The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S thread

I'm impressed you finished it once.

That's such a dad thing to say.

Anyone watch the PS5 showcase?

It was a lot stronger than Microsoft's, for my money. The breadth of games is already impressive; the fact that they sustained 45 minutes of quality stuff without even mentioning the two biggest releases (Ratchet & Clank, and Horizon) speaks volumes.

That PS Plus collection seems unusually generous too, no doubt Game Pass forced their hand. They could have easily charged for 60fps remasters of most of those games.

Final Fantasy 16 looks good! Having the director for FF14 on it as producer is a bit worrying though, I'd rather not lose out because he was stretched between both games.

I can't say I was terribly impressed by much of the game stuff; Final Fantasy XVI looks like Dragon Age Inquisition with chocobos, Demon's Souls is not my thing at all, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales is more Spider-Man, but if I desperately wanted more Spider-Man I'd have bought the DLC.

Even God of War 2 (or whatever it's called when it lands) isn't going to arrive until next year, probably along with Horizon Forbidden West, and everything else that interests me. I think at this stage I'm likely to wait a few months at least.

Final Fantasy 16 looks good! Having the director for FF14 on it as producer is a bit worrying though, I'd rather not lose out because he was stretched between both games.

He's "only" producer of XVI whilst continuing as producer/director of XIV, apparently it's the Heavensward team that are working on it too. How awesome did that Dragoon look!?

Maybe not everybody's first concern but the power consumption of the PS5 is enormous. (It's also fucking massive, but we knew that already).

This thing's going to run hot, and that means it's going to be noisy. On that basis alone I'm probably out.

Mind decidedly unchanged. Come to momma, Series X.

I’ll be joining you on that, I think. All this talk of £70 games for next gen just makes the GamePass machine look more and more appealing.

I'm most tempted to go for the £21-a-month All Access subscription for a Series S and GamePass. I just don't give enough of a shit about 4K to bother with an X, and the price of PS5 is just a little too high.

FFXVI looks pretty good to me, though. Interested to see more gameplay, especially around the battle system, but it's giving me big Dragon's Dogma vibes, which is definitely a positive.

They might try rolling PS Now into it, but game streaming's just not there yet; even Google haven't been able to make a splash, and internet data is their entire thing. To compete, they're going to have to copy Microsoft and turn PS+ into a first-party warehouse.

To be fair, the technology wasn't the shit thing about Stadia, it was the everything else.

Other thoughts, now I'm catching up with the stream:

Don't care about Spider-Man or God of War, I think the buzz on them had passed before I could play them and they honestly just seemed pretty generic; CODBLOPSCoW is just another entry in Geneva Convention Violations: The Franchise; Resi VII.I.AGE looks interesting but I'm happy to watch half an hour of a livestream and call it done; Death Loop looks interesting in a high-octane Hitman kinda way; DMC, Oddworld and Five Nights at Freddy's don't interest me; Dark Souls looks extremely pretty, but it and its follow-ups have had plenty of opportunities to get their hooks in me (I just don't have the skill or patience for 'em).

The two games I'm actually interested in, FFXVI and Death Loop are both on PC anyway, so if I decide I need 'em, I reckon that's where I'll go. Probably save me about £30, too.

To be fair, the technology wasn't the shit thing about Stadia, it was the everything else.

Google are both the biggest benefit and biggest drawback to Stadia – the early adopters they needed to convince on board to build momentum are also the people most likely to have been burned by Google's history of killing off promising projects without warning. Nobody who trusts the infrastructure to deliver trusts Google to keep it going for more than a year or two.

FFXVI is surely years away anyway. By that time we’ll be able to pick up the third hardware iteration of the PS5 for a fraction of its current price, or alternatively we’ll have PCs that can run it. I’m not basing any purchasing decisions on that.

I’m upset about my Hitman progress being tied to the PlayStation platform, though.

Well, I'm still sticking with the PS5. For me, the games I want will be on that machine, its as simple as that. I can see the attraction of the XBox, and the price of the PS5 seriously stings, but nearly all the games I have really loved this generation have been PS4 exclusives.

I'm most tempted to go for the £21-a-month All Access subscription for a Series S and GamePass. I just don't give enough of a shit about 4K to bother with an X, and the price of PS5 is just a little too high.

FFXVI looks pretty good to me, though. Interested to see more gameplay, especially around the battle system, but it's giving me big Dragon's Dogma vibes, which is definitely a positive.

Interesting you say that, someone on RLLMUK posted this:

https://twitter.com/Dreamboum/status/1269057893661388807

I’m upset about my Hitman progress being tied to the PlayStation platform, though.

You need (or can use) an IOI account for it anyway, right? Seems dumb that they can't (or more likely, won't) have progress working cross-platform – though I suppose for Microsoft don't want to be giving you level downloads that Sony got the money for.

I’m 99% sure they won’t. I mean even if you could carry progress and unlocks over it would be great, but those level packs will be the sticking point.

Which leaves me with either the option of playing Hitman 3 as a stand-alone on Xbox, or sticking with the (incredibly noisy) PS4 version and having everything in one place. It’s a genuine dilemma as it’s my most wanted next gen title by some distance.

Buy it again, play it again. You know you want to.

That’s a definite possibility.

It's definitely cheaper to buy a Series S with Hitman 3 than it is to buy a PS5.

