Phil Spencer Dismisses Need for Xbox Series Hardware Refresh

[T0@st]

Watchers of the current Xbox Series have expected Microsoft to eventually issue a mid-life refresh of one of the gaming consoles (preferably the X), given the company's history of releasing upgraded variants of past generation products—with 2017's Scorpio GPU-equipped Xbox One X being a notable example. The company's recent showcase revealed a very minor upgrade for entry level Xbox Series S—the new 1 TB SSD model was presented in a black finish, with no big changes under the hood beyond a bump up in internal storage (from 512 GB), which commands a $50 upcharge from the (now) baseline white model. Bloomberg sought a couple of comments from Xbox chief Phil Spencer post showcase presentation.

When asked about the prospect of a proper hardware upgrade for Xbox Series, his reply included the view that he does not "feel an imperative" for a significant update of the existing Microsoft games console range. He thinks that the current Xbox userbase is satisfied with the status quo: "That's not the feedback we're getting right now. Right now, we're pretty set on the hardware we have." Arch rival Sony is reported to be deep into the development of an alleged "PRO" refresh of its existing PlayStation 5 console, with insider sources claiming that the more powerful variant will arrive in 2024. Spencer could be keeping quiet about his company's potential answer (as a stealth tactic) to any future competitor, but his more immediate goal is to get the Activision Blizzard takeover deal over the finishing line.



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[scheilinkin]

First they have to make some games that look next gen and even use the existing power
They dont even have that, bunch of indie titles and third party games.

 

[TechLurker]

First they have to make some games that look next gen and even use the existing power
They dont even have that, bunch of indie titles and third party games.

Why bother when they can just choke the competition by buying and consolidating studios?

/partial-humor

 

[Imouto]

Redfall runs at 30 FPS and they don't a hardware refresh.
Their flagship this year runs at 30 FPS and they don't need a hardware refresh.

They just don't want to recognize that the Series S is choking their lineup.

 

[scheilinkin]

Redfall runs at 30 FPS and they don't a hardware refresh.
Their flagship this year runs at 30 FPS and they don't need a hardware refresh.

They just don't want to recognize that the Series S is choking their lineup.

There are better looking games than Redfall that have 60FPS, this is just a case of poor optimization and a complete lack of polish and QC, since that game is UE4.
And whatever you go on and say against they can just say, but it`s on Game Pass, you didnt have to pay 69$ to play it, like that`s a good excuse for shitty quality.

 

[chrcoluk]

If I am not mistaken the xbox one gen was the exception rather than the norm, and thats because that gen started really underpowered for its expectation.

Redfall runs at 30 FPS and they don't a hardware refresh.
Their flagship this year runs at 30 FPS and they don't need a hardware refresh.

They just don't want to recognize that the Series S is choking their lineup.

Probably the majority of console gamers, are happy enough with 30fps and the S wouldnt choke the line up, thats like saying 1060 GPU's hold back PC gaming, even though devs scale their games.

They made sure it was almost the same cpu and same speed storage, so that wont force games to be downgraded on the S, it would just be scaled back visuals/textures/shaders.

There is serious developer issues right now in the industry which probably wont get fixed sadly as these issues have existed for decades but have become more extreme lately with developers valuing the ease of workflow and features over software performance.

 

[dlgh7]

I think the biggest reason they don't need a refresh is that they don't have the games library to push to need it. Some have said Microsoft internally has already given up on this generation.

I think gamepass with a Series S is actually their most compelling offer.

 

[mrnagant]

It wouldn't be surprising if they do come out with a refresh, but on the X, it really isn't needed. If anything I personally would like to see more focus around increased RT performance, but beings that they are RDNA based, we won't get that. Hopefully they will support FSR3, but I kinda doubt it.

The S though, needed more power before it came out. It should have been much closer to 6TFLOPs. Even the 6500XT has more power than the Series S. MS could have gotten there just by increasing clocks to 2.2 or 2.3GHz. I am a little surprised they actually haven't come out with an update to boost clocks. Also, I am sure the weird memory configuration doesn't help any, and could likely use a couple extra gigs of ram at least.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

I think the only reason to come out with a refresh for the Xbox SeX is to add some kind of hardware-based FSR variant and/or to add Zen4/5 cores to boost CPU performance up to the place where it needs to be to make 60fps easier.

I do think they should increase the total capacity to 2TB, though, especially given current NVME pricing.

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

XBOX has been on a downward spiral since Xbox 360.
XBOX ONE, without argument, was plagued by issues, while its predecessor, the 360, had plenty of variety and was mostly a solid system (aside from the RROD).
I skipped the XBOX One X because it looked like a stopgap effort.
I couldn't bring myself to buy the "Series X" (stupid name).
I play on STEAM now. My laptop is more powerful than the Xbox Series X as is my desktop.
They've been late on exclusives, the hardware is BORING and I see no reason why they wouldn't be getting DOMINATED by PS5.

 

[ixi]

XBOX has been on a downward spiral since Xbox 360.
XBOX ONE, without argument, was plagued by issues, while its predecessor, the 360, had plenty of variety and was mostly a solid system (aside from the RROD).
I skipped the XBOX One X because it looked like a stopgap effort.
I couldn't bring myself to buy the "Series X" (stupid name).
I play on STEAM now. My laptop is more powerful than the Xbox Series X as is my desktop.
They've been late on exclusives, the hardware is BORING and I see no reason why they wouldn't be getting DOMINATED by PS5.

What laptop do you have?

 

[Deleted member 185088]

3 years after launch still no next gen game, where are Halo and Forza. These should be launch titles and only for next gen.

 

[The Von Matrices]

The main problem is the death of Moore's Law. Unlike previous console generations, they cannot produce cheaper "slim" models because a die shrink from 7nm would actually increase costs.

Without being able to lower costs, tThe only possibility for a console with more performance would be to build an even more expensive console, and I'm not sure how well the market would receive an $800+ console.