Windows Central: "At launch, we've heard there won't be any Xbox Scarlett exclusives. For at least a few years. "

MosquitoSmasher

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I'm not sure what to think of this if this is true. There already were rumors about a Xbox (Lockhart) with One X specs and a much more powerful one, the Anaconda, both to be releasing at the same time. Personally I wasn't all that fond of it, because won't it hold back the Anaconda if devs were to target the Lockhart?

But if this report is true, it sounds like all the first party exclusives will be also playable on Xbox One and Xbox One X. What is the point of the Lockhart then? Also, again, won't this significantly hold back the exclusives for Anaconda? Devs will want to make use of the SSD for much faster loading, will they have to make big changes so it can make use of the much slower HDDs in the One and One X? I mean, won't that damn Jaguar limit what devs can do for Anaconda? I hope someone with some knowledge can clarify things for me. As for the article :

We're expecting the new Xbox consoles to come with an all-new OS, based on Windows Core OS, which we've been covering for some time now. Expect an all-new dashboard based on the Fluent Design System, with the speed and fluidity at the forefront. The next Xbox will be fully backward compatible with the existing library on your Xbox One, including X360 and OG Xbox back compatibility. At launch, we've heard there won't be any "Xbox Scarlett"-exclusive games. For at least a few years, games will ship on both the Xbox One consoles and on the new Scarlett consoles, as is typically the case during a generational transition.

https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-e3-2019-predictions-expectations
 
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I doubt it's true, I'm sure most 1st party releases will be cross-gen for a year or two depending on how popular the IP is but they will still want to show people why they should upgrade to the new console.
 
I doubt it's true, I'm sure most 1st party releases will be cross-gen for a year or two depending on how popular the IP is but they will still want to show people why they should upgrade to the new console.
Not about selling hardware.
 
I believe it. They've got a big install base on X1, and they want to keep those customers as long as they can. They don't want to sell JUST to the next-gen early adopters. Plus, MS has said they aren't doing "generations" anymore, so this would fit that model.

Once the next gen gets off the ground (in terms of install base), I'd expect them to gradually stop trying to downgrade games enough to get them running on X1. Even at launch, it's questionable how the best next-gen games are going to look, running on that old horse and buggy.
 
Is this still a surprise..? MS had said it themselves over and over:

No more ‘generations.’
One eco-system. If you want the best version of the game, play it on the best HW in that ecosystem. Of course that will cost you a more.
One game across anything you want to play it on. But it once, play it on anything in the ecosystem.
Adding XCloud eventually will literally mean ‘play anywhere’, even without a copy of the game in your possession.

Simple, and it gives much more freedom to the gamer, and exposes games to a much larger audience, which is good for everyone.
 
But no worries at all that this will hold back games for the Anaconda? Let's say for example Gears 6 starts development, they want to put in stuff that just won't be possible on the older consoles, will they just "gimp" the game just so that it can run on the freaking base Xbox One too?

At some point the games will surpass what the older systems can do, if they go with this approach, won't it "halt" the real next gen stuff for a few years?
 
Do people buying Xbox consoles do it for exclusives at this point? It's been like 10 years of promising stuff outside of Halo, Gears, Forza with little to show for it outside of AA games and indies. And now everything else is on PC.
 
Do people buying Xbox consoles do it for exclusives at this point? It's been like 10 years of promising stuff outside of Halo, Gears, Forza with little to show for it outside of AA games and indies. And now everything else is on PC.

I do. I'd rather have all the consoles over a PC. PC seems like an unneccessary device in my current lifestyle.
 
Not about selling hardware.

Selling hardware keeps people locked into your ecosystem and increases the chances that they'll continue to subscribe to your services. There is going to be someone else launching new hardware at the same time that will basically be the same machine and probably offer more games made strictly for the new hardware early on.
 
I believe it. They've got a big install base on X1, and they want to keep those customers as long as they can. They don't want to sell JUST to the next-gen early adopters. Plus, MS has said they aren't doing "generations" anymore, so this would fit that model.

Once the next gen gets off the ground (in terms of install base), I'd expect them to gradually stop trying to downgrade games enough to get them running on X1. Even at launch, it's questionable how the best next-gen games are going to look, running on that old horse and buggy.

Yeah they won't make Halo an exclusive or anything like that as it makes no sense financially, even though the X1 installed base is going to be much smaller than the 360's was when the X1 came out they'll still want to hit as many customers as possible and most big games early on will be cross-gen.

