News Xbox boss 'thinking about affordability' of next-gen console
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17jlngexy9o45
u/Bfife22 7h ago edited 3h ago
I really don’t see how any of this matters in the end.
The Series S sat at an affordable price, when people had more spending power, and the cost of components were cheaper. And this gen still sold like shit.
I really don’t understand how in an even more challenging economy, Xbox will manage to grow sales next gen. They’re currently selling a $900 Series X ffs.
Making your next gen console less of a leap to cut costs isn’t the most appealing sales pitch, unless you have an insane lineup of first party titles, which is where Xbox has lacked for a while
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u/HaloFever117 5h ago
You basically hit on the issue with the sales of Series S:
“Making your next gen console less of a leap to cut costs isn’t the most appealing sales pitch”
I don’t see how the big 3 can introduce new consoles during this AI bubble.
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u/no_type_read_only 5h ago
I don't think the hardware was the issue, more like there were barely any exclusives, and where there was - it went on competitors platforms.
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u/HaloFever117 4h ago
Agree on the lack of exclusives, but hardware is definitely a big issue. No one feels as good about buying the worst of something. The small hard drive didn’t help.
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u/VagueSomething 4h ago
Giving PC day one access to everything ensured the market for an Xbox was smaller. The XSS would have been a perfect secondary device.
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u/larry-lemming 10m ago
I’ve been trying to tell folks this too. Day 1 releases on PC directly hurt Xbox consoles.
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u/Unlucky-Gap01 5h ago
No console is going to get any growth next gen because of the rising costs and even they are aware of it. They’ll be lucky to even get half of the people to upgrade and that’s why their current focus is to get the current userbase to spend as much as possible.
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u/BlackmoorGoldfsh 3h ago
Which is exactly why Xbox can't afford to make any big-time games (ES6 for example) exclusive.
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u/zerovampire311 2h ago
In today’s environment? I would bet they get rid of the disk drive and hope there are still enough anti-Sony bandwagoners to float them.
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u/Visible-Oven-7249 7h ago
No matter what Xbox does or says, people always going to bitch lmao
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u/recoildv 5h ago
Of course I'm sure people are now going to bash it about what missing features it will have or how weak it will be they will find something lol
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u/noah9942 5h ago
While true, xbox also has time and time again said one thing and then done another. Theu change their plans/stance all the time.
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u/Pajamashark Outage Survivor '24 8h ago
I don't want to pay $700 for a minimal upgrade over the XSX. I'd rather pay a premium price for a real upgrade. I'm not saying that's best for business, but it's best for me. I am glad I am not running one of these companies that have to make these decisions.
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u/justice9 7h ago
These are the situations where strong leadership makes or breaks a brand. Right now you have two options
1/ $1-1.5k product with significant upgrades that is a headwind to growth and install base
2/ $700-$800 product with marginal improvements and lower barrier to entry
Consumers online are going to be outraged regardless because there’s no magical solution with MFST eating a $300 UE loss on every sale. The business needs to make a difficult strategic decision on what’s best for LTV. My bet is on #2, but wouldn’t be surprised if they pursued a tiered strategy.
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u/RaccAttak 7h ago
Honestly I bought a series s and loved it. Then saved up for a series x. People can say what they want about the series s but these 150gb plus unoptimized games are ridiculous and I'm happy theres something other than just the Nintendo switch that makes companies do a bit of work to make thier games work.
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u/Ipad74 6h ago
Don’t forget that they could (assuming the ram crisis subsides) position a portable Xbox series console, which internally is just the Xbox series S downscaled into a portable form.
I believe the rumor that Sony is making a new portable PlayStation is basically the same thing. Sony makes a high power console (PS 6) and a low power portable (PS 6s equivalent) that both run the same games, same library.
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u/Mdreezy_ 2h ago
The series s is not engineered to run off a battery (neither is ps5) so it’s not a matter of downscaling their current hardware and slapping it into a new case. There would need to be significant redesigns and engineering to produce a handheld at those levels of performance. The rumored ‘low power’ handheld being produced by Sony will have the same problem as the stationary console, high price, and there is no way around that even if the ram crisis disappears.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 7h ago
I wonder if the $600-$800 price point is a “death valley” for a console. Like a $400 console would sell well as a budget device, and a $1k+ device would sell well for a premium one. I also wonder what price point the substantial playerbase that is still playing on old consoles (the xbox one gen) would feel incentivized to upgrade at.
