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curl-6 on 09 May 2026
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EricHiggin said:
curl-6 said:

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought the "VCR" look would really impact sales that much, or that the OG model selling better would prevent a slim from happening; almost every successful console in decades has gotten one.

I can definitely see Gamepass and their PC initiative not happening if the XBO sells considerably better, which would both be changes for the better in my opinion.

"Slightly hinders", so yes, it wouldn't impact sales too much. It's also part of why I said "give or take". Similar to how some don't like or can't stand the look of the PS5, yet most still bought it or will at some point. Few will refrain from buying a PS5 just because of it's look, but those few can still be considered a fair amount when you've got 100M+ sales. Also the PS5 is seen as a good look by most, if not really eye catching, where as the XB1 was seen as a poor look by most, if not an eye sore, so I think it would hurt XB1 more, but again, not by a whole lot, assuming its much better reception in this timeline.

As for the XB1S(lim), I was thinking along the lines of the 360 RROD fiasco and the whole MS mindset of, 'build it big and make sure it has plenty of cooling so we never have to deal with that issue again.' Making a slim really goes against that reliability goal, so it's totally possible they don't bother, especially with the (early) sales being not much worse than PS4 in this timeline. Even if they did do a slim, I'd assume it would be a pretty lousy attempt since they purposely wouldn't want to make it too slim and compact. Last thing you wanna do is ruin the goodwill you've gained by recreating the RROD situation once again with XB1S.

Ya I think BC is way more likely since MS would still wanna do a little extra to try and catch PS4, which is next to impossible for SNY to pull off, and would be a smart move in this alternate timeline still. They'd also probably go harder on BC and back away from GP totally (if GP was something that ever crossed their minds at all in this different situation). The more typical approach this time around could see a hardcore BC push on XB1, which would probably force SNY to get a lot more serious about it as well, especially with physical media. Maybe SNY doesn't get around to it until PS5 though in this timeline.

A slim doesn't necessarily have to compromise decent reliability; the PS4 slim, PS3 slim, Xbox One S, etc were all fairly dependable.

PS4 slim also happened despite the system selling very well, so I think an Xbone slim would still be a thing had it sold better.