Official Thread XBOX Hardware

My Current Console Is....


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All I'm saying is if Xbox doesn't have a significant HW advantage they will be dead in the water.
The PS brand is much bigger World wide which means MS will have an uphill battle where it will need every talking point and advantage it can get.
If PS5 has the better HW and 1st party then its over before it even starts...
Xbox will continue to have the advantage for me if they continue to have the exclusive games I love, their online, and all my friends and family to play with.
 
Honestly, AMD doesn't seem interested in onboard ray tracing at all. Which is why MS were apparently so heavily involved. Don't think you can use AMD as a guide here.

I hope Matt is right, but i'll go with official info...both are doing RT but Sony's method is unknown and MS is hardware.

MS can be heavily involved but it's not like they know more about how to make GPU/hardware than AMD does so at the end of the day I think what they can actually do is probably pretty limited. We'll see, nobody knows for sure one way or the other but I don't get why so many seem to assume Sony is doing it through software, they were talking about their new hardware that day not software tricks, I'm not saying you are saying that about Sony either but it just seems that many seem to assume Sony is doing it through software just because they didn't get super specific during an early soft reveal.
 
MS can be heavily involved but it's not like they know more about how to make GPU/hardware than AMD does so at the end of the day I think what they can actually do is probably pretty limited. We'll see, nobody knows for sure one way or the other but I don't get why so many seem to assume Sony is doing it through software, they were talking about their new hardware that day not software tricks, I'm not saying you are saying that about Sony either but it just seems that many seem to assume Sony is doing it through software just because they didn't get super specific during an early soft reveal.
Not about knowing more...more like a higher interest in the feature. Nividia has it. AMD could have it but don't seem all that interested in it. In steps MS with greater interest in the feature and poof, scarlet has Hardware Ray tracing.

Sony just left themselves open to interpretation.

You're right, though, we have no idea how advanced the ray tracing will be in either console, could be very basic and very limited.
 
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I agree that Xbox needs an advantage and I don't like this doubt that has been created now. But I do want to keep in mind that even though Reiner said he heard from devs that PS5 is more powerful, what remains to be seen is if it's a significant difference. We all don't believe it will be X1 versus PS4 or One X versus Pro differences, so it likely won't even be easily noticeable.

Hell, even now with X and Pro when I watch a DF video I sometimes have a hard time seeing a difference at all and that's on a 65 inch TV. That all being said...

Albert Penello did kinda squash those fears, he said dev kits cannot be used to gauge anything and referred back to 2012/2013 when he still worked for MS. He said there are a lot of changes that can happen from now till next year. I kinda wish all this next gen talk had not started yet, freaking 1,5 years before actual launch and we're already "worrying" that the next one will be weaker than PS5.

I'm not gonna deny though that I liked it more when the rumors were that MS was definitely having the stronger box. I would hate for Rockstar's, Rocksteady's, Ubi's (etc) next gen games to have a significant edge on PS5 when I really intend to fully stick with Xbox for the multiplats for a lot of reasons. In terms of price MS can't justify asking more than Sony for it, that's for sure.

Hey, we'll see. No point in dwelling on it too much.
 
https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/208837/microsoft-shifts-xbox-focus-to-one-next-gen-console

Microsoft Shifts Xbox Focus to One Next-Gen Console

Last year at E3, Phil Spencer at the end of Microsoft’s keynote, said that the company was working on new consoles for the next generation of gaming. At E3 in 2019, Phil’s on-stage discussion pointed towards one device and now the path forward is becoming a bit more clear.

In an interview with Business Insider, Phil states that the company is focused on one console even though last year he said consoles. He joked that technically Microsoft did launch a new console last year and Scarlett does make two, but anyone who was watching the event and following interviews knows that he was referring to multiple next-gen consoles.

Further, the evidence and insiders at the company acknowledged that there were two devices on the roadmap for Xbox; Lockhart and Anaconda. Even though the company has released one new console and has another planned, I firmly believe that at E3 2018, Phil was referring to two next-gen consoles on stage.

All this being said, Microsoft’s current plan for its next-generation Xbox is to focus on Scarlett and all mentions of Lockhart, which was previously documented in several places, has now been scrubbed clean. The big question is what prompted the change in the strategy?

Talking with various people inside and outside of Microsoft, here is my best conclusion as to why the device was removed from the roadmap.