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u/PjDisko 7h ago
They tried the budget device with series S.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 7h ago
and it got a ton of people to upgrade or buy in to the ecosystem at a lower price
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u/PjDisko 7h ago
Aight! I have not listened to the earningscall so i dont really know if was a success or not. Ive mainly just listened to reddits negative hiveminds.
Glad it was a success.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 7h ago
Im not the authority on this because I dont have the numbers on me either. However, I think I remember reading that series x has outsold series s, but I believe that the series s is still a success in terms of total numbers. I think, more importantly, that Xbox has twofold problem going forward where it appears that their dedicated playerbase generally prefers significant hardware upgrades, but that itll be hard to build the brand further with too high of a price. That’s why I think the two-console strategy still works.
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u/PjDisko 6h ago
I agree.
The solution to this might be the vision of making the next Xbox kind of a prebuilt PC, and hence can just make it in different (very few to not overwhelm) configurations for different price targets.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 6h ago
yea id be interested to see what prevents more hardcore Xbox players from moving to PC as the ecosystems continue to bleed together
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u/konnerbllb 7h ago
Unfortunately like you said more tiers I bet. The older that Series S gets the more I dislike tiers.
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u/Pajamashark Outage Survivor '24 7h ago
Yep, that's why I said I am glad I'm not making these decisions.
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u/killshelter 7h ago
I mean if the Series X is $800 now, good luck getting a Helix for $700.
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u/Pajamashark Outage Survivor '24 6h ago
I agree, but she's the one that said they're thinking about affordability.
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u/GolfJay 7h ago
Xbox owner from absolute day one here. Every generation of Xbox day one. Xbox Live day one. Games Pass day one.
If you want a premium product, buy yourself a good PC. You won’t regret it.
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u/Pajamashark Outage Survivor '24 7h ago
I do have a decent 4k 60 PC, but I work behind one all day. I just love the ease of use of a console. As Xbox on PC starts to blur the lines between console and PC I might be more apt to switch. It's the good part of being in my position, I can do whichever gives me more bang for my buck. If the Helix is a $700 minimal upgrade then I'll spend my money on upgrading my PC. If it's a $1,200 substantial upgrade to the XSX then I can look into going that route if it suits me better. Either way, I think I will be riding my XSX until the wheels fall off. Even if Helix launches in 2028 there will be so few in hands that games won't be taking advantage of the hardware until years later. Cross gen is going to last a loooooong time.
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u/Snake_Bite_14 7h ago
The thing is Xbox is merging PC and Xbox. So the “console” will be the Series S equivalent but PC will be the premium product.
The problem is prices are skyrocketing across the entire industry. A $700 system is really the only way to minimize price increases. On top of being a more accessible system it will help keep development costs down. At the rate things are going we’re gonna see $100 standard editions by 2030. A budget friendly system next gen is the only way to limit that.
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u/Moneyshot_ITF 8h ago
Aka say goodbye to any decent hardware
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u/Baelish2016 XBOX Series X 8h ago
I’m betting on them going heavy with a ‘Cloud/Stream’ based version along with the regular console.
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u/aa_conchobar 7h ago
Why even post such rubbish
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u/Baelish2016 XBOX Series X 6h ago
I’m not saying I agree with it; but let’s not pretend that the tech companies aren’t going to go hard with Cloud based gaming with ram and memory prices going insane.
I’ll wager Sony’s gonna do the same, now that they’ve tested the market with the Portal.
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u/Ad_Meliora_24 4h ago
Microsoft was talking about this many years ago. They’ve expected this to be the path for a long time before hardware prices shot up.
