Microsoft Reveals Next-Gen Console: "Xbox Series X"

Doomotron
So, it is as powerful as a very good gaming PC, but will it cost more than a good gaming PC? Ultimately the best-selling console will be the cheaper one.

Also, Microsoft should be praying they don't get Switched again, because if the sales aren't that good and Microsoft sell it as a loss, Xbox as a brand will be over.
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Not a chance. Wherever that figure came from, someone pulled that out of their ass. Probably priced all the revealed parts and thought as if Microsoft would pass full retail price of everything back onto the consumer....

Any game console advertising over $1500 can kiss itself goodbye. Here's some actual links with projected pricing.
Although we know for sure that the system's cost won't be as low as the best Xbox One prices (that goes without saying), we can't imagine the Xbox Series X will be a huge deal more than $450 - $500 / £450 - £500 as a result. Although the technology packed inside implies the cost could go higher, we're hoping that won't happen - Microsoft has clearly learned its lesson after the Xbox One's rocky launch.

No matter what, it's clear the Xbox Series X will be good value for money regardless of how much it costs.
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https://www.gamesradar.com/xbox-series-x-price-bundle-deals/

With all that tech under the hood, analysts are predicting an Xbox Series X price of around $499 / £499 / AU$760. That would sit in line with the PS5 price rumors that have been flying around as of late but the Series X price may well sit a little higher than its competition once again. That's a tricky pill to swallow, as Phil Spencer has publically assured fans that Microsoft has not forgotten the unfortunate events of the Xbox One reveal and are working to keep that Xbox Series X price highly competitive. That means we're hoping those estimates are a little out of whack, and we could actually see bundle costs sit lower than that of the PS5.
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https://www.techradar.com/deals/xbox-series-x-price-deals-sales-bundles
 
DF:
On XSX the game basically runs PC Ultra settings (and sometimes beyond Ultra) at 60fps, even in cutscenes. We also see evidence of some advanced techniques, including more natural-looking Screen Space Global Illumination lighting and some impressive volumetric fog.

Digital Foundry also got to see the Gears 5 benchmark running on the Xbox Series X and performance was almost identical to a PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950x and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.
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Phil Spencer:
Reviewed plans yesterday for continued sharing through launch. Team is doing great work and adapting. I've never been more excited about Xbox plans. We've heard you, you want transparency/authenticity. We plan to keep showing that way, next step is not too much of a wait (games)
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Wcctech:
As we recently reported, it’s strongly rumored Microsoft is planning to drop two big digital events over the next couple months, and according to the usually-reliable Jez Corden at Windows Central, the May event will likely see Microsoft finally unveil the Xbox Series S/Lockhart. The reasoning behind this, is that Corden has heard the Xbox Series S has entered “take home” testing, with various Microsoft employees going hands-on with the system in their own homes in order to provide feedback. Take home testing is usually one of the very last stages before hardware is revealed to the public.
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Ahhh man! This is sounding to be really big! :D

May is definitely the perfect month for MS to start unveiling stuff - The Xbox Series X & S, the games, etc. Let's go baby!!!
 
Microsoft has patented what is supposedly the console's logo, hats off to them for realising a new generation should really have a new logo or type font, ahem, Sony.
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edit, tree'd in its own thread.
 
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inCloud
Main question is "is it good at ray tracing?"
2080ti isn't all that powerful without RT
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I wouldn't hold your breath on ray-tracing. Currently the only game fully ray-traced game is the Quake 2 RTX demo. This is a 23 year old game which apart from the inclusion of the RTX api is as it was 23 years ago, including assets, and it's barely breaking 60fps at 1080p on the highest end RTX cards.

Sure the devs can apply ray-tracing selectively to various parts of the scene, but for difference it makes you might as well leave it off and get the FPS back.

Ray-tracing is an incredibly inefficient rendering method, and the many many years of progress the industry has made in developing efficient and very effective non-raytracing shaders means that raytracing comes at an extreme cost in terms computing resources for what is ultimately a very small improvement.

