Friday, December 13th 2019

Microsoft Unveils Xbox Series X, Available Holiday 2020, and "Senua's Saga: Hellblade II"

Microsoft announces the Xbox Series X console. For eighteen years and three console generations, the Xbox community has shown us the power both games and fun can have on all of us. As we enter a new generation of gaming, we see a future where you're instantly absorbed in your games - where worlds are even more lifelike, immersive, responsive and surprising - and where you are at the center of your gaming experience. With the new Xbox Series X, we will realize that vision.

Xbox Series X will be our fastest, most powerful console ever and set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, allowing you to bring your gaming legacy, thousands of games from three generations and more forward with you. Its industrial design enables us to deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way, something that is critically important in delivering truly immersive gameplay. We also designed Xbox Series X to support both vertical and horizontal orientation. It's bold and unique, very much like our fans around the world and the team of collaborators and innovators who built it.
The name Xbox is an expression of our deep history in gaming, our team's unrelenting passion, and our commitment to both our fans and the future of gaming at Microsoft. It also signifies our belief that a gaming console should be for just that - gaming.

Alongside Xbox Series X, we also unveiled the new Xbox Wireless Controller. Its size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people, and it also features a new Share button to make capturing screenshots and game clips simple and an advanced d-pad derived from the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller. The new Xbox Wireless Controller will be compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, and will be included with every Xbox Series X.

The possibilities of what Xbox Series X enables developers to achieve was also brought to life this evening with the unveiling of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. A sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice from world-renowned developers Ninja Theory, the game is being built to leverage the full power of Xbox Series X. The footage shared tonight was captured in-engine and reflects the power of Xbox Series X available to developers to deliver new universes, experiences and games in ways you have never imagined.

Bringing Developers' Dreams to Life with Xbox Series X
Games today deliver amazing visuals and tell an array of different and deep stories. That's why, when we started work on Xbox Series X, it was vital we continue to advance state-of-the-art visual capabilities for developers, while also ensuring they could realize even greater feeling, emotion and empathy in their games. With Xbox Series X, we will elevate the way games look, play and feel. We will also remove the technical barriers faced in previous generations and enable developers to create more expansive, immersive gaming worlds that invite more players to play.

From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.

We are minimizing latency by leveraging technology such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and giving developers new functionality like Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever. Xbox Series X is also designed for a future in the cloud, with unique capabilities built into the hardware and software to make it as easy as possible to bring great games to both console and elsewhere. Xbox Series X will deliver a level of fidelity and immersion unlike anything that's been achieved in previous console generations.

One Console, Four Generations of Gaming
One of the things we're most proud of with Xbox Series X is the promise we're delivering to our fans who have and continue to invest with Xbox. Thanks to backward compatibility, you can expect your gaming legacy, thousands of your favorite games across four generations of gaming, all your Xbox One gaming accessories, and industry-leading services like Xbox Game Pass to be available when you power on your Xbox Series X in Holiday 2020.

Building on our compatibility promise, with Xbox Series X we're also investing in consumer-friendly pathways to game ownership across generations. Leading the way with our first-party titles including Halo Infinite in 2020, we're committed to ensuring that games from Xbox Game Studios support cross-generation entitlements and that your Achievements and game saves are shared across devices. As we branch out and extend gaming to more players around the world, console gaming will remain at the heart of our Xbox offering. Game creators around the globe are already hard at work building content for Xbox Series X and our 15 Xbox Game Studios are developing the largest and most creatively diverse lineup of Xbox exclusive games in our history. On behalf of Team Xbox, we're excited to enter the future of console gaming with you and can't wait to share more in 2020.

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84 Comments on Microsoft Unveils Xbox Series X, Available Holiday 2020, and "Senua's Saga: Hellblade II"

#26
Nater
I think Nintendo taught the industry a lesson on having a proper D-pad. Nobody cares how fancy and cool your new console is, sometimes we still wanna play retro games.

I'm on the fence on this, and probably leaning to PS5. Have to see how the kids do on their old RX580 rigs this year - do the start pining for upgrades, or are they drawn to the new Xbox/PS5? I can't justify all three. (gaming PCs, PS5, and Xbox SeX)

And we are calling it that. Don't let MS live this one down.
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#27
Vario
I like the shape, it probably cools really well. Heat was a big issue with the early Xbox.
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#29
Steevo
steve360Xbox SeX

SeXbox

Take your pick.
Anything is a dildo if you are brave enough.