First, developers were having a harder than expected time creating next-generation games that spanned across two systems with various specs. As you might expect, developers were putting a focus on making games that would run well on the lower-end device first and then scaling them up to the higher-speced, Anaconda.

Keep in mind, it’s easier to scale up than it is to scale down. Because of this, next-gen Xbox games would be at performance and visual disadvantage which is not what Microsoft would like to see as it starts to go head-to-head with the next generation PlayStation.

I’m not the only one hearing this, Digital Foundry, speaking with people at E3, have heard this too.

But that may not be the only reasons. The purpose of Lockhart was to make it easier to join the Xbox family with a console that was priced much lower than it’s a bigger brother, Anaconda. With the progress made on xCloud and its ability to bring high quality, low latency gaming to any device, Lockhart started to become more of an obstacle for Microsoft.

Even though Microsoft currently has multiple consoles available with the One S, X, and All-Digital-Edition, streamlining next generation will make it easier for the company to focus on one device. And considering margins are lower on hardware and Microsoft really just wants to sell games, no matter the platform, selling one flagship and pushing xCloud for everything else makes a bit of sense.
 
https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/208837/microsoft-shifts-xbox-focus-to-one-next-gen-console

Microsoft Shifts Xbox Focus to One Next-Gen Console

Last year at E3, Phil Spencer at the end of Microsoft’s keynote, said that the company was working on new consoles for the next generation of gaming. At E3 in 2019, Phil’s on-stage discussion pointed towards one device and now the path forward is becoming a bit more clear.

In an interview with Business Insider, Phil states that the company is focused on one console even though last year he said consoles. He joked that technically Microsoft did launch a new console last year and Scarlett does make two, but anyone who was watching the event and following interviews knows that he was referring to multiple next-gen consoles.

Further, the evidence and insiders at the company acknowledged that there were two devices on the roadmap for Xbox; Lockhart and Anaconda. Even though the company has released one new console and has another planned, I firmly believe that at E3 2018, Phil was referring to two next-gen consoles on stage.

All this being said, Microsoft’s current plan for its next-generation Xbox is to focus on Scarlett and all mentions of Lockhart, which was previously documented in several places, has now been scrubbed clean. The big question is what prompted the change in the strategy?

Talking with various people inside and outside of Microsoft, here is my best conclusion as to why the device was removed from the roadmap.

First, developers were having a harder than expected time creating next-generation games that spanned across two systems with various specs. As you might expect, developers were putting a focus on making games that would run well on the lower-end device first and then scaling them up to the higher-speced, Anaconda.

Keep in mind, it’s easier to scale up than it is to scale down. Because of this, next-gen Xbox games would be at performance and visual disadvantage which is not what Microsoft would like to see as it starts to go head-to-head with the next generation PlayStation.

I’m not the only one hearing this, Digital Foundry, speaking with people at E3, have heard this too.

But that may not be the only reasons. The purpose of Lockhart was to make it easier to join the Xbox family with a console that was priced much lower than it’s a bigger brother, Anaconda. With the progress made on xCloud and its ability to bring high quality, low latency gaming to any device, Lockhart started to become more of an obstacle for Microsoft.

Even though Microsoft currently has multiple consoles available with the One S, X, and All-Digital-Edition, streamlining next generation will make it easier for the company to focus on one device. And considering margins are lower on hardware and Microsoft really just wants to sell games, no matter the platform, selling one flagship and pushing xCloud for everything else makes a bit of sense.


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It never made sense to have two, from a developer stand point and the marketing when walking into a store and clueless people buying one when there woulda been five box’s (x, s, sad, nexbox lite, nexbox pro) to choose from. They’re gonna take a hit and lose money short te but this is a long term game yo
 
A weaker console never made sense anyway, I'm glad the devs spoke out about it but there are plenty of reasons why it was a silly idea not just the fact that it would hold true next gen games back.
 
But wait, all of that makes so much sense. But except for one thing, or I guess two things; what about "no one left behind" and "no more generations"? That part about how they can't have the next gen Xbox games being held back, makes SO much sense.

So MS is backtracking on all that? Which in my opinion is only good. I'm guessing they are keeping the X and S for Xcloud?
 
But wait, all of that makes so much sense. But except for one thing, or I guess two things; what about "no one left behind" and "no more generations"? That part about how they can't have the next gen Xbox games being held back, makes SO much sense.

So MS is backtracking on all that? Which in my opinion is only good. I'm guessing they are keeping the X and S for Xcloud?

