Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

Does anyone else feel like they’ll be largely unaffected by most of Xbox’s recent bad decisions? I use my series on a daily basis and don’t really see myself changing for any particular reason any time soon. Despite all the bad decisions and the declining lifespan and inferior quality of life, I don’t sub to game pass anyways and I don’t really buy that many games per month to begin with and they’re usually cheap or heavy I discounted games and i just play a lot of old stuff or play on my steam deck sometimes. I’m still very much comfortable with Xbox being my primary home console too. It has all the games I need on it. All the 7th gen, 8th gen, even a few 9th gen games.
I can’t say for sure what 10th gen will be like because I don’t have enough of a frame of reference to go off but we’ll see in 2026.
But even then I still see myself gaming on my Xbox for another year or two pretty regularly.
Anyone else feels the same?

@Yousef- I do feel the same way as well. I think Microsoft has a lot of stuff to improve on in the Xbox division, but I just realized they don’t really affect me at all, not trying to excuse their bad decisions that negatively impact a lot of their customers, I still dislike the price hikes they did for Game Pass and how they came out of nowhere as I was about to resub. The only sub I have is the Core sub solely for online play, and I do think that price hike made me not really care for Game Pass anymore. I think my selection of owned games (albeit kinda small since I don’t buy games a lot) is keeping me satisfied and playing the Xbox. Maybe I buy one new game and it’ll be a while that I buy another one. It’s maybe my game tastes in older, already released games that make me feel like Microsoft’s multiplatform decisions for their newer games don’t affect me that much, but I can understand a lot of criticisms people give them for how they can badly handle stuff, which they tend to do more often than not, like taking a full week to respond to the rumors that initially came out on them making ALL of their exclusives multiplatform.

@Pastellioli with me changing stuff around my spendings budget and how I use my Xbox to enjoy stuff I already have, I see myself buying games less and less. I’d love to get stuff like DBZ Sparking Zero and Sonic x Shadow, but I genuinely don’t know if my budget would allow it. We shall see.

Do you think it's worth getting a series S (1tb) in 2024?

I've had S and X in the past so I know both are good but I just wondered if the S in 2024 is still a vaible option.

Is it struggling with new games?

I'm a casual gamer and have a PS5 so unless games become barely playable i'm not going to notice. Most gaming I will do on PS5 but i'm looking at the S so i can play the new flight sim and try call of duty without paying 70 for it on ps5.

@BolkaRover I think it’s totally worth getting just for that. I do light gaming on my series s as well for games I don’t plan to buy and it’s awesome for those. Huge library, two days ago I finished Reload, a game I would’ve paid 70 bucks to play had I not gotten game pass instead. Even the 500gb model served me well, although I got myself a 4 terabyte HDD to store the 360 and Xbone games but you won’t need it if you already have a ps5 and play on it and just plan to do light gaming on your series to try stuff. So yeah go for it.

@BolkaRover That really depends on 'you' and whether or not you think it's 'good enough' for you. I can't answer whether or not you will get what you want/expect from it - enough to feel like it was a worthwhile purchase or not.

I personally think its not 'struggling' as such - maybe can't always offer the same 'features/modes', but its like the PS4/XB1S from last gen in that regard which wouldn't get 'Performance' or Higher Quality/resolution visuals the PS4 Pro or XB1X could. The Series X is likely to give you a very similar level of experience to the PS5 in that regard and the Series S, by comparison, would seem to be 'struggling' because it maybe can't do the 'couch co-op', maybe won't have a '60/120fps' performance mode or offer the Ray Traced shadows/reflections (but does use alternatives).

So it depends on whether or not you feel its too much of a drop off in resolution for example after being used to PS5 - especially if you have a 4k TV. But the 'games' aren't radically different, still offer the same story etc. CoD for example may not look quite as 'good' on Series S vs Series X/PS5 but looks and plays better than on last-gen... Its also the 'cheapest' Hardware option for being able to download and play games with Game Pass.

It really does depend on you though - whether or not you'll use it 'enough' that you feel it was a worthwhile purchase. Yes it can save you money, but spending money on Hardware and a Game Pass Subscription to save $70 on CoD and maybe play Flight Sim might be more 'expensive' than just buying CoD on PS5. If you really want to play Flight Sim and/or other Xbox exclusives (timed or otherwise) - like Indiana Jones, Stalker 2, Fable, Perfect Dark etc, then you'll get more 'use' from your Hardware/Subscription to get more value and it be more worthwhile..

Thanks for the replies guys. Very helpful. I will def be interested in Fable and Indiana Jones so I think at such a low price the series s is gonna be worth it for me.

@BolkaRover Would personally not get one.. Also I understand some devlopers struggle to get their games running on the Series S so you are not doing them any favors if you buy one.