-The Internet
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#30
natr0n
I bet there is a monster 120mm fan in there.
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#31
agatong55
I actually like the design, Looks like it is setup the same way to corsair one is.

Depending on specs and price, may have to get this and the ps5
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#32
danbert2000
I kind of like the look. It won't fit where my One S is, but I wasn't planning on buying it anyway. Looks to be about twice the height of a One S while laying down horizontally, and a little shallower.

I posted just yesterday that Xbox Scarlett was going to be using something comparable to the 5700 XT. Looks like their comments on it being 8x faster than a One S bears that out, since the One X is ~4x faster, and so this new box would be around 2x faster than a One X. So if we're making some wild guesses, I'm guessing that this box will use around 250 - 300 W. This could be one of the reasons why the Xbox Series X (blech) is so chunky. They can't really have an external PSU that isn't massive in its own right, and the cooling capability has to be rather large. The One X got away with a blower for the whole unit, but throwing a bunch of dense fins below a large fan should be more reliable and cheaper, and they can cool the PSU in line as well.

BOM cost guesses:
$250 for the CPU/GPU combo (may be even more, ~$300 with the raytracing silicon)
$30 for the PSU
$20 for the controller
$25 for the disc drive
$40 for the SSD
$50 for the 12+ GB GDDR6
$75 for mobo/case/accessories/packaging
-------------------
~$440 - 490

I guess they sell this thing for $500 and either come out with a $350 cut down box based on the 5500 successor, or repurpose the One X silicon with an SSD as a 1080p/30 fps box. I hope they do the former, having to support two CPU levels would be pretty rough 5 years from now. But I could see some limited One X compatibility for the first few years.
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#33
Th3pwn3r
FreedomEclipseYawwwwwwwwwwwwn.

'Their unrelenting passion and commitment to fans and the future of gaming at Microsoft' didn't stop them from leaving the pc platform and shutting down or repurposing all their studios that were making games for the pc
Hey...the original XBOX was great and had lots of great games . I know it's different now but at one time they made good stuff.
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#34
chodaboy19
What's the airflow direction? If we put it horizontally does it exhaust to the side? :confused:
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#35
Turmania
I like it, remember Silverstone had a mini itx case like this.was about to trigger it and buying it but bought nzxt manta instead.
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#36
Vario
Maybe the Xbox Huge "meme" will be back after a decade and a half in dormancy
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#37
Xuper
you know How is Console(300w) powerful ? in console world (PS5/Xbox Sex) , every games must have 100% optimization for Zen/RDN , example : Forza 4 / Gear 5 , They're highly optimization for AMD GPU and 5700XT is close to 2070S.So console with 300 watts of power will be like GTX2080(or even more) + Ryzen 3800X
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#38
Prime2515102
You guys that don't like the design don't understand. This RGB craze as of late has to be one-upped and Microsoft is the one to do it. It is designed like this because that grill on the top is where the lasers and confetti come out.
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#39
umdterps71
If they really are about the games and the console is just a delivery tool, they should make this upgradeable. Its larger and closer to a PC than its ever been so, its doable. Of course, you'd have to buy the upgraded parts directly from Microsoft and they'd cost more than they should but, the option would be nice.
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#40
notb
I struggle to understand why people don't like the design. It's really good and minimalist. That's what people like.
You can always glue some RGB strips...

That said, I was really sad when they've shown this.
I liked the slim, horizontal design. And it fits my TV table perfectly.

I guess no one has DVD readers anymore, so this form factor doesn't make as much sense as it used to...

I'm not sure why it's so big. Is the PSU included?
I can only hope this case is just for the faster "X" version and the "S" successor is still small (maybe a cube - i.e. half of this?)
umdterps71If they really are about the games and the console is just a delivery tool, they should make this upgradeable.
No. The whole point of consoles is that the parts are fixed. This is a clear distinction from PCs and it's important.
Otherwise consoles make little sense and could be replaced by gaming OS or a launcher.
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#41
moob
I probably wasn't going to get a new console but I kinda like that design.