That being said if I were an xbox fan I wouldn't want them to continue to have to target the base X1 when I'm buying a machine that's capable of so much more, they can't really take advantage of the new CPU in a meaningful way If they have to make the game playable on a jaguar as well. Of course it's going to take time to really take advantage of the new hardware so they've set up the marketing well, they can keep saying "no generations" until they decide to pull the plug on X1 (which they've also said they'd do) and move on to only the new system. I'm sure the new fable game that's supposedly being worked on will be exclusive and it's likely still a couple of years away.
 
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But no worries at all that this will hold back games for the Anaconda? Let's say for example Gears 6 starts development, they want to put in stuff that just won't be possible on the older consoles, will they just "gimp" the game just so that it can run on the freaking base Xbox One too?

At some point the games will surpass what the older systems can do, if they go with this approach, won't it "halt" the real next gen stuff for a few years?

Maybe One X will become the new S with a new price drop?.. I have no idea, bro. Hand in your S for a sizeable discount on the X? I haveno idea how they will tackle this problem. The S is definitely going to have memory problems next gen. I guess we'll learn more at E3.

Do people buying Xbox consoles do it for exclusives at this point? It's been like 10 years of promising stuff outside of Halo, Gears, Forza with little to show for it outside of AA games and indies. And now everything else is on PC.

I think they don't buy it for it being exclusive. They just buy it for the games that they love from Xbox with the console experience.

I use PC if a fighting game isn't released on Xbox. I have zero interest in using the PC for gaming. I only do it out of necessity: to play Street Fighter 5 and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. And even then it feels different without the Xbox ecosystem and its players.
 
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But no worries at all that this will hold back games for the Anaconda? Let's say for example Gears 6 starts development, they want to put in stuff that just won't be possible on the older consoles, will they just "gimp" the game just so that it can run on the freaking base Xbox One too?

At some point the games will surpass what the older systems can do, if they go with this approach, won't it "halt" the real next gen stuff for a few years?
Something to keep in mind is that we're T the point of diminishing returns and that MS is going to have their exclusives also on PC. They have to make these games tuned on not so spectacular PCs, so why not the older xboxs?
Mostly these new systems will run the same games at higher resolutionsand frame rates with some higher res textures.
If they can get Ray tracing going, that could make a big difference.
 
I doubt it's true, I'm sure most 1st party releases will be cross-gen for a year or two depending on how popular the IP is but they will still want to show people why they should upgrade to the new console.
Your still thinking the old ways.

It's not about hardware
 
Why release hardware if it's not about hardware...
 
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Something to keep in mind is that we're T the point of diminishing returns and that MS is going to have their exclusives also on PC. They have to make these games tuned on not so spectacular PCs, so why not the older xboxs?
Mostly these new systems will run the same games at higher resolutionsand frame rates with some higher res textures.
If they can get Ray tracing going, that could make a big difference.

There is always a cut off point with PC hardware as well though, from what I've read the cut off point usually jumps a bit once new console hardware is released. They can't continue to target the old weak CPU's that weren't really ideal for gaming in 2013 let alone how underpowered they'll be compared to what we are getting in 2020. I'm sure MS will support the X1 longer than they did the last two consoles but I don't think anyone should expect them to continue to do it for more than a year or two, it just doesn't make sense.
 
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Why release hardware if it's not about hardware...

Yeah it's a silly mindset to have, the streaming thing isn't coming as quickly as some think, 5G won't be the be all end all and it's going to take a long time to get that going with the added infrastructure that's going to have to be built and the issues it has with the signal being able to penetrate buildings.
 
Isn't backwards compatibility something that keeps people on one platform more? I mean, if I'm an average gamer, and I know my X1 games are useless, I'd think it would be easier to jump to the competition (gotta buy new games anyway). Meanwhile if I have this library and hopefully some services I like, maybe I don't jump to the other side as easily. It is hard for me to think like the average gamer, I just buy 'em both :)

The one thing that worries me is gimped games. I'm the bleeding edge new console buyer. I don't like to see games on my shiny new system not running great. It really irritates me as a X1X launch buyer that I'm still getting games at sub-30fps. I get that for this console as I knew that going in, but I'd be hesitant to upgrade again if games are going to be held back. Sure you can upscale resolution and features, but games running at sub-30 fps is really bad. There are too many AAA titles that can't even run 30 fps on the new consoles.
 
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Releasing on PC is great for PC gamers. I am a console gamer, so I buy and play on console. Even though MS and Sony are moving their games to multiple devices, I use just one device, console.
 
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Yeah it's a silly mindset to have, the streaming thing isn't coming as quickly as some think, 5G won't be the be all end all and it's going to take a long time to get that going with the added infrastructure that's going to have to be built and the issues it has with the signal being able to penetrate buildings.

