Xbox Series S [XBSS] (Lockhart) General Rumors and Speculation *spawn*

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I’m struggling to see the point of this cheaper version unless the price is so low and performance good enough that it’ll sell crazy amounts. If it’s above $199, good luck.
 
When was the last time when you had an entry level sku that was so much weaker than the model you're actually promoting?

I think the only way they are hitting anything near that price is with no controller unless MS are happy to lose money hand over fist...I just don't see how they can produce a box with the tech inside for such a price...even XSX is a bargain at 500 IMHO.
 
I think the only way they are hitting anything near that price is with no controller unless MS are happy to lose money hand over fist...I just don't see how they can produce a box with the tech inside for such a price...even XSX is a bargain at 500 IMHO.

If the reduced price comes with a mandatory 1 year subscription to Game Pass or whatever service they bundle it with. Same model as mobile phone contracts.
 
I think the only way they are hitting anything near that price is with no controller unless MS are happy to lose money hand over fist...I just don't see how they can produce a box with the tech inside for such a price...even XSX is a bargain at 500 IMHO.

A few things. Don't include an optical drive. Make it a digital console only. Being notably weaker, it'll requires much less power and cooling and beefy vrm's so that's cost savings.

Is the Series S a trojan horse for Gamepass? if so, it needs to be cheap to the point it's a no brainer.

If it's $299 and the main console is $449, then it's really in no mans land in terms of desirability. Your early enthusiasts are the hardcore gamers who want the best, will pay a premium and want it right away. That means the XSS has no appeal to them.

So your audience with the XSS is casuals who want the price to be low enough to consider it a "sure why not" purchase vs something they have to think about. Then get them in the habit of paying a monthly sub and you got something. Without that, you got a product without an audience.

I'm a good sample. My kids or me don't need the latest and greatest. I have a PC that does the job but I wouldn't mind replacing the X1X with a cheap alternative. At $199, it'd be an insta buy. At $299, I'll sit it out for a bit. $249 is a maybe.
 
Why not just say Xbox Series (like they did for Xbox One which doesn't add 'S, X and Digital' at the end?)
Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X feels wrong because as far as we know, there isn't an X 'series', nor an S 'series' in the same way BMW have a 3, 5 and 7 series - as in multiple models within each series. It feels more like Xbox Series 4 model S and Series 4 model X.

I feel better now I've got that off my chest because this has been bugging me for a while. Maybe down the line if there is a X2 and S2, it will work .
 
If the reduced price comes with a mandatory 1 year subscription to Game Pass or whatever service they bundle it with. Same model as mobile phone contracts.
Which then puts the price up - so it’s 300 with a years GP? And as the other thread we don’t even know how sustainable or profitable GP is - could sell to a load of people who just get free/extremely cheap subs like me.

A few things. Don't include an optical drive. Make it a digital console only. Being notably weaker, it'll requires much less power and cooling and beefy vrm's so that's cost savings.

Is the Series S a trojan horse for Gamepass? if so, it needs to be cheap to the point it's a no brainer.

If it's $299 and the main console is $449, then it's really in no mans land in terms of desirability. Your early enthusiasts are the hardcore gamers who want the best, will pay a premium and want it right away. That means the XSS has no appeal to them.

So your audience with the XSS is casuals who want the price to be low enough to consider it a "sure why not" purchase vs something they have to think about. Then get them in the habit of paying a monthly sub and you got something. Without that, you got a product without an audience.

I'm a good sample. My kids or me don't need the latest and greatest. I have a PC that does the job but I wouldn't mind replacing the X1X with a cheap alternative. At $199, it'd be an insta buy. At $299, I'll sit it out for a bit. $249 is a maybe.
I get the price logic for 200, I just don’t see it being possible without a large loss, the BoM will be too high from what I can gather. You can’t just sell a product for a price because that’s where it fits, it has to be viable surely?
 