We will have cross-gen games early on as we always do, beyond that if they want to fund 1st party games that are vastly different because something made to run on a CPU that's 4 times more capable has to find a way to work on a jaguar that's on them. The installed base with the X1 isn't all that big, it's not small either but it's not going to be anywhere near where the 360 was when that gen ended so it'll be interesting to see how long 3rd parties keep supporting it.
 
We will have cross-gen games early on as we always do, beyond that if they want to fund 1st party games that are vastly different because something made to run on a CPU that's 4 times more capable has to find a way to work on a jaguar that's on them. The installed base with the X1 isn't all that big, it's not small either but it's not going to be anywhere near where the 360 was when that gen ended so it'll be interesting to see how long 3rd parties keep supporting it.

That's true. Several games released on 360 as well when Xbox One came out. However it also had exclusives. Take Ryse for example, for that time a true next gen looking game. Definitely not possible on 360. I really hope MS will not wait too long until they keep their exclusives solely for Anaconda. Halo Infinite is cross gen, but I hope Forza Horizon 5, Fable and whatever The Initiative is working on to be next gen only.
 
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https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/208837/microsoft-shifts-xbox-focus-to-one-next-gen-console

Microsoft Shifts Xbox Focus to One Next-Gen Console

Last year at E3, Phil Spencer at the end of Microsoft’s keynote, said that the company was working on new consoles for the next generation of gaming. At E3 in 2019, Phil’s on-stage discussion pointed towards one device and now the path forward is becoming a bit more clear.

In an interview with Business Insider, Phil states that the company is focused on one console even though last year he said consoles. He joked that technically Microsoft did launch a new console last year and Scarlett does make two, but anyone who was watching the event and following interviews knows that he was referring to multiple next-gen consoles.

Further, the evidence and insiders at the company acknowledged that there were two devices on the roadmap for Xbox; Lockhart and Anaconda. Even though the company has released one new console and has another planned, I firmly believe that at E3 2018, Phil was referring to two next-gen consoles on stage.

All this being said, Microsoft’s current plan for its next-generation Xbox is to focus on Scarlett and all mentions of Lockhart, which was previously documented in several places, has now been scrubbed clean. The big question is what prompted the change in the strategy?

Talking with various people inside and outside of Microsoft, here is my best conclusion as to why the device was removed from the roadmap.

First, developers were having a harder than expected time creating next-generation games that spanned across two systems with various specs. As you might expect, developers were putting a focus on making games that would run well on the lower-end device first and then scaling them up to the higher-speced, Anaconda.

Keep in mind, it’s easier to scale up than it is to scale down. Because of this, next-gen Xbox games would be at performance and visual disadvantage which is not what Microsoft would like to see as it starts to go head-to-head with the next generation PlayStation.

I’m not the only one hearing this, Digital Foundry, speaking with people at E3, have heard this too.

But that may not be the only reasons. The purpose of Lockhart was to make it easier to join the Xbox family with a console that was priced much lower than it’s a bigger brother, Anaconda. With the progress made on xCloud and its ability to bring high quality, low latency gaming to any device, Lockhart started to become more of an obstacle for Microsoft.

Even though Microsoft currently has multiple consoles available with the One S, X, and All-Digital-Edition, streamlining next generation will make it easier for the company to focus on one device. And considering margins are lower on hardware and Microsoft really just wants to sell games, no matter the platform, selling one flagship and pushing xCloud for everything else makes a bit of sense.
Good. A dual sku launch is just dumb.
 
Now I wonder what they are gonna do in terms of pricing. Phil did recently say they will announce the price as soon as possible, but why not wait? Wait and see what Sony does, maybe they'll announce their price at their own event. But it's also possible that Sony will wait until E3 and if MS does that too it will mean they'll announce price first. Unless MS waits that out too, but at some point they gonna have to reveal the price.

Wouldn't surprise me if MS once again goed for 499 and Sony goes for 399. It would be a repeat of 2013 in that way and not good. Xbox One had Kinect so that brought it up to 499 but they also priced the One X at 499......
 
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Now I wonder what they are gonna do in terms of pricing. Phil did recently say they will announce the price as soon as possible, but why not wait? Wait and see what Sony does, maybe they'll announce their price at their own event. But it's also possible that Sony will wait until E3 and if MS does that too it will mean they'll announce price first. Unless MS waits that out too, but at some point they gonna have to reveal the price.