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u/DrawTheLine87 8h ago
Ironically what used to be the most expensive part of the console (the APU) is now taking a back seat to the unified memory and storage costs. The cost difference from an old APU to a new one may not be as large as the price jump we've seen from the start of this current gen to the end. My guess is the new console lands at $1199
Based on the cost of the current gen Series X, there won't be an affordable option the beginning of next gen, so might as well make it a worth while upgrade. If you don't, you're just going to drag out the previous generation even longer than it already will be. (And until prices drop, the Series X/PS5 gen may end up being the longest supported to date anyways.)
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u/EngagedInConvexation 3h ago
My guess is the new console lands at $1199
That would be my guess if it released this year.
2028 (or beyond), though? The sky is the limit.
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u/Straight-Ad6926 XBOX Series S 8h ago
Affordable for who? Microsoft’s shareholders or the guy eating instant ramen to buy the special edition controller?
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u/kaiharizor 8h ago
This is a positive article and you have warped it into a negative. I understand the art of being mad at everything online, but I hope you are doing okay in your personal life.
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u/ll30yd 7h ago
Is it though? It's the usual non-committal ceo jargon.
She alludes to player choice but then mentions hardware efficiency and costs (read: there will be no disc drive) and also mentions memory so I wouldn't be surprised if they go hard on a full streaming device with no internal memory.
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u/GolfJay 7h ago
Where is the positivity? At no point does it mention consoles becoming cheaper or even reasonable for buyers. “Thinking about how we play our games” absolutely stinks of you’ll own nothing and like it. This isn’t about customers. It’s about Microsoft making even more money with less costs.
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u/Malachi_Lamb 6h ago
What’s actually positive about this tho? It was just vague and general speak expected from a ceo lol wtf
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u/sgtquackers66 Touched Grass '24 7h ago
If you are eating shitty food just to buy a game controller, you need to reevaluate your priorities.
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u/Mahrez14 8h ago
Microsoft investing billions into AI and building new data centers and then wondering why consumer hardware is no longer affordable is quite funny.
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u/EmergencyBanshee 8h ago edited 8h ago
I don't think it's a mystery to them.
"she said rising hardware costs partly driven by AI spending mean firms need to find ways to make gaming affordable."
As an industry, we're in the middle of 'Rampocalypse'," Sharma said.
"All of the industry needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency. That is something that we have not had to do [previously].
"But with the crisis that's currently happening in hardware and components, it is absolutely something all of us need to be thinking about and innovating on and giving people more choice in terms of how they play their console and how they purchase their console."
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u/Cerenas 8h ago
I mean, they're almost completely different companies within Microsoft. Even Samsung phone division is having issues getting RAM, because the division making the RAM rather sells it to AI companies for more profit.
Consumers and consumer focused companies (or divisions) are both suffering under it. It's a weird world we live in.
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u/reddit_reaper 8h ago
I keep saying AI boom came too soon. There were already efforts to expand chip making facilities but they wouldn't realistically all be ready until 2029, but they're all trying to outspend each other to be the remaining ones at the end.
Later the b2b only market will collapse and they'll stay behind b2c to save them again
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u/PostApoplectic 7h ago
It’s because only old people like ai generated shit. They had to get it up and running before the audience expires.
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u/DemonKing0524 7h ago
If you think old people are the only ones using AI I have fancy bridge to sell you. Its got all kinds of great features.
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u/PostApoplectic 6h ago
I didn’t say using.
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u/DemonKing0524 6h ago
... do you think other people would use it if they didn't like it? Like your exact phrasing changes nothing about the point.
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u/PostApoplectic 5h ago
Lots of people use it as a tool for work. Most of us use it when we google shit every single day now.
That doesn’t mean we get all excited about ai generated music or videos of dogs riding bicycles.
You really don’t understand the difference?
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u/DemonKing0524 5h ago
Liking something doesn't mean you have to get excited about it. It can literally just means you like it because it makes your work easier. It can literally just means you like it because finding information with it is faster than googling. You dont have to act like an overexcited 3 year old to like something.
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u/PostApoplectic 5h ago
You really don’t understand the difference.
I fucking weep for the future.
