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Larian drops Series S split-screen as "solution" to bring Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox this year (www.eurogamer.net)
submitted 3 years ago* by to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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Should put this whole issue to rest (for a while, at least πŸ˜‰).

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[–] 12 points 3 years ago (3 children)

It’s less powerful than an Xbox One X. I think the problem is that they didn’t really think through what a console generational leap would actually consist of.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I think they thought through just how important hitting that price point was, because it's done very well for them.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    PS5 outsold both versions combined by around 2x. I don't think it was nearly that big of a deal.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    And do you think that would have panned out better if the cheaper console option wasn't available? Not to mention it would only leave them with the console that shared a lot of the same components as the PS5 during supply shortages as well.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Microsoft should really ask themselves why they couldn't have procured more components, despite being one of the most profitable companies on Earth.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I mean, unless their goal is to lose even more money on each console sold, I doubt they were interested in that. But that's not their goal. Their goal is to get people subscribed to Game Pass.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Yes, thank you!
    Microsoft has historically never been profitably selling consoles, which is certainly part of their shift towards different business models, including Game Pass and a focus on more than just Xbox, but PC and Cloud as well. They don't really have much of a financial incentive to sell consoles for that sake alone, they have to get people to subscribe to Game Pass and/or buy games (possibly digitally whenever possible) and the Series S is their best console for that, as the consumer is very much locked in.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Game Pass includes PC gamers. It's probably not that profitable either.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Game Pass does include PC gamers, which is why they're probably more interested in opening up that service to more people with a cheap console SKU than to sell Xbox consoles, likely because outselling Sony by doing the same thing Sony is doing is a very steep hill to climb.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Then why even bother with a console? Just define the minimally specced PC box needed for Game Pass and call it a day.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    One day they might. PC has taken a larger and larger market share as time has gone on. PCs became easier to game on, consoles became less streamlined, and perhaps even the closed-off nature of consoles compared to the open nature of PCs has played a role. But as of 2023, you're still not making a $300 PC that plays games as well as an S. While consoles have become less streamlined, they're still more streamlined than a PC.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    We've already established that the $300 box is not viable for much longer. And since it sold around 1/3 the numbers of the PS5, it didn't even work as advertised.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Did we establish that? Most of the biggest games are not the hardest on system requirements. And while Microsoft would obviously prefer that they sold more Xboxes and reached more Game Pass subscribers (the 25M-30M is impressive regardless), I'd be surprised if they expected the majority of those to be Series S; but they probably did recognize that that customer base is still worth reaching. We're just not at a point in the history of consoles where they all have the same business model anymore, like they did 20 years ago.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    It’s less powerful than an Xbox One X

    Lmao, bruh, no one who has played games on both would ever claim that. It has slightly more raw graphical compute power while having a drastically weaker CPU, slower SSD, slower memory, and slower overall throughput.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    It has faster memory than the Series S. More importantly, it has more RAM. A few improvements here and there doesn't make the Series S a real next-gen console.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    As someone who has a One X, a Series S, and a Series X, I can assure you that you have no idea what you're talking about.

    The One X doesn't get used anymore and the Series S gets used ballpark more often than the series X. Pretty much all games play a very comparable experience on it compared to the series X, something that cannot be said about the One X.

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