Xbox Thread (Like/Hate) - Mainly focusing on the lackluster exclusives, weak points, or strong points of Xbox consoles

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It's not doing well on Xbox. Nor PC. Nor for Microsoft. Nor for third party studios. So let's raise prices.
I think Xbox and Playstation’s approaches are both that they’ve given up on attracting a new audience and just want to milk their existing customers dry. Same for Nintendo, just not to the same extent (but it’s getting worse).

Xbox Game Pass is DEAD!​


“Sega fanboy who jumped ship to Playstation and has been there ever since” may be one of the worst gamer archetypes. It says you only care about playing whatever [you think] makes you look the coolest.
 

Key points:
  • At 408mm^2 (total of chiplets), next-gen Xbox Magnus is about 13% larger than the Xbox Series X die size, and 46% larger than the PS6 die. The chiplets are smaller than monolithic dies but use expensive "bridge die" packaging (like many of AMD's upcoming Zen 6 products).
  • It will be more expensive (for example, $800+), but be favorably compared to gaming PCs, and may run a full version of desktop Windows to compete directly with such PCs.
  • Xbox Magnus is NOT dead (at this time).
  • A custom Xbox handheld (not the Asus ROG Ally rebrand) using ARM cores was cancelled.
  • Xbox Magnus shares a graphics chiplet with AMD's mid-range RDNA5 discrete graphics cards. This is a good thing for both companies.
  • Likely 36 or 48 GB of memory (the latter would require 4 GB GDDR7 modules which aren't out yet).
  • Dedicated NPU, likely XDNA3. The low power mode meets Copilot+'s 40 TOPS requirement.
  • Launches in 2027.
  • Clocks aren't known, but it's probably a bit faster than the PS6 overall (maybe Xbox Magnus is like a 4K144 console while the PS6 is 4K120).
  • He closes with his belief that if it doesn't run a "full-ish" version of Windows with support for Steam and other applications, it will be a massive failure that can't justify the higher cost.
xbox-magnus-apu.webp
 
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Key points:
  • At 408mm^2 (total of chiplets), next-gen Xbox Magnus is about 13% larger than the Xbox Series X die size, and 46% larger than the PS6 die. The chiplets are smaller than monolithic dies but use expensive "bridge die" packaging (like many of AMD's upcoming Zen 6 products).
  • It will be more expensive (for example, $800+), but be favorably compared to gaming PCs, and may run a full version of desktop Windows to compete directly with such PCs.
  • Xbox Magnus is NOT dead (at this time).
  • A custom Xbox handheld (not the Asus ROG Ally rebrand) using ARM cores was cancelled.
  • Xbox Magnus shares a graphics chiplet with AMD's mid-range RDNA5 discrete graphics cards. This is a good thing for both companies.
  • Likely 36 or 48 GB of memory (the latter would require 4 GB GDDR7 modules which aren't out yet).
  • Dedicated NPU, likely XDNA3. The low power mode meets Copilot+'s 40 TOPS requirement.
  • Launches in 2027.
  • Clocks aren't known, but it's probably a bit faster than the PS6 overall (maybe Xbox Magnus is like a 4K144 console while the PS6 is 4K120).
  • He closes with his belief that if it doesn't run a "full-ish" version of Windows with support for Steam and other applications, it will be a massive failure that can't justify the higher cost.
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People aren't gonna want to spend $800+ on a console with no exclusives while the economy is in the shitter. Just wtf is Microsoft thinking?
 
People aren't gonna want to spend $800+ on a console with no exclusives while the economy is in the shitter. Just wtf is Microsoft thinking?
They are (allegedly) thinking that on one side, PlayStation is eating their lunch with cheaper consoles (even with "NO GAEMS?!"), and on the other side, gaming PCs already offer every game that Xbox Series has. So they could pivot it to become a gaming PC that offers better value than what people are buying or building.

If it does run full Windows or at least offers Steam integration, then you won't be beholden to whatever bad pricing M$ offers, you can get with the Steam sales. Perhaps you could even pirate games easily directly on the machine. At hypothetical $800 pricing, the Magnus APU would offer performance that is found in today's $1,500+ pre-built gaming PCs (it's probably faster than the 9070 XT).

Whatever the pricing, if they are selling low tens of millions of a custom APU, they could undercut others in the market. Much to their chagrin.

Sharing a graphics chiplet with AMD's discrete gaming and workstation GPUs means more flexibility if demand for any of these products is lower than expected.

If you can't afford a sub-$1000 gaming PC then you should do something else with your time, or play ancient games on a $100 throwaway PC. But if the base price ends up around $800, they'll definitely have SSD or other options taking it up higher than that.