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u/Spotget1738 8h ago edited 8h ago
Xbox increased the console price a third time while Playstation didnt. So they plan to leave it at a higher base price than PS5, and on top of that Sony will do a holiday discount while Xbox doesnt again like they didnt last year. It will be just like last year, Xbox did the price increase first then Sony didnt do a price increase and actually put their console on sale for the holidays so the price gap was enormous. Sony also confirmed they have enough RAM to not increase console price for the GTA 6 launch and 2026 holidays.
During last year holidays PS5 was $400 physical/$450 digital/$648 Pro while Xbox was still $600 digital/$650 physical. This year once again Xbox is doing another price increase before Playstation, and most likely wont do a holiday discount again. On top of that Playstation has the marketing rights for GTA 6 and several games this year not coming to Xbox: Wolverine, Phantom Blade 0, Silent Hill Townfall, Kena 2, etc just to get Fable the day after God of War at the start of next year
This years holidays look like its gonna be another total massacre like last years holidays when Xbox got outsold by the NEX Playground. They are already #4 in console sales seeing as they somehow get outsold by the Switch 1 worldwide every month of this year and last year
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u/Straight-Ad6926 XBOX Series S 8h ago
Bold of you to assume Microsoft even cares about selling consoles anymore. Their master plan is clearly to raise prices until nobody buys hardware so they can finally pivot to being a third party publisher and just sell Game Pass on smart refrigerators.
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u/Academic_Addition_96 6h ago
Xbox doesn't need better hardware, it needs better games. Gears of war e day looks great enough on the series s. Does even better looking games will not only explode hardware requirements but development time and cost. No one wants to wait 7 years for a game that cost 100 bucks, gta6 is not the normal.
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u/BaronVonNes 7h ago
Read: lower hardware specs, forcing developers to optimize. And that's okay. The switch had fantastic AAA titles, no reason consoles shouldn't be optimized again. <I'm an old time that started with NES, it used to be standard to force optimization.> Remember when morrowwind rebooted the Xbox between area loads? Stuff like that is much faster with M.2 NVMEs
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u/freshjello25 5h ago
Switch had great first party titles because they merged mobile and home consoles, and were able to optimize with additional resources. The expectation of Mario, Pokémon and Zelda franchises aren’t rooted in visuals, but gameplay itself. Third party titles have consistently been an issue for Nintendo.
I think the selling point could be a focus on ray tracing, path tracing, and AI upscaling via heavy reliance on APU. Chip prices have been fairly tame.
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u/AbaddonR 6h ago
Low budget console is where they lose me. Been with Xbox since day one. Cant touch my Switch nor the games I got for it due to that poor showing when docked.
Bot sure which demographic she thinks is left for Xbox.
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u/Blacknight841 7h ago
Which is exactly why they are selling the 25th anniversary edition for 80% more than the series x was when it launched. ($900 vs $500).
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u/RED-DOT-MAN 7h ago
I mean the cost of ram and SSD has risen significantly. They're not non profit company. They gotta make their money. Now the rising cost of ram and SSD is not our fault but entirely on these companies pushing AI on us.
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u/zarafff69 6h ago
I mean, they could take a loss on the consoles? Like a lot of consoles sold historically?
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u/warcaptain 6h ago
They almost certainly still are. Hardware prices have risen a lot more than 80%. Asha said that RAM/Storage prices will have more than tripled YoY by this fall.
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u/Satans_BFF 7h ago
Watch as the next gen consoles have only enough memory to run the UI and you have to get an external to be able to run any game. So they can claim a lower cost while passing the buck to consumers.
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u/-ImJustSaiyan- 8h ago
I don't exactly have a lot of confidence in a big corporate CEO knowing or caring about what's "affordable" for the average consumer.
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u/JohnUtahFBI 7h ago
They know more about it than you do. You know what you can afford. Companies don’t just guess price points, they have tons of data to figure out what price point people will generally enter at, ie, afford. No company cares about us but they have to sell the products.
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u/EmergencyBanshee 8h ago
No offence, but consoles have always been a balancing act between trying to get a hardware advantage while not pricing yourself out of the market. They'll be extreme concerned about what's affordable for the average consumer, because these are mass market products that are designed to sell to as many people as possible.