I'm really not enthused about streaming as the future. I think it is a great thing for Microsoft, Sony, and Google. I'm not surprised they are excited about it. It means they can kill the used game market. It means they cut out all the production and distribution costs. So their profit margins will be much higher. So it makes sense that the corporations are pushing for it. But as a gamer, I'm not seeing the upside, at least so far. Granted, I haven't paid much attention, because it seems so distant.
 
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Hardware is the entry point to everything else.
of course, but to have it set in one Hardware is a thing of a past.

Look, I know what your saying here but look a this. What if Google platform takes off really big, you know how many Google Chrome browsers are out in the world.

It is not locked into Chromebooks, it is in every platform in every companies hardware that is ever made. Even the cheap tablets.

What I took from what you are saying
XBOX <-- Xbox games
PS<- PS games
That is it.

Look what Google can hit with their browser alone.
Your look at every Andriod phones/ iPhones/ Tables/ Windows/ Mac OS/ Linux.

That alone is why Google is a threat to Sony, at least MS has an infrastructure that can hit almost as much as Google. Not so much SONY.

Sony hardware is not going to be enough now that the door has wide open. 80 million PS whatever is peanuts compared to the chrome browser.
 
of course, but to have it set in one Hardware is a thing of a past.

Look, I know what your saying here but look a this. What if Google platform takes off really big, you know how many Google Chrome browsers are out in the world.

It is not locked into Chromebooks, it is in every platform in every companies hardware that is ever made. Even the cheap tablets.

What I took from what you are saying
XBOX <-- Xbox games
PS<- PS games
That is it.

Look what Google can hit with their browser alone.
Your look at every Andriod phones/ iPhones/ Tables/ Windows/ Mac OS/ Linux.

That alone is why Google is a threat to Sony, at least MS has an infrastructure that can hit almost as much as Google. Not so much SONY.

Sony hardware is not going to be enough now that the door has wide open. 80 million PS whatever is peanuts compared to the chrome browser.

I get what you are saying too but the push for this kind of thing is always "play your game on any device" but who really wants to play a console game on a phone or a tablet? being able to technically do it and actually having a good experience are two different things. I have no doubt in the future everything will be streamed but I have no confidence that it'll happen on a wide basis in the next few years, I think we are at least a decade away from that really being feasible. Everyone I see push this idea of streaming keep pushing 5G as the reason why we can do it and if you do any research on 5G you'll find out that the signal doesn't travel anywhere near as far as a 4G signal and it doesn't penetrate through buildings very well, they are going to have to build it out on a global basis and make sure everyone has access to it before it can be counted on and that's IF speeds hold up under the huge load.

Watching that girl play a racing game on a phone connected to a controller looked terrible, who wants to carry a controller around with them? I have a Galaxy Note so I have a pretty big screen on my phone and I still wouldn't want to play any game I like on it even if I could connect a controller to it.

We'll see, it just seems like some of these companies have been pushing this kind of thing forever and little progress has been made in to get it done outside of highly controlled environments.
 
Isn't backwards compatibility something that keeps people on one platform more? I mean, if I'm an average gamer, and I know my X1 games are useless, I'd think it would be easier to jump to the competition (gotta buy new games anyway). Meanwhile if I have this library and hopefully some services I like, maybe I don't jump to the other side as easily. It is hard for me to think like the average gamer, I just buy 'em both :)

The one thing that worries me is gimped games. I'm the bleeding edge new console buyer. I don't like to see games on my shiny new system not running great. It really irritates me as a X1X launch buyer that I'm still getting games at sub-30fps. I get that for this console as I knew that going in, but I'd be hesitant to upgrade again if games are going to be held back. Sure you can upscale resolution and features, but games running at sub-30 fps is really bad. There are too many AAA titles that can't even run 30 fps on the new consoles.

True and that could end up being an issue with game pass, if you don't own any games what's really keeping you from leaving if you get the itch? They'll need to make sure they are releasing a fairly steady stream of high quality games, so far most of the 1st party games that have launched on GP have been AA at best and likely didn't cost a whole lot to make.
 
Selling hardware keeps people locked into your ecosystem and increases the chances that they'll continue to subscribe to your services. There is going to be someone else launching new hardware at the same time that will basically be the same machine and probably offer more games made strictly for the new hardware early on.
I get that...but, Spencer has said selling hardware isn't their focus Once you accept that, things like this sound far more likely.
 
I get that...but, Spencer has said selling hardware isn't their focus Once you accept that, things like this sound far more likely.

I don't really believe him when he says that though, same with Ybarra saying they aren't in it to make money :)
 
I don't really believe him when he says that though, same with Ybarra saying they aren't in it to make money :)
Yeah not in it to make money is bulls***.

Selling hardware not being a focus isn't. Hardware isn't where the money is.
 
Hardware has never been where the money is. It's always been about the games and services they sell because people own the hardware.