Is it a good idea? I don't know. But it's more interesting than the crap that they have now.
 
They are (allegedly) thinking that on one side, PlayStation is eating their lunch with cheaper consoles (even with "NO GAEMS?!"), and on the other side, gaming PCs already offer every game that Xbox Series has. So they could pivot it to become a gaming PC that offers better value than what people are buying or building.

If it does run full Windows or at least offers Steam integration, then you won't be beholden to whatever bad pricing M$ offers, you can get with the Steam sales. Perhaps you could even pirate games easily directly on the machine. At hypothetical $800 pricing, the Magnus APU would offer performance that is found in today's $1,500+ pre-built gaming PCs (it's probably faster than the 9070 XT).

Whatever the pricing, if they are selling low tens of millions of a custom APU, they could undercut others in the market. Much to their chagrin.

Sharing a graphics chiplet with AMD's discrete gaming and workstation GPUs means more flexibility if demand for any of these products is lower than expected.

If you can't afford a sub-$1000 gaming PC then you should do something else with your time, or play ancient games on a $100 throwaway PC. But if the base price ends up around $800, they'll definitely have SSD or other options taking it up higher than that.

Is it a good idea? I don't know. But it's more interesting than the crap that they have now.
They won't be using the steam store right off the bat. Only the windows store while still having the limitations of a Windows PC with none of the freedom. It's very easy to get a okay gaming PC now and play thousands of games without worrying about the latest AI produced Vidya. If normies try to play the PC games and are met with crashes, bugs, or errors because of the APU not being properly supported, they're just gonna give up. A steam box would have more value than a Windows box has..
 
I tried to help a co-worker build a pc and the issue is that these people have 4k tv's and want a pc that can play games at 4k and you basically have to spend $500 alone on a video card to achieve that at the level they have in their mind's eye

And for the core parts scouring Facebook and eBay for Zen 3 or skylake gets you a dogshit outdated computer for like 30% less than buying a brand new computer. And it's still not the level of performance they have in their mind's eye (a ps5)

If they deliver a gaming console that can play games and browse the internet at the same time for $800 they're going to sell fucking gangbusters even if it's a locked down piece of shit that can only run Windows store apps. You and I are turning their nose up at the idea but the target market are 20 year olds who have never used a desktop PC in their life, the value proposition would be immense for them.
 
"Im gonna fix you up real nice we're gonna go to the settings and hit that DLSS button and set it as high as it can go. Now it should feel more like 4K on a console."
Honestly that would be good enough but it's hardly a motivator for someone who has never had a computer before.

When I bought my first pc I bought a 6870 and it was beefy enough for a new 1080p monitor. I could play anything without question on high settings on a higher resolution monitor. It cost $250.

Now if you spend $500 on a GPU it's midrange. they're still dangling a carrot over the buyer's head with resolution, graphics settings, and framerate. If you have no point of comparison then it basically just sounds like you're gonna waste money on low end crap that will just frustrate you
 
People aren't gonna want to spend $800+ on a console with no exclusives while the economy is in the shitter. Just wtf is Microsoft thinking?
They're thinking they aren't going to go into production on any more hardware on their own.

There won't be another Xbox console, they've gone past the deadline for taping out silicon for a system to hit next year. They are just using semantics to say they haven't cancelled anything, because they haven't officially announced it. Same schtick they pulled with the Courier tablet.
 
eBay dealing info for people here, if you go on and look for a Series X listed in the $300 and below range (usually closer to $250) as for parts and the seller describes it as turning on and immediately back off with a chime it usually either needs a thermal paste redo or the PSU checked/replaced. Cuts the price of a XSX down by a great amount just with some basic maintenance.
 
eBay dealing info for people here, if you go on and look for a Series X listed in the $300 and below range (usually closer to $250) as for parts and the seller describes it as turning on and immediately back off with a chime it usually either needs a thermal paste redo or the PSU checked/replaced. Cuts the price of a XSX down by a great amount just with some basic maintenance.

So what is the prices for a new PSU for the XSX?
 
So what is the prices for a new PSU for the XSX?
I’m seeing bare case ones from iFixit for $60, so it’d probably be around $50-60 which with a broken monolith between $200 and $240 is still half the price of full retail.
 
Saw that Xbox pushed an update to the 360 that plastered ads for the series S all over the home page. If they're willing to shit all over 20 year old consoles to try to pad sales, I wonder what their plans are for all the newer consoles when they inevitably begin to exit the console market entirely?
I figured they would have done that to the Xbox One.
 
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