Wouldn't surprise me if MS once again goed for 499 and Sony goes for 399. It would be a repeat of 2013 in that way and not good. Xbox One had Kinect so that brought it up to 499 but they also priced the One X at 499......
My guess is that they will be mostly the same hardware besides the case, and will be the exact same price. With Game Pass and XBL and MS releasing games on the Windows PC, they might be able to afford to even take a bigger loss on the hardware.
 
Now I wonder what they are gonna do in terms of pricing. Phil did recently say they will announce the price as soon as possible, but why not wait? Wait and see what Sony does, maybe they'll announce their price at their own event. But it's also possible that Sony will wait until E3 and if MS does that too it will mean they'll announce price first. Unless MS waits that out too, but at some point they gonna have to reveal the price.

Wouldn't surprise me if MS once again goed for 499 and Sony goes for 399. It would be a repeat of 2013 in that way and not good. Xbox One had Kinect so that brought it up to 499 but they also priced the One X at 499......
I don't think you will Sony undercut Xbox again. The X1 price was inflated with Kinect. if anything you are more likely to see Xbox announce a price Sony cant match.
 
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My guess is that they will be mostly the same hardware besides the case, and will be the exact same price. With Game Pass and XBL and MS releasing games on the Windows PC, they might be able to afford to even take a bigger loss on the hardware.
I'm not so sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see Xbox announce a very low price. For MS it is all about those subs....ok you might lose 1 or 2 billion on hardware but the services could recoup those losses relatively quickly.
 
This is where I agree with JinCA. Power talking is not going to be the factor anymore, there has to be something that will separate them from each other and from the Hardware standpoint they look almost neck to neck.

The big difference is the online structure where this is the PlayStation weakest part of that department. MS got it right the first time right off the back in 2002 and been killing it to this day. Also, SONY joins MS cloud solution proves even more that SONY for how great they did and the hardware they sold which it doesn't sell a lot still don't have the funding to do cloud.

Service and what package is going to be the big factor from here on out. This is why MS feels good about this because they are their field that they are superior over SONY.

But who knows.
Power won't be the talking point, until one shows up weaker than the other. Its crazy! Its like you guys forget how petty console wars can be.

Not to worry, when next gen rolls around, the gaming community will give you a mid gen refresh.
 
All I'm saying is if Xbox doesn't have a significant HW advantage they will be dead in the water.
The PS brand is much bigger World wide which means MS will have an uphill battle where it will need every talking point and advantage it can get.
If PS5 has the better HW and 1st party then its over before it even starts...
You are high and f****** living in 2013.
Next gen will be about cloud and services on as many devices as you can get. This doesn't mean games and power don't have a part to play but, not like what's on the horizon. And with the other juggernauts entering the game, Sony and Nintendo need to get their ducks in a row because sticking to the traditional business model from 1990's in a 2020 world, can hurt them.
 
You are high and f****** living in 2013.
Next gen will be about cloud and services on as many devices as you can get. This doesn't mean games and power don't have a part to play but, not like what's on the horizon. And with the other juggernauts entering the game, Sony and Nintendo need to get their ducks in a row because sticking to the traditional business model from 1990's in a 2020 world, can hurt them.
Other players? You mean like Stadia? Cause that will be dead very very quickly.
 
My guess is that they will be mostly the same hardware besides the case, and will be the exact same price. With Game Pass and XBL and MS releasing games on the Windows PC, they might be able to afford to even take a bigger loss on the hardware.

Or they actually price the next Xbox at 499 because with game pass you have tons of games, including exclusives. Sony could go with 399 but you'd still need to buy games which easily would bring it to 400 or more, depending on how many games you get.

I don't think you will Sony undercut Xbox again. The X1 price was inflated with Kinect. if anything you are more likely to see Xbox announce a price Sony cant match.

That's true about Kinect, but what about when they priced the One X at 499 as well? We'll have to wait and see. If they are convinced they have the more powerful box they will definitely go at a high price but if they don't know they probably will go at 399 is my guess.

Whatever may turn out to be true, I hope the differences won't be too big. If differences between X and Pro already at times are hard to see, it's gonna be even less visible next gen I'm sure.
 
You are high and f****** living in 2013.
Next gen will be about cloud and services on as many devices as you can get. This doesn't mean games and power don't have a part to play but, not like what's on the horizon. And with the other juggernauts entering the game, Sony and Nintendo need to get their ducks in a row because sticking to the traditional business model from 1990's in a 2020 world, can hurt them.