Not only is ray-tracing heavy on computing resources, it's also heavy on manpower resources as well. For ray-tracing to be effective then the materials used in assets need to be bang-on otherwise they will look "wrong", and in fact for many materials ray-tracing doesn't actually produce any improvement whatsoever.

Sure lighting and shadows are going to be the obvious improvements that ray-tracing will bring, but with the current level of technology you're going to find that it's not viable to use in gaming.

I'd say that it's going to take at least 10 years of further GPU development before a triple A title of today will be able to be fully rendered via ray-tracing at 1080p 60FPS.
 
Nexus
Weren't Crytek able to achieve a form of ray tracing with a Vega 56? Perhaps instead of full-fat ray tracing, developers would use methods that were used in Crytek's Neon Noir demo.
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Nvidia cards without tensor cores already can be used for RT, but its not efficient. Most likely, all gaming GPUs since next year will have hardware RT blocks or hybrids.
 
I think the new Series X Optimized badge is going to cause so much confusion. Can't they just do Series X only games?

3667447-xboxopt.jpg
 
Robin
I think the new Series X Optimized badge is going to cause so much confusion. Can't they just do Series X only games?

3667447-xboxopt.jpg
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I think a different problem could arise when Lockhart makes its debut, especially if there is talk about it being called the Series S. I reckon Lockhart will be called "Series X Lite" to minimize confusion.
 
FT-1
I think a different problem could arise when Lockhart makes its debut, especially if there is talk about it being called the Series S. I reckon Lockhart will be called "Series X Lite" to minimize confusion.
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These game boxes are going to carry several logos,

Xbox One X Enhanced, Xbox Series X Optimised, Xbox One & Xbox Series S Compatible :lol:

Grandma.jpg
 
Robin
I think the new Series X Optimized badge is going to cause so much confusion. Can't they just do Series X only games?

3667447-xboxopt.jpg
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There are rumours that theres another cheaper variant called "Series S".

So "Optimized for Series X" is indeed appropriate.
 
Microsoft outlines Backwards Compatibility plans, including system-level HDR, 4K upscaling and framerate boosts up to 120fps.



Also...

The team also continues to listen to feedback from the community on additional titles you would like to see added to the compatibility program. Resurrecting titles from history often presents a complex mix of technical and licensing challenges, but the team is committed to doing everything we can to continue to preserve our collective gaming legacy.
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*Creates dozens of Microsoft accounts to request backwards compatibility for the Project Gotham Racing Series*
 
FT-1
Microsoft outlines Backwards Compatibility plans, including system-level HDR, 4K upscaling and framerate boosts up to 120fps.

*Creates dozens of Microsoft accounts to request backwards compatibility for the Project Gotham Racing Series*
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Yeeeeesssss. :cheers: It's theirs anyway so why isn't it here already....grrr.

Edit: things are looking great for back compat ! Xbox for the win !! :)
 
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Robin
I really admire MS's commitment to not only offering amazing BC but in keeping on improving it.
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Me too. And it really is superb, I'm playing through the original Splinter Cell games and what they have done makes it even more amazing.
 
The PGR games have zero chance of returning. MS purposely buried the series so as not to compete with the Forza brand. I doubt their view on that will suddenly do a 180.
 
GroupB
The PGR games have zero chance of returning. MS purposely buried the series so as not to compete with the Forza brand. I doubt their view on that will suddenly do a 180.
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Doesn't have much to do with the fact that it's backwards compatible or not. It's a game that's already been resurrected to work on current gen.
 
ImaRobot
Doesn't have much to do with the fact that it's backwards compatible or not. It's a game that's already been resurrected to work on current gen.
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I was referring to backwards compatibility. I’m not aware of MS resurrecting any PGR game for use on the current gen.
 
GroupB
I was referring to backwards compatibility. I’m not aware of MS resurrecting any PGR game for use on the current gen.
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Well then you should look it up. I wasn’t confused as to what you were referring to, that’s why I commented.
 

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