Shamelessly taken from NeoGAF:
5 Likes
Thank you Staffy.
Interesting that she seems to understand the complexity of all the problems Xbox and gaming as a whole are facing. I’m still not convinced she can sort the mess, but we will see. At least Xbox is looking to grow with her and she has ambitions for the ecosystem.
I hope she goes through with the return to console exclusives though. It feels like she understands it is needed for the ecosystem’s growth.
3 Likes
Yeah I can agree with that. It’s also good if they are indeed looking at affordability, but I just hope they won’t sacrifice too much on power because I definitely AM willing to pay good money for good hardware. I fucking adore this hobby which brings me joy on a daily basis.
1 Like
So yeah, they’re getting out of physical media as well, probably going to try to do it quietly to let Sony take the hit for once. Edit: It’s here because it’s about the physical disc, getting out of physical also is something that would save them a lot of money in the end, as according to Jez in his disc to digital article. The entire production pipeline for making disc players is falling apart, if that’s accurate (can’t really say because Jez’ best info is on Microsoft itself) than trying to keep disc would mean Microsoft supporting that pipeline mostly by themselves.
While she says they’re gaining users in Europe, something that can be half verified by European hardware sellers reporting, the only place we have heard about them selling more consoles was in the UK recently. We also saw that the gain didn’t make a difference in the downward spiral of console sales, because they’re still not making a lot of them and the new prices are keeping those sales down. If they really want to make gains they really need to have a bigger presence in Europe.
Multiple business models just screams case by case basis to me, so we will likely be seeing more games announced for PlayStation.
The talk about hardware makes me feel that they will drop the memory down from the rumored, I want to say 24GB, to 16GB to match this gen. Likely even make more cuts, that will end up with the next Xbox being more a 5070 than a 5080 in power. It will still be over 1k though, as the current Xbox is already on it’s way there. As well as bringing back Xbox All Access and including Xboxes in more pay over time services.
The project Helix being a family of devices, I don’t really buy(edit: well not buy, but hard to see it be done) unless they’re doing another S and X models with a handheld in between (which would mean spending even more money on multiple devices). Or are planning on updating the current consoles to the next step and have them be part of the family, while including PCs that run windows into that equation, which would help with the 1 billion daily users.
I saw the video and…
Am I the only one that got the impression that maybe, just maybe they might include a disc drive? The way she answered the questions and her facial expressions when asked about discs gave something away to me.
Helix X 48GB RAM w. Disc drive
Helix S 24GB RAM w.o. Disc drive
I don’t see Microsoft having different RAM specs again. I believe the CPU and RAM will be the same across the board while the SSD storage and GPU will be decreased/weaker respectively.
1 Like
It is. Sony are part of that pipeline and discs were cheaper for them as part of the whole thing, and they still also find it expensive to maintain despite having a higher physical presence than Xbox. Yes, Xbox will also end physical games like Sony, they are not gonna subsidize something like this. However, a disc choice to keep playing your physical BC library should be on offer.
2 Likes
Well, if they can return to Europe that would be nice.
2 Likes
I do wonder though how that possibly can be when 4K Blu-Rays are still being made and there are a lot of boutique makers of discs out there as well, not even mentioning legacies like Criterion Collection for example.
I can’t see UHD discs going away anytime soon, even though I know it’ll be niche. Somehow, I think physical media stil has its place, but I won’t lie, I’ll probably start buying extra disc players to store just in case.
RAM is probably the single most expensive thing right now driving up all these ridiculous console prices.
If the RAM is the same for both then that would mean we’re not going to get the rumored 48GB RAM Helix. Maybe not even 32GB. Sad to see them cut performance of the premium version because of what’s going on.
I honestly don’t see 48GB of RAM as I think that’s too much/high but it can’t stay 16GB for another decade give or take. I know RAM is mad expensive but if the consoles don’t have 32GB of RAM, I don’t see much point in having new consoles because how strong will the CPU and GPU be then?
The CPU and RAM are the two most important components in my opinion so maybe they go cheaper with the GPU since visuals/graphics are already at a high level but performance isn’t. I’m hoping for 32GB of RAM but we’ll see.
1 Like
This reminds me of the Xbox Ally X vs Legion Go 2
Ally X has 24GB RAM and Legion Go 2 32GB RAM
So even though the Ally X has a better APU the Legion Go 2 has better performance on games just by virtue of its higher RAM.
Jason Ronald is a smart guy and I’m sure they’ll figure out a good balance/cost ratio between the two.
1 Like
Let developers rediscover the magic of memory optimization.
4 Likes
The Series S doesn’t get enough credit. Developers were forced to optimize and in turn that helped the premium consoles.
Which is why I still believe that the Helix S will have less RAM as well. Mostly because right now that’s the single most component that you can lower price on.