Tuesday, June 20th 2023
Digital Foundry Claims Xbox Series X Initially Designed as a Mid-Gen Console Refresh
According to main members of the Digital Foundry team, Microsoft had informed them during Xbox Series console preview sessions (prior to the November 2020 launch) that plans for the more powerful variant had changed. Richard Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia discussed this puzzling notion during yesterday's DF Direct Weekly videocast (episode number #116): "Microsoft told us this back when we saw the Series X for the first time that the Series X is their mid-gen refresh. They just decided to do it, ahead of time, I guess you could say...The Series S is what they consider the standard machine and then Series X is, you know, that's getting ahead of the cart there and this is what you might get from a mid-gen console." They compare the current offerings to predecessors, and propose that Microsoft simply "transplanted" and repeated model hierarchy from the past, albeit with a simultaneous launch—Series S is the newer answer to Xbox One S, and Series X is a current-gen equivalent to the One X.
The debate touches upon (Xbox Chief) Phil Spencer's recent declaration that a more powerful Xbox Series console is not necessary, despite Sony allegedly working on a PlayStation 5 "PRO" model. The DF team reckons that game developers are yet to extract the most from current offerings—Battaglia agrees with Spencer's observation and suggests that only a loud minority of hardcore console gamers are demanding more powerful refreshes. Linneman thinks that the Series X is still a "great box" despite headlines focusing on restrictive 30 FPS performance, and its full potential has not been unleashed. Games running on Unreal Engine 5 are still a rarity on home consoles, but the guys acknowledge that AAA development is taking longer and becoming more expensive, so truly next-gen visuals are not arriving soon. Leadbetter estimates that it takes about four years to hash out console hardware, so the current generation's lifespan could be extended if refreshed hardware turns up.
Sources:
Digital Foundry YouTube Video, Kit Guru
The debate touches upon (Xbox Chief) Phil Spencer's recent declaration that a more powerful Xbox Series console is not necessary, despite Sony allegedly working on a PlayStation 5 "PRO" model. The DF team reckons that game developers are yet to extract the most from current offerings—Battaglia agrees with Spencer's observation and suggests that only a loud minority of hardcore console gamers are demanding more powerful refreshes. Linneman thinks that the Series X is still a "great box" despite headlines focusing on restrictive 30 FPS performance, and its full potential has not been unleashed. Games running on Unreal Engine 5 are still a rarity on home consoles, but the guys acknowledge that AAA development is taking longer and becoming more expensive, so truly next-gen visuals are not arriving soon. Leadbetter estimates that it takes about four years to hash out console hardware, so the current generation's lifespan could be extended if refreshed hardware turns up.
11 Comments on Digital Foundry Claims Xbox Series X Initially Designed as a Mid-Gen Console Refresh
Series X is a perfectly good machine for 4k/30, and likely even a great machine for 1440p/60 if the developers put some effort into that option.....but they don't! On a 65" set you will easily notice a drop in visual effects/draw distance/fidelity, what you will not easily see is a 1440p native resolution...or a 1440p native resolution scaled-up to 4k, hell even the PS4 Pro could do that pretty reliably. And yet the games keep offering up "4k/30 pretty, or sorta-4k gimped at 60fps after we turn some settings down", with rare exception.
Forza Horizon 5 does it wrong, by making its 60fps mode have reduced visuals but keeping a near 4k resolution at all times when they could have locked it at 1440p and probably left all the visual intact to achieve 60fps, but a game like
Ghost Recon Breakpoint did it correctly, by offering a 4k/30fps native resolution with some reduced graphical effects or a 1440p (on Series X) at 60fps with max detail. That should be the target, not "we absolutely must adhere to native 4k or we look like losers!"...that's b.s.
Sadly that's the world we live in. "Does it have Ray Tracing?" is all people know. We will probably have amazing Ray Traced and Path Traced games...........in another 10 years.
It would also in turn hasten obsolescence of the standard X and maybe also the S, as the targeted hardware would be changed, which invalidates previous purchases, a good decision in my opinion.
PS5 and Series X are literally 18-24 months into "general availability", before that you were still paying a premium or waiting for something to be in stock thanks to the end of the Pandemic......but when you look at the software side of things, it's shockingly bad.
Why ask me to spend another $500 bucks, on top of the $500 (or more) I already spent to play.....what, exactly? The other issue is...what would this upgrade path be? If the current gen boxes are based on last-gen AMD APU's, then these refreshes would be based on current-gen APU's....which, while an improvement, is hardly a doubling of performance and framerates...its like the typical cycle of asking us to spend the same money again for a 10-30% uptick in performance.
So I can play Far Cry 5 again with some Ray Tracing slapped on or at 120hz with a joypad? Whats the point. It probably doesn't matter either way, I suspect any Unreal Engine 5 based game is going to cripple all the current hardware, console or PC alike.....new engine with new, immature dev tools spells disaster usually.
Ray tracing is clearly not for current gen consoles in my opinion. No reason to kill performance for more realistic lighting.