Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

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Alan
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:19 am

It’ll be expandable. Plus the console will double as a next gen DJ Hero controller. Win win.
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:36 am

Yeah I think 512gb will be fine to start with and obviously expandable.

That price the Series S is really tempting to pick up for a streaming and Game Pass box.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:02 pm

Alan wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:19 am
It’ll be expandable. Plus the console will double as a next gen DJ Hero controller. Win win.
I thought it looked more like a mid-priced Bluetooth speaker.

Interesting that the native resolution is 1440p, given that as far as I'm aware TVs don't come in that flavour. It'll make it an easier sell when it comes to upscaling to 4k (and I'll be really interested to see how that fares), but it means the machine will always be up or down scaling.

I do think that the 512gb storage might severely cripple the machine come the end of the generation though. We're already seeing games coming with 100gb installs, and with the big step up in hardware capability with both the new consoles and nvidia's new cards, I can only see bigger more detailed assets being pushed and those sizes will increase.

This one probably won't be for me given I don't want to go down from 4k, but I'm happy that the market will have a lower priced option. Still, with major publishers already saying that their software will be increasing in price by ten dollars for next gen versions, gaming is going to be more expensive as a rule.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:44 pm

I do think that the 512gb storage might severely cripple the machine come the end of the generation though. We're already seeing games coming with 100gb installs, and with the big step up in hardware capability with both the new consoles and nvidia's new cards, I can only see bigger more detailed assets being pushed and those sizes will increase.
By then they will have done a refresh and added more storage as the cost of making the console decreases.

Of the two I think Sony has a bigger issue because of their propriety SSD which means for the first few years extra storage is going to be very costly.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:25 pm

But it’s the Xbox that uses proprietary ssds, PS5 will take nvme drives as long as they are fast enough... :-k
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:54 pm

Propriety is probably the wrong word, specific advanced SSDs that I don't think are even available on the consumer market yet, at least not at anything like a reasonable price. I think Sony is going to partner with certain manufacturers so that people know which drives to use. Whatever the wordage, it is going to be a while until they are available at a reasonable price.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Tue Sep 08, 2020 3:50 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:44 pm
By then they will have done a refresh and added more storage as the cost of making the console decreases.
Which isn't much use to people who bought the original model. If there's a way of expanding the storage then fair enough, I just hope that it isn't too ridiculously priced as most console storage options are.

Put it this way; my current 1tb XBox One X is nearly full, and I've only owned the thing for 9 months. Gamepass, the service that this model is clearly going to be marketed heavily towards, really works best if you just tell the console which games to install so that they're ready for when you want to actually play, as download sizes can be pretty big. Add to that only 700gb of that 1tb drive is actually available for user storage, a whopping 30% is reserved for system use, so assuming it's similar with the new generation machines, you'll only have about 350gb of storage.

I appreciate they have to cut costs somewhere, and getting a brand new machine down to just £250 deserves recognition, I just think that this may be one spec you don't want to skimp on.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:42 pm

I think for the majority of people it wont matter as they don't need to have multiple games installed at once. I only have a 256GB SSD on my PC and it works out mostly fine for me. If you are someone who wants lots of games installed at once then sure it's an issue but I do think that is possibly an edge case. Sure games will get bigger but the huge ones will still be the exception and with it being so cheap you can probably afford to buy some extra storage if needed down the road.

Ultimately expecting a 1TB drive in a system that costs £250 is asking a bit much I think, it's the one area you can cut without effecting performance. Better to cut storage than more CPU/GPU power. Ultimately this thing is the same price as a PS4, cheaper than a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X and a Switch.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:59 pm

It’s not an edge case when gamepass is all about “here’s 100 games for you!” And CoD already takes up 200gb. It would be nice if they let you use a usb HDD for games that designate themselves as not requiring the SSD (not just BC games) even though that would also disable instant game switching and so forth. I’m sure a boatload of titles won’t really use the SSD to its full potential beyond faster loading.

One thing that worries me is that I guess they’ll still have that always recording rubbish from this gen that will always be writing to your SSD wearing out those precious SSD blips and bloops much faster than they would normally. :-k
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Tue Sep 08, 2020 5:33 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:42 pm
Ultimately expecting a 1TB drive in a system that costs £250 is asking a bit much I think, it's the one area you can cut without effecting performance. Better to cut storage than more CPU/GPU power. Ultimately this thing is the same price as a PS4, cheaper than a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X and a Switch.
I don't disagree with any of that, but it really needs to be factored into the value proposition. 512gb, likely 350-450gb actually useable, is going to be severely limiting in the next generation. It's all well and good showing off that £250 price tag, but for a lot of users they're going to need to buy what I'm expecting to be a £100+ drive expansion at some point during the console's lifespan, and I think that rather takes the shine off of things.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:21 pm

Come on eVol COD is the definition of an edge case.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Drarok » Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:40 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:42 pm
I think for the majority of people it wont matter as they don't need to have multiple games installed at once.
Absolutely disagree. I think you're the edge case here. Everyone I know with limited SSD space is pretty regularly managing/struggling with it, and what's the point in even having a gaming console or PC if you have to install one/two games and then play only those until you complete or get bored of one? I don't know anyone who plays like that. In my group of gamer friends, we'll often start the night on CoD (~200GB) or R6: Siege (~100GB), and later on we'll want to chill with something less fast-paced, so there's at least 3 games installed right there. Easily more.
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Rossell » Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:52 pm

I struggle regularly with my ps4 1tb. Not helped by the stupid file setup but the size is definitely an issue.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Mantis » Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:55 pm

I don't think it's an edge case at all. If I have space you can guarantee I will download everything I can onto it for easy access when I'm in the mood to play whatever. My 1TB PS4 is often full and I have to agonise over what to get rid of to make room for increasingly large game downloads, and my main Steam 1TB SSD is currently sat at 50gb remaining.

I think it's probably quite a common thing for most people. Particularly for people who play multiplayer quite a lot and whose friends like to cycle between many titles in any given session. That's certainly what a lot of my PC storage is dedicated to.

And you can call CoD's 200gb installation size an edge case but it's also one of the biggest franchises in gaming and guaranteed to be taking up a lot of room on a lot of people's systems. AAA games are frequently breaking the 100gb barrier nowadays and that's before we factor in the next generation titles which will have even higher quality textures.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Sly Boots » Tue Sep 08, 2020 8:47 pm

On my PC I have a 2tb drive just for games, photos and documents, with a separate 1tb drive for Windows etc, and the former is always full or nearly full, and I have to have a session of uninstalling things before I can download a new game.

My issue is that I almost always get distracted before completing a game (cRPGs generally the exception), so I keep things installed so I can eventually go back to them, which occasionally I do.

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