I’m not sure Microsoft did this generation of consoles any favours by launching the Series S.

  • Reaphenex@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    For those curious Swen spoke a little about the issues with Xbox they’ve been having and why they haven’t officially announced the game for Xbox yet in this interview on SkillUp a few days ago.

    Basically, the gist is that it’s just not ready yet. They are currently trying to optimize it well enough so it runs 60fps even with 4 player co-op split screen which is a tall ask for the series S. Rather than hold PC and PS5 back they are instead focusing on their release and then will continue to work on Xbox after much like they did with Switch for DOS2.

    • Lord_Logjam@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Although this is frustrating for XSX owners like myself, it is absolutely the right thing to do. I’ve played a little bit of early access on Stadia and I hope all the PC and PS5 players are having a blast.

      • forgotaboutlaye@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        PS5 owners are still waiting for the originally planned release date in September. Only the PC release moved to yesterday.

        • Lord_Logjam@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Ah fair enough I didn’t realise that. Still it looks like it’ll be 2024 before it comes to Xbox last I saw.

  • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    The Series S specs exceed all the listed minimum specs on the BG3 Steam page for PC. How is the Series S holding anything back when they apparently support their game on shittier PCs?

    • Thadrax@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      My PC is above minimum specs and BG3 ran really poorly even on low. Maybe they got a similar issue with the s.

      • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        Yeah that’s the problem, they obviously lie about minimum specs on PC but that is OK for some reason. Xbox enforcing a quality experience for its users is somehow “holding the industry back”.

    • yesterdayshero@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      But the Series S doesn’t run the PC game. Just like PC’s don’t run the Series S version of the game. I’m confused. If it was so easy, why isn’t every game available on every platform on day one?

      • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        Mate the Xbox is a PC with better support and static specs. And yes Most games are available on every platform on day one.

        • yesterdayshero@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 years ago

          If it’s so straight forward, then what are the devs complaining about?

          Microsoft requires they meet a specific standard on both the S and X, which is making it harder for them to do. They don’t build to every specific PC variant. But they have to build to both the X and S.

          • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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            2 years ago

            They’re complaining that their job is hard. People do that all day, every day, whether it’s a legitimate complaint or not.

            They came up with those minimum specs somehow didn’t they? Either that built to those minimum specs, or……? And those specs are less powerful than the Series S. So here we are again!

            • yesterdayshero@lemmy.worldOP
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              2 years ago

              “Because Xbox mandates that any games launched on its current-gen systems run smoothly on both Series X and Series S” - from the article

              So no, they don’t get to just pick the minimum specs they support like on the PC version. They have to build a game that runs similarly on S and X, or not launch on either. Hence, the S is always going to limit what devs will be able/willing to do on the current gen consoles. More so than if they could just focus on the X and PS5.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    For those interested, a certain analytics company claimed on vague terms that certain markets sell more Series S than X consoles.

    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ampere-xbox-series-s-outselling-series-x-in-key-markets?ssp=1&darkschemeovr=1&setlang=en-US&safesearch=moderate

    So that suggests, if Microsoft had never released that lower-power console, they’d be selling fewer of the pair this generation.

    Ultimately, this issue seems specific to the devs’ wish for a 60fps 4-player split screen mode, something that certainly does seem computationally expensive even if resolution is lowered.

    • yesterdayshero@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      That article is from 2021 and doesn’t provide links or details to any data. The claim in the article says it’s 50/50. But again, no data is provided.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        “No data provided” is going to be relatively common for sales of consoles/games, especially when going specific to certain markets. That data is literally valuable, and might be purchased by publishers looking to make development or release decisions.

        As such, when we do get it for free articles, it’s from relative comparables, like “More oranges than apples”. Anyone in comments that happens to work for a publisher is likely under NDA agreement not to just give it out.

        I agree that I’d like to see more recent data, and made an effort to find what I could - but it’s also hard to say if any specific change in circumstance might reverse sale rates between the two models.

  • lorty@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Developers can shit on series S as much as they want, but if Microsoft relax the feature parity it would be a death sentence for the series S.

  • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    They had to optimise for a shitload of PC configurations, yet two Xbox ones are somehow difficult?

    • yesterdayshero@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Not the same thing. Games aren’t built for every specific PC configuration. You’ve always adjusted graphics settings on PC depending on what your machine can run.