a challenge, which will only play up more now the Switch 2 is out and Switch will no longer be supported. Series S is still more capable than Switch 2 yet the split 10GB RAM in Series S will continue to become more of a bottleneck. Question is also how much the Series S has played a role in the decline of Halo and Forza. 

The 364GB capacity for games and expensive proprietary expansion drives were a bad decision as well. Good for smaller gamepass games yet further discouraging CoD/Fifa players to branch out. 


But can't deny XBox would be even further behind with Series S as pretty much the only alternative at the end of the pandemic. PS5 and Series X were severely supply restrained. The Series X is now finally outselling Series S or maybe was until the recent price hikes.
https://www.ign.com/articles/september-2024-sales-charts-xbox-series-x-is-finally-outselling-the-series-s
The split was up to 75% at the start for Series S.

So yeah it was a good idea in the short run, but with the Switch 2 launch it's now the console with the RAM bottleneck. MS banked on streaming to take off for the Series S to 'keep up' but that's still iffy and expensive. (US $240 a year)