Anyhoo, the bigger news for me is the Hellblade sequel. Wasn't expecting that at all. The first game was surprisingly well done so I'm definitely looking forward to that.
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#42
umdterps71
notbNo. The whole point of consoles is that the parts are fixed. This is a clear distinction from PCs and it's important.
Otherwise consoles make little sense and could be replaced by gaming OS or a launcher.
Microsoft loses money or breaks even on console sales while making profit on game and accessory sales. They really don't care if you have a PC or an Xbox as long as you are buying games from them. Their push towards PC gaming is evidence of this. Maybe have a high end modular model that can be upgraded and a cheaper, smaller model for casual gamers? I guess it is wishful thinking on my part.
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#43
notb
umdterps71Microsoft loses money or breaks even on console sales while making profit on game and accessory sales.
Which is absolutely fine. Consoles are just a sales driver. There's no need to make a profit (but it won't hurt).
They really don't care if you have a PC or an Xbox as long as you are buying games from them.
A PC can run many games and work with many platforms.
Thanks to selling a console they make money on subscription services (exclusivity / full control) and on games.
Sure, Xbox lets you use EA subscription as well, but EA pays MS for this access to the platform.
Their push towards PC gaming is evidence of this. Maybe have a high end modular model that can be upgraded and a cheaper, smaller model for casual gamers? I guess it is wishful thinking on my part.
Console popularity stems from how easy to use they are. That's the whole point.
All games work with no meddling with settings, with no compatibility issues and no minimum requirements.
The console is much simpler and more robust. It's easier to make games as well.

Games will already run at acceptable refresh rate on the basic model. They were optimized for that particular hardware.
Why upgrade? What is your goal? 80fps? 140fps?

Because it seems that you're trying to infect consoles with PC-like approach. It makes no sense and would just ruin the idea. Most people strongly prefer either PCs or consoles.

What next? An fps counter in the image corner? Or maybe core usage and temperature? :p
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#44
QUANTUMPHYSICS
This is ridiculous beyond belief.

I think Microsoft may be losing me as a customer for Xbox Live.

My computer can run anything on the market, has a 2080Ti which means I can ray trace better than this newer machine possibly can and I have more RAM, more CPU power and more SSD storage than Microsoft will offer.
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#45
umdterps71
notbGames will already run at acceptable refresh rate on the basic model. They were optimized for that particular hardware.
Why upgrade? What is your goal? 80fps? 140fps?

Because it seems that you're trying to infect consoles with PC-like approach. It makes no sense and would just ruin the idea. Most people strongly prefer either PCs or consoles.

What next? An fps counter in the image corner? Or maybe core usage and temperature? :p
I was thinking more of how Mac pros have moduals. The upgrades are tightly controlled by the manufacturer, ensuring easy compatibility. In this case, you can buy the base model and upgrade later on instead of having to get a brand new console. The upgrades could be for resolution and/or fps. I'm not saying it's going to happen but, I think consoles would be better if they did.
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#46
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
btarunrthe unveiling of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. A sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice from world-renowned developers Ninja Theory, the game is being built to leverage the full power of Xbox Series X.
Here's what I got out of the whole article: We, Microsoft, are reverting to our "We hate PC gaming" corporate unofficial policy again (which we had for years, even when we said we were pro-PC gaming) by releasing a sequel to a game that was made by a small studio with the PC as it's focus, under the publishing umbrella of X-box Game Studios, and then maybe later sometime we will let it get released on PC. :mad:
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#47
Prime2515102
QUANTUMPHYSICSThis is ridiculous beyond belief.

I think Microsoft may be losing me as a customer for Xbox Live.

My computer can run anything on the market, has a 2080Ti which means I can ray trace better than this newer machine possibly can and I have more RAM, more CPU power and more SSD storage than Microsoft will offer.
Were you expecting a console to be more powerful than a high-end PC? This has never happened in the entire history of game consoles (since 3D accelerators have been around anyway). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember such a thing ever being the case. This is why my last console was an PS2 (with the exception of a One S that I got on sale for $150 that I bought for the 4k Blu-ray player, but I never played games on it).
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#48
Calmmo
Based on past experience these consoles with the more direct to metal nature of developing for them, running games on them will if not from the start at least eventually "outperform" what current GPUs we think are capable of on PC.
Applies to 2080ti's as well (that will be near 2.5 years old when the consoles come out).
I don't mind the look of this, tho I don't particularly like the simple look, I'd want something curvier.
Also can't wait for videos of these burning up because kids moms put flowers or something at the top :)
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#49
Tsukiyomi91
it looks or based on Corsair One's design, minus the perforated side panels, RGB lightings & the Corsair logo. This design; I like.
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