Xbox General discussion **No Order Chat Here**

I wonder how long it'll be until they sue D Brand for making Xbox wraps.

Edit: Seems these are silicone cases as opposed to an actual vinyl wrap.

Still cheaper than a set of faceplates for the PS5.

Ordered!

The white Starfield wrap will go well with my PS5 beside it.

Mine is behind the TV so I never see it except when sticking a disc in so they can keep them.

THis is 100% the right call, imo, but it is still interesting how it will eventually play out, and is this the start of the value proposition of the S being degraded.

Xbox have previously been fairly strong on parity between X and S, and were strong on that messaging when selling the S. They were clear there would be visual differences - resolution, FPS, Ray Tracing being the tradeoffs for the lower cost entry point. Spencer quoted yesterday (or day before) saying differences between the consoles aren't new, I think in either reaction to this news or to get out ahead of it - and that first party titles have had differences, but he used Ray Tracing as the example. To me, ray tracing and split screen are completely different types of feature. One is gameplay, and it is far harder to accept a gameplay feature difference, given their previous messaging.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is the right call. It would be insane for Xbox to miss out on Baldurs Gate 3 on both consoles cause SplitScreen is proving difficult on the S. If given the choice I would assume 100% of S players would say 'give us the option to play BG3 without split screen rather than not at all', but where do Xbox draw the line now? What are acceptable features to drop? Can't help but think we are going to see more and more differneces between X and S versions, beyond 60/120 fps etc for the biggest titles, and how will that impact the perception of the S going forward, or damage the relationship between Xbox and the S owners who were sold a 'dream'. I think most have us have always thought or at least feared the S would hold back the potential of games on Xbox.

How many parents know the tera-flops as opposed to: All the same games will be on the S, with all the same features, but without 4K,120 - which was the message MS put out.

I went with the X for the same reason as yourself, or similar to it, but to deny that MS's messaging was very different, or that people may have been sold on that messaging, is just silly.

If at the time of the launch you were buying for your kid, and did not have nor planned to have a 4k TV that they would play the console on, the S was billed as a very good value proposition because it was sold as doing everything the X does, but at lower resolution/frames.

• Stream games from Xbox to Discord.
• Variable refresh rate (VRR) update for Xbox Series X|S consoles.
• New places to view and redeem Rewards and much more.

Good stuff. You wont regret it.

Did you not make it to a Controllers Annonymous meeting yet? You know the first step is admitting you have a problem... ;-)

😄

It's no longer a problem for me Jim. I have more than enough Xbox controllers at this stage.

I think @Jordan 199 works for the Microsoft store ... and he's advertising their stuff and pushing the FOMO on here 😁

Interesting enough. Disappointing if they go purely digital but unsurprising given physical media is slowly becoming obsolete. If there is a digital only mid-life refresh for the X then at least I wont be debating if I should upgrade or not until the next gen console in 2028.

Yep - I misread your post and thought it was FCC not FTC! Edited my post to delete that reference.

Not really. Refreshed Xbox X wont offer any improved gaming performance going by the core specs, other than improved efficiency which may help it run cooler - this in turn may give some improvement on frame rate.

In fact, the current Series X could become more sought after when the digital only version is released.

You'll find Microsoft did it first, they had gyro controls in some of their Sidewinder controllers for PC in the 90s, they were awful.

Ok.

I do love gyro control in BOTW/TOTK for fine adjustments. But as I said the developers also need to implement it right in games, otherwise it's trash.

That new console looks like the cylindrical Mac that came out a while back. Looks pretty nice.

I think the Xbox hardware designers do a great job.

First a block and now a cylinder. The next gen xbox will be a triangle. I don't like it. Good that they're finally bringing a haptic controller. Hope it's a bit softer.

Someone got paid a fortune to come up with that too I bet, after holding several design workshops with focus groups.

Not sure why your asking me?

But if you must know, I've owned every gen Xbox (excluding updated versions) and I've never cared about the form as I've always hidden them from view. Its whats in the box that counts for me.

As for PS, never had/wanted one so cant really comment on that.

Has anyone had any luck contacting Microsoft support over defective hardware? Their support site seems to just be sending me on an infinite loop of useless troubleshooting tips and redirecting me to something else whenever I click the contact button.

My Series X's wifi adaptor seems to have died (it can't see any network at all including extra ones I set up to test, while my wifi network is just fine for all other devices I own), and given MS's main business model where you don't own any of the games you pay to access each month, it has rendered the entire console useless as I can't play anything installed on it.

Thanks, I got in there. They're charging a mere €343.54 for repair as it's out of warranty... I'd be better off buying a new console.

Have your tried testing the network connection via a wired network connection. This should help isolate if its just a wifi issue.

Also how old is your console?

Can anyone help me with an issue please? On my sons series S we need to enter the WiFi password everytime he brings it to a different house including when he returns home, it dosnt store them, should it? Thanks