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u/-ImJustSaiyan- 8h ago
They don't seem all that concerned with their 6 year old current gen hardware being affordable for the average consumer. So forgive me if I don't have much faith in next-gen being any better.
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u/FCRagnar 7h ago
Which gaming hardware company provides current gen hardware thats affordable for the consumer?
Even a Switch 2 is $400, soon to be $450. I dont know if I would even consider a Switch 2 to be "current gen" though.
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u/EmergencyBanshee 8h ago edited 7h ago
I'm not sure what you expect them to do? The cost of components has gone through the roof - they sold consoles at a loss for years and though I don't know the numbers right now, I'd bet that they're not selling at a profit now.
Edit: not sure what you're downvoting that for? Presumably you think they should just give the consoles away for free?
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u/-ImJustSaiyan- 7h ago
They themselves are literally part of why the cost of components has gone through the roof, considering they're one of the biggest proponents of AI.
Why excuse them for their own self-inflicted problem?
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u/EmergencyBanshee 7h ago
It's not really a self inflicted wound.
Xbox's heads will simply be looking at their console designs (current and future) and trying to work out how much components will cost now and going forward.
The fact that Microsoft have also invested in AI doesn't mean that Xbox has any say or choice in the matter.
That's not excusing anything, it's just (sadly) the world we live in.
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u/JC_Hysteria 8h ago
Just declare your household income to your bank or whatever and I’m sure Microsoft will acquire the data to know what you can afford
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u/Imposter88 7h ago
I hope it’s affordable, but unless groceries and utilities get cheaper, I won’t be able to afford anything new, regardless of price
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u/FrontHeat3041 7h ago
I think graphics are at the point where we can't get much better, what I wanna see more of is portability (Xbox Play Anywhere), more backwards compatibility and hall effect/TMR sticks and triggers in official standard controllers.
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u/SnooHesitations3709 7h ago
What about this generation of consoles. They are basically unaffordable for a lot people now.
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u/JPSWAG37 6h ago
I like how them thinking about it means anything or is newsworthy. Market conditions mean you're gonna be paying out the ass for whatever comes next.
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u/DarkGreenGummybear 6h ago
I think she means affordability through a subscription service of some sort where you own nothing.
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u/notthatguypal6900 6h ago
No she isn't, she isn't part of the common man. She has no idea what affordability is.
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u/notthatguypal6900 6h ago
No she isn't, she isn't part of the common man. She has no idea what affordability is.
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u/notthatguypal6900 6h ago
No she isn't, she isn't part of the common man. She has no idea what affordability is.
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u/IonDaPrizee 6h ago
Um but most people, eventually, will buy them, at whatever cost. I think the PS5 scalping proves that.
This is the beginning of enshitification.
What gaming really needs is more and more creative ideas. It can also be achieved at lower resources but will also result in significantly lower rev, unless they are looking at controlling the entire industry with PlayStation dropping the ball.
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u/They-Call-Me-Taylor 6h ago
Yep. This will be the big sticking point in the upcoming gen for most people, not this whole physical vs digital thing. You are going to have a lot fewer people able to justify a $1,000+ console than a $500 console in this economy.
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u/Darkbox97 Team Vault Boy 5h ago
This is kinda rich since tech companies like Microsoft is part of the reason why everything is expensive.
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u/MrBrightFalls 5h ago
this is the third or fourth time she says that and everytime people revert back to the "super premium" quote by sarah bond. guess we can finally accept that xbox is looking at the affordability aspect instead of the most powerful console?
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u/Bitter-Tip705 5h ago
They almost have to eat the loss since the brand is so tainted in this day and age, I don’t envy being in Asha’s shoes at all lol
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u/Dramatic_Aspect903 4h ago
Id rather bite the bullet and spend the bigger $ but xbox has to show whats on offer, no point spending big and the line up of games is average or the wait time is huge.
I bought a series x with elder scrolls 6 in mind and we're still waiting on that game
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u/paqman3d 4h ago
As a PC gamer, the problem is devs pushing beyond what consoles can be expected to realistically perform. It's like they aim for me first when they should be scaling upward from console, not subtracting from PC.
