written by Mohammed Fahmi
Xbox One was first released at the end of 2013 and now, seven years later, after numerous upgrades to Xbox One, Microsoft is finally ready to bring us their next-generation console for the holiday season of 2020. Continuing with the Xbox tradition of confused naming compared to its competitions, Microsoft is looking to make some serious noise with the Xbox Series X.
For the past seven years, the sales number of Xbox One in the market reached roughly 46.8 million units based on some industry analysis. The number itself was not too bad but does pale in comparison to its main competitor, the PlayStation 4, that has surpassed over 110.4 million units sold worldwide.
The Xbox One numbers were not too surprising, considering that just a few months before its release, the system was ridden with tons of unsavory controversies: From the overly strict DRM that doesn’t allow players to play used games, the always-online requirements, to a confusing messaging about its main feature as a TV companion instead of a game console.
Throughout the years and led by Phil Spencer, the Xbox division has seemingly fixed all of those initial mistakes, and it seems quite clear they are not going to repeat those same missteps with Xbox Series X.
We have compiled the things we know about the Xbox Series X and the key factors that should make the console a formidable competitor come next generation, as it goes head to head against Sony’s flagship powerhouse.
Specs – Beauty inside and out
Of course, you can’t talk about the future consoles, especially the Xbox Series X without mentioning the beefy specs it boasts. According to Microsoft, Xbox Series X is their most powerful console to date and one glance at the specs says it all:
Processors : 8-core, 3.8-GHz AMD Zen 2 / GPU : 12 teraflops AMD RDNA 2 / RAM : 16GB GDDR6 / Storage : 1TB custom NVMe SSD / Maximum resolution : 8K / Maximum frame rates : 120 fps / Optical drive : 4K UHD Blu-ray drive / External storage : USB 3.2 external HDD support
Xbox Series X also has an elegant design, that won’t look out of place in the normal living room in most households. While people made fun of the console design as being too big and looking like a black refrigerator, the design allows the console to be used vertically and horizontally without much worry of not being able to stand its position, making it the perfect console for cat owners.
Pricing – Making it as affordable as possible
Xbox One launched with a $499 price tag, a $100 more expensive than PS4. According to Phil Spencer, the original Xbox One struggled at launch because of that price difference.
Microsoft hasn’t announced how much the price for Series X will be, but they have announced something even more interesting in the form of Xbox All Access coming to Amazon and more retailers in the holiday season of 2020.
With Xbox All Access, you can have an Xbox One X console, access to over 100 games, and online multiplayer for only $24.99/month for 24 months, or less if you choose the cheaper alternatives of the Xbox One consoles.
While we don’t have any confirmation on how much Xbox Series X will cost, Microsoft did confirm that if you subscribe to Xbox All Access, after finishing at least 18 months of the payment, you may upgrade your console to Xbox Series X. After upgrading, your monthly subscription will be raised accordingly, and if your previous subscription was for the Xbox One S All-Digital edition, you’re required to pay a $20 upgrade fee to upgrade your console to Xbox Series X.
So far, the Xbox All Access service is only available in the US, UK, and Australia.
Becoming the Netflix for games
Gamepass is another subscription service Microsoft has for Xbox players. The difference is that it’s targeted for people who already owned an Xbox console. On the surface, the service might remind you of PlayStation Plus, with the new free games coming every month.
However, with Gamepass, free games won’t simply come and go. You will have access to hundreds of games that are part of Gamepass, with at least five newly added games to the library every month.
So far, the service is more interesting and cost-friendly for gamers compared to PlayStation Plus. And with Xbox Series X backward compatibility features that allow players to play Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, Xbox Gamepass will be a powerhouse that should make Xbox Series X a very worthy service to have.
Of course, the service has a lot of room for improvement if they want to compete, depending also on what Sony does with PlayStation Plus on PlayStation 5. One thing they can increase upon is providing more new and exclusive games to the service every month.
Having new AAA games immediately available for Gamepass might be quite expensive, but at least they can always have more indie games available for the subscribers on the game’s release date, or even better, have those indie games available exclusively on the console, even for a limited time.
Games and more games
One of the main reasons why PS4 managed to conquer the market for the past seven years is the amazing library Sony PlayStation has for the console. We are months away from PS5 release, and Sony is still rolling out some of the most promising games for PS4 such as Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us Part 2.
Microsoft, of course, has prepared us with some exclusives too. However, we must wait for the Xbox Series X and so far, the most awaited title for the new flagship system is none other than Halo: Infinite.
Other than Master Chief, in the past few years, Microsoft has bought several developers to be part of their Xbox Game Studios. The studios under the flag consist of big names such as Obsidian Entertainment, Double Fine Productions, Mojang Studios, Ninja Theory, and eleven others. Utilizing those studios that already have loyal fans and proven titles for the Xbox Series X will surely allow Microsoft to compete with Sony that recently announced PlayStation Studios.
Microsoft also promises Smart Delivery features for players that play Xbox games cross-generation. Allowing gamers that bought games on Xbox One to get a free upgrade of the game for the Xbox Series X version or the other way around. PlayStation fans might recognize this feature being similar to the cross-platform games that were available for PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. But judging from how Microsoft promotes this feature, it might be more than simply buying the game once and getting it on another platform.
Judging how Microsoft has narratively positioned the Xbox Series X, it certainly demonstrates just how much they have learned from their past mistakes.
Ultimately, this tells me that we should expect some serious fireworks during the next console generation. Our fingers are certainly crossed.