I'm expecting it to be an All Access only-device to replace both One S options. Right now you can get the One S All Digital Edition for $19.99/mo for 24 months. That's $5 extra a month(total of $120) to get the console and Game Pass Ultimate(already $14.99/mo). So basically if you want a Blu-ray drive or want to buy your console outright, then the Series X is for you.

Will be interesting to see what they start the monthly payments at. $20 or $25 per month?

Tommy McClain
 
I'm expecting it to be an All Access only-device to replace both One S options. Right now you can get the One S All Digital Edition for $19.99/mo for 24 months. That's $5 extra a month(total of $120) to get the console and Game Pass Ultimate(already $14.99/mo). So basically if you want a Blu-ray drive or want to buy your console outright, then the Series X is for you.

Will be interesting to see what they start the monthly payments at. $20 or $25 per month?

Tommy McClain
Yea a low enough all access price would just making gaming really cheap. A very cheap and effective way to just get access to 100+ titles of differing genres and age groups for your family. Someone will bite.
This coming generation, I don't think it's possible that Xbox could do worse than this current generation, it's just unlikely. MS may have had the weirdest communication snafu there is, but the hardware, price points, low entry barrier options, controller re-use, backwards compatibility ; I can't see this being a 1:1 alignment with XBO launch.
Though they are coming off the XBO generation (a low vs the 360 gen), but hard for me to say that it could do worse, then this. MS will claw back some marketshare at least with respect to this gen.
 
A few things. Don't include an optical drive. Make it a digital console only. Being notably weaker, it'll requires much less power and cooling and beefy vrm's so that's cost savings.

Is the Series S a trojan horse for Gamepass? if so, it needs to be cheap to the point it's a no brainer.

If it's $299 and the main console is $449, then it's really in no mans land in terms of desirability. Your early enthusiasts are the hardcore gamers who want the best, will pay a premium and want it right away. That means the XSS has no appeal to them.

So your audience with the XSS is casuals who want the price to be low enough to consider it a "sure why not" purchase vs something they have to think about. Then get them in the habit of paying a monthly sub and you got something. Without that, you got a product without an audience.

I'm a good sample. My kids or me don't need the latest and greatest. I have a PC that does the job but I wouldn't mind replacing the X1X with a cheap alternative. At $199, it'd be an insta buy. At $299, I'll sit it out for a bit. $249 is a maybe.


Typically you have the start of a generation with a really high price tag and limited support of a console. So of course it will only appeal to the enthusiasts and hardcore gamers. However what happens when you have a rolling generation?

IF you own an xbox one or ps4 original you might have a console from 2013-2015. Now 5 years later you may want to purchase a new console for any number of reasons. But if your purchase price in 2013-2015 was $300 your just going to find the xbox one s or ps4 at that price point. I think we can all agree that lockhart will not be more than $300. So your now looking at a console that supports all next gen features at $200-$300. If your a customer like that then you can get next gen graphics at a great price and have a long tail of support going forward. MS already discontinued the XOX and Sony has announced they wont be making new first party ps4 games. So you have the opportunity to move forward on a platform in your desired price point. In previous gens that could have taken years. If ps5/xsx are $500 it could be 2023 or later before someone at the mid end could jump in.

Now yes you wont get Horizon 2 or god of war 6 or uncharted 7 or whatever they are up too. But you do get your cods and destinies and all the third party content and you do get your Microsoft titles.

Couple it with game pass and you suddenly have hundreds of titles to play from a slew of different generations.
 
Which then puts the price up - so it’s 300 with a years GP? And as the other thread we don’t even know how sustainable or profitable GP is - could sell to a load of people who just get free/extremely cheap subs like me.


I get the price logic for 200, I just don’t see it being possible without a large loss, the BoM will be too high from what I can gather. You can’t just sell a product for a price because that’s where it fits, it has to be viable surely?

You have a much smaller soc , slower ram , less complex motherboard , less complex cooling , smaller box , smaller packaging and so on and so forth. A lot of small cost sinks add up quickly on devices
 
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