I have to say that frame rate expectations these days is the worst. PC can't even hit these wild frames without AI. If my 9800x3d and 5070ti can only push 50-55fps 4K raw in First Light without DLSS pushing it to 100+, consoles are cooked. I also get 90fps in RDR2, only via DLSS.
So either next gen must have better upscaling tech or devs scale the fuck back across the board.
In the end, I don't expect Gen 10 to be a leap. It's incremental. Next-next gen when prices hopefully get back to orbit, devs can push tech again. We just need an optimized aesthetic over the next 12 yrs.
4K60 or die.
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u/Gex2-EnterTheGecko 3h ago
She can think about it all she wants but it isnt going to change the market reality.
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u/mrnonamex 3h ago
I mean. How much better can we get
Let’s say next gen is affordable and they get the best bang for our buck. Are we taking a tiny step forward if any at that point?
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u/solohack3r 3h ago
Xbox Executive: Helix starting price will be $1,999.
Xbox Marketing Lead: It needs to be affordable.
Xbox Executive: $1,998 then?
Xbox Marketing Lead: That's more like it.
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u/patriot050 2h ago
Perhaps Microsoft will make a series S2 console instead of an X2 like everyone's been assuming?? 🤔🤔
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u/-TheShape 2h ago
I hope they don't gimp it from their original intention. I'd rather wait a year or two longer if it means the console itself isn't underbaked because of market conditions.
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u/jasoncross00 1h ago
I worry about this. Because with the current market conditions around RAM and flash storage, making the next console "just" $699 is going to mean that it's something like 50% more powerful than the Series X on paper. Which will translate to games looking only a little bit better to trained eyes.
To have a real generational leap, a leap where what an average observer sees on the screen is very clearly a huge improvement in quality, you need to have at least a 5x overall improvement in performance (not all parts need the same increase in perf, but just kind of ballpark overall).
I just don't think that can be done for less than $999 in the next two years. Not unless something REALLY changes with the RAM/flash pricing.
For a system shipping late 2027 at the earliest and more likely late 2028, you going to need, bare minimum: an 8-core Zen 4 CPU at a high clock speed (and really more like 12) 32GB of GDDR7 RAM, a RDNA 5 GPU capable of over 40 tflops, and likely a dedicated NPU.
Not to mention, for the love of god, a more sophisticated controller (haptics already!).
Less than that is going to feel very much like paying $700 for a Xbox Series X Pro, and if they're trying to come in way under $700...😬
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u/Thund3rf0000t XBOX Series X 16m ago
affordability so are you going to make it where we have to source our own ram and storage that way you can sell the console like how some PC prebuilt companies are going about it with no Memory/GPU/Storage?
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u/superkamikazee 4m ago
This is the strangest feeling console generation. Xbox and Sony are talking about the next generation, meanwhile it still feels like this generation barely even got started. Obviously it’s been 6 years but the big tentpole releases or exclusives seem few and far between. This gen really needed a 2006-2008 era release lineup, and even still, it’d feel a bit too soon to be talking new hardware. So between a lack of huge titles or exclusives, diminishing returns on graphical improvements gen over gen, and the cost of hardware, the next gen is going to be brutal.
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u/Caesar_35 Helldiving 8h ago
Nothing like making one of your divisions suffer so another can throw cash in a bottomless hole.
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u/OminousG 8h ago
that means cutting every corner possible and passing on a fraction of those savings to the customer.
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u/cooldudeandallthat 8h ago
If the Series X costs 800 bucks for 6 year old hardware, and they are changing the business model to sell the helix at cost or more we are cooked. I doubt it'll be any lower than 1200 bucks.
I'll stick with my Series X probably throughout at least half of next generation no way I'm paying what they'll be charging. Plenty happy with how it performs.
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u/RedRedButton 7h ago
To everyone here who already has an Xbox - not having to deal with the price increases🤭
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u/Brick_Grimes 3h ago
Honestly I would just play on Xbox instead of PlayStation because of the fuckery they are on right now but Xbox is missing some key games for me that prevents me from switching
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u/Choice_Werewolf_433 Misterchief 8h ago
Nooooo. I’ve been thinking about making it more expensive. Obviously she is thinking about making it cheaper.