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they said the same about xbox when they first came to the market. DOA - remember that.

Not really the same thing though, Stadia making you pay a sub fee and having to pay for games that aren't going to give you as good of an experience as you'd get on local hardware is just the wrong idea all the way around. MS isn't planning on going streaming only anytime soon and Google is really jumping the gun here.
 
Or they actually price the next Xbox at 499 because with game pass you have tons of games, including exclusives. Sony could go with 399 but you'd still need to buy games which easily would bring it to 400 or more, depending on how many games you get.



That's true about Kinect, but what about when they priced the One X at 499 as well? We'll have to wait and see. If they are convinced they have the more powerful box they will definitely go at a high price but if they don't know they probably will go at 399 is my guess.

Whatever may turn out to be true, I hope the differences won't be too big. If differences between X and Pro already at times are hard to see, it's gonna be even less visible next gen I'm sure.

I think they'll both launch at $499 and leave it up to the things that differentiate them to sell the consoles, hell if the political climate doesn't change we could end up paying more because of tariffs.
 
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Or they actually price the next Xbox at 499 because with game pass you have tons of games, including exclusives. Sony could go with 399 but you'd still need to buy games which easily would bring it to 400 or more, depending on how many games you get.


Both Sony and MS have confirmed that they’ll be backwards compatible with games.

Phil and others have also confirmed that controllers will work as well, and I doubt Sony will put any barriers on their controllers from working on the PS5
 
Not really the same thing though, Stadia making you pay a sub fee and having to pay for games that aren't going to give you as good of an experience as you'd get on local hardware is just the wrong idea all the way around. MS isn't planning on going streaming only anytime soon and Google is really jumping the gun here.

The sub is for 4k/60fps tho, the 1080p/60fps is supposed to be free I think.

Someone could theoretically play something like Cyberpunk 2077, 100% ultra settings (possibly with ray tracing?) @ 1080p/60fps without a sub.
 
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The sub is for 4k/60fps tho, the 1080p/60fps is supposed to be free I think.

Someone could theoretically play something like Cyberpunk 2077, 100% ultra settings (possibly with ray tracing?) @ 1080p/60fps without a sub.

With inconsistent latency, framerates and resolutions and it sounds like it's going to be weaker than the next gen consoles will be, I still don't get the appeal myself, a sub fee without charging for games makes more sense but it may not be a viable choice from a financial point of view. I know that's what MS is doing with GP but most of those are older games and I don't think we know how much money GP brings in.
 
they said the same about xbox when they first came to the market. DOA - remember that.
Errr...it was, relatively speaking. Guess you forgot that.

It isn't the same thing, though anyway. Xbox was bringing a console to the console market. It was always going to struggle but the audience was there for them to get.

I don't see where the Stadia audience is with its current setup of buying full priced games and then a sub to stream them and streaming is the only way to play.
 
Matt (used to post on GAF, posts now on Era and is mod there and has a good track record of things) implies that with Lockhart gone, it will change the price point of the Anaconda but also the power target to get a more mainstream system.

If course Era being Era automatically sees that as Anaconda absolutely being weaker than PS5 and are already creating gifs of Van Damme punching a Anaconda snake, sigh. Personally I don't like this what Matt implies though. MS was gonna go "all out" with the hardware for the people that want the best visuals and performance on a console, now they are going to lower it all. Of course this doesn't automatically mean it will end up weaker than PS5..... but taking into account what Andrew Reiner but also Colin Moriarty said about what actual developers told them.......

I guess I really should have taken those rumors about Anaconda definitely being more powerful with some salt, but I didn't. Sigh. Of course things can change because we're still 1,5 years from launch, but aren't a lot of specs basically already set in stone once developers are working with it?
 
“Mat” doesn’t know jack and based on what was actually was revealed both boxes are essentially the same with only one confirmed to have hardware based ray tracing support.
 
“Mat” doesn’t know jack and based on what was actually was revealed both boxes are essentially the same with only one confirmed to have hardware based ray tracing support.

Well there's also Colin Moriarty and Andrew Reiner that said devs told them PS5 had the edge in power. They are the ones working with it right now. Andrew doesn't strike me as a attention seeking person. However nothing has officially been confirmed but of all rumors now this is the most up to date.

I would love for it all to be nonsense because I don't want to worry that Xbox might end up with having weaker multiplatform games. But I can't deny that if this rumor was in favor of Xbox I would be really ecstatic, that's just how it is.
 
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