XBox Series X - Casual Gamers Guide

Disclosure - This is a collaborative post

Most things are now known about the XBox Series X release, due before the end of 2020 and hopefully in time for Christmas this year.  There is a lot of focus on Power, Components and many comparisons being made between the new Xbox and a high powered PC, but what does this all mean for the casual gamer, and will the Series X be an upgrade that the casual gamer needs?

There is a lot of talk around 'Teraflops' - This is basically the ability of the processor that is central to the operation of the console.  To give you a basic idea - the Xbox One S has 1.4 Teraflops of processing power and the Series X will have 12.  That is a huge increase in processing power.  Whilst the Xbox One X was more powerful than the One S, it doesn't have the power that the Series X will have. 

So power aside, what else is new? Loading speeds are going to be much faster. I'm not sure how much this affects the casual gamer, as having been playing since the days of the ZX Spectrum, loading speeds now still impress me compared to a fifteen minute loading time from a tape.  But to some it will be important and a significant improvement.   This is mainly through use of an internal Solid State Drive, with the ability to buy expansion Solid State Plug in drives to hold anything above the already included 1 TB.  This is one area that I feel could get expensive to make the most of.  I currently have an 8TB External Drive plugged into the back of my Xbox to hold all my games and those I have downloaded from Game Pass.  With games likely to be significantly larger in size than previously, 1 TB wont last long. As an example Red Dead Redemption 2 on currently generation was nearly  89GB, that is almost a tenth of your storage gone with one game.  That said, existing drives should still work, but may not take advantage of the faster load times.   One idea could be to have the games you are currently playing installed to the Console and those on the 'waiting list' or played less on your external. There are so many great games that you can play, from fantasy games, fighting games and even ones like madalin stunt cars 3.

What else do we know? The console isn't everything.  Microsoft are heavily promoting the game pass service, to the point where X - Cloud is included, and all Microsoft Studios games, including Halo Infinite, are going to be available to game pass subscribers from day one, without having to purchase the game itself.  Game Pass works as more of a rental service, where you pay a monthly fee and have access to the games on game pass at that time.  As new games arrive, older ones leave and you have an ever changing library of games to play.  These are all digital games, removing the need for physical discs, and also any chance of trade in you may once have had. 

Backwards compatibility is always important. The Series X will run all Xbox One games (except those that required the Kinect) and all games from Xbox 360 and Original Xbox that are already backwards compatible so thats good news from Microsoft. 

What we don't yet know at this point are prices. And if there are likely to be any variants of the console. Sony have opted for two PS5's at launch, one with a disc drive and one without so it will be interesting to see if Microsoft do the same.   Prices are expected to range from £400 to £500 for the console, however this is yet to be confirmed. 

Although I am a casual gamer, I am hoping to be able to buy a Series X at launch. The two things that appeal to me are the new games (including Halo Infinite) and the processing power of the console. 

What are your thoughts on the next generation of consoles? 

John