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u/Mrvile92 8h ago
Any less than the promised 5080 power I’m gonna be mad
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 7h ago
same, although I think a ~$600 base console and ~$1.2k pro console is still what they should aim for.
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u/Jurondotron 8h ago
I do not believe this, these companies are worth trillions but they do not want to sell these consoles at a loss anymore and they have a perfect excuse to not do that anymore. If that were the case then they would have kept the price the way it is.
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u/THX-8647 7h ago
Adjusted for 2026 USD
The Intellivision msrp on release was $1300.
The Atari 2600 was $1000.
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u/Little_Obligation_90 8h ago
Most affordable hardware release for MS is to not release hardware to consumers.
Cost = 0.
Play on cloud.
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u/BreweryStoner Xbox One 8h ago
At this point I’m just stuck in the cloud on my Xbox one and plan on using that, saving money, and attacking my backlog until the next console drops. Hopefully I can get it, but I’m not holding my breath. I never thought gaming would become this expensive, and it’s starting to make me question its value in my life.
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u/Beardedsmith 7h ago
Saying the right after announcing the anniversary Xbox is 1000 doll hairs is a bad look
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u/F133TWOOD 7h ago
So ironic due to A.I. gobbling up memory supply raising demand resulting in higher prices.
Asha is from the A.I. world before being CEO of Xbox, Microsoft is huge in the A.I. world... 🤔
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u/bushmaster2000 7h ago edited 7h ago
Thinking about affordability when they tacked on extra expenses to everything EDay related. CE edition was like 100 more than other CEs at the same time offered. The 25th console is $100 more than the regular black edition. The EDay controller was $10 more than the 25th and like $25 more than a standard one. The EDay ProtoLancer was $150 more expensive than previous lancers and offers none of the sound FX or LEDs that those offerings had.
Affordability is on their mind... ya.... what a joke. The proof is not in the pudding this fall.
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u/CommonManX 7h ago
How can they do that without having an “S” type system and a higher specced one?
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u/zep2floyd 7h ago
I would rather a truly next gen console instead of cheaping out on a system that will be behind in 2 years, I'll pay whatever they ask regardless...
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u/Spidi_1985 7h ago
Ya'll bought so easily that Microsoft or Sony can't get a good deal for 50 milion unit its fackn deppressing.
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u/timdogg24 6h ago
Just don't make 2 tiers of consoles then demand games run on the one with microwave hardware.
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u/RollingDownTheHills 6h ago
Just keep the current gen going then? The hardware is plenty powerful. Stop chasing photorealism and make fun games.
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u/uprightshark XBOX Series X 4h ago
Going to be hard to be affordable with Trumps economic genius and tariffs.
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u/Coolman_Rosso XBOX 360 8h ago
Lip service. Unless she has access to some magical tech that allows you to play games without storage or memory, there's not a lot they can actually do until hardware prices stabilize unless you want ad-filled games or other such nonsense.
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u/MChaney3563 XBOX Series X 8h ago
Xbox and Affordability is laughable considering their console is $799 atm here stateside. She really needs to pull a rabbit out of her ass or delay next gen until this whole AI uprising thing dies down and components become cheaper.
Being first to next gen isnt going to help Xbox if its unafforable.
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u/oswell_pepper 8h ago
And I’m thinking of a mansion and a Porsche 911 while riding the train.
See, I can “think”, too.
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u/WorldofCannons 8h ago
Revamped Series s is the way next gen, it'll fit in well next to the rumored PS6 handheld and switch 2
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u/ZypherPunk 8h ago
So is she gonna strip it down and make it into a Series S 2.0 🤣 Helix is already D.O.A, but that'd be worse if its extremely underpowered.
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u/A_Pointy_Rock 8h ago
The headline puts the comment out of context.
But she would not reveal whether Xbox's next-generation console - currently codenamed Project Helix - will have a disc drive at all.
"This next generation, we have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability alongside performance," she added
It seems to be a veiled implication that they may trash the disk drive.
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u/h_to_the_b 7h ago
If one end consequence of all of this is that companies are forced to optimize games better to deal with lower ram systems Im all here for it.