Do we know for certain yet whether Series S will actually make games look better than the One X?

I can't get my head around the previous gen console having more, faster RAM, and a better graphics card. (But then I'm a technical idiot.)

I was thinking I'd get the Series S as a cheap and cheerful companion to my PS5, but might I be better off just keeping my One X?

The Series S is a 1080p machine and will run Xbox One games just like an Xbox One S (possibly with performance improvements). So it’ll look worse than an Xbox One X, for current gen games. Though it’ll obviously run next gen games too.

Actually, that sounds more complicated than it is.

S series machines play S versions of games.
X series machines play X versions of games.

For some reason the PS5 livestream was 30fps, but all of those trailers are now on YouTube in 60fps and they're glorious.

Hunt them down if you're interested, they actually feel next gen in a higher framerate.

Microsoft are buying Bethesda.

So much for "no exclusives", I guess? Though MS' also-PC strategy is always going to undermine their perception somewhat.

If they do exclusives, it'll be timed window knowing full well that console fans of Bethesda stuff would rather by a new console than wait a year. If they don't do exclusives, it's still the argument of £80 versus free on Game Pass on console. Either way, they win.

That's absolutely huge. I can't think of any gaming news bigger than that, ever.

And yeah, Xbox definitely has exclusives now. Jesus Christ.

Sewing up all the markets: Game Pass and Series S for the casuals, Series X and titles aimed at the hardcore for the hardcore. They've finally cracked it.

Sewing up all the markets: Game Pass and Series S for the casuals, Series X and titles aimed at the hardcore for the hardcore. They've finally cracked it.

Anyone doing Xbox All Access?

Incidentally, ALL of my real-life gaming friends are now going Xbox first.

We play PS4 online every week, and they were all buying PS5s until today. That's how big of an impact this Zenimax announcement has made, at least in my circle.

Anyone doing Xbox All Access?

Yeah, I think I'm gonna be. Was just gonna go for the S, but for eight quid a month I might just go for the X.

Fuck, Microsoft owning Bethesda is wild.

Anyone doing Xbox All Access?

Nope, not available in Germany. God knows why.

I think that announcement probably tips me into Xbox All Access. With a PS5 to mop up any notable exclusives in a couple of years.

Got my pre order for a Series X in at 8:00 this morning - so did a lot of other people judging by the number of sites crashing at that precise moment.

Can’t quite believe Microsoft are managing to turn things around quite so spectacularly. It’s the polar opposite of the Xbox One launch, karmic balance for the existence of Don Mattrick perhaps?

I managed to get a Series X All Access order in with Game (which included a 30-plus-minute wait in their automated queueing system), but there's nothing in any of the emails or order confirmations to indicate whether it'll actually get here on launch day or not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Can’t quite believe Microsoft are managing to turn things around quite so spectacularly.

Yeah, this is an unexpected turn of events. Even a few months ago I wouldn't have seen myself pre-ordering either console, but PS5 would definitely have been more in my sights long-term.

Incidentally, ALL of my real-life gaming friends are now going Xbox first.

We play PS4 online every week, and they were all buying PS5s until today. That's how big of an impact this Zenimax announcement has made, at least in my circle.

My IRL gaming crowd are all heavily invested in the Sony ecosystem and, for now, are still holding out for PS5. But none of them are getting anything at launch, at least one of them is now talking about PC GamePass, and it’ll be interesting to see if any of them break for Xbox in the next couple of months.

It's the straw that broke the camel's back for me - I was very conscious that XBOX was a solid choice again this gen, at the very least, but was still leaning heavily toward the PS5, even potentially at launch, as my PS4 is limping a little (I'm generally reticent to do such things, but even I ended up taking it apart the other day to clean the fan, after it sounded like it might take off while I was checking the external HDD storage). Now I'm thinking I might just play the waiting game a little, although there's still a temptation to buy a PS5 at some point just as an upgrade on which to play all the PS4 games I already have.

If I have the money (and I might, as I'm not spending it on much else at the moment, hence the Switch), this might even end up the first time I actually own both offerings since the days of the PS2/XBOX, but that's where the 'wait and see' comes in at the moment, as I'm not convinced that Microsoft are going to keep (m)any of the bigger properties exclusively to themselves anyway. Also, I'm quite conscious that these days DOOM, Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein et al aren't actually system-sellers for me, more like 'things I'll play when I get around to them'.

Oh, and for some reason I was trying to access my old (360-era) gametag recently, and that seems to be dead, which weirdly soured me on rejoining the Microsoft experience, but I'll have another look into that at some point.

Oh, and for some reason I was trying to access my old (360-era) gametag recently, and that seems to be dead

Weird - I can still see you on my Xbox friends list.

Strange, your Gamertag should still be accessible (and indeed is still there on my friends list, so it hasn’t been removed). I’m sure a quick support chat would get you back up and running.

I'm not sure I see any great reason to grab a Series X immediately. I think I'll hold for at least the first batch to be sold through. Considering the state of the world and how it might impact QA I think it's something of a gamble to dive in Day 1…

Strange, your Gamertag should still be accessible (and indeed is still there on my friends list, so it hasn’t been removed). I’m sure a quick support chat would get you back up and running.

Thanks chaps, and yeah, I would investigate further if I was going to take the plunge. I'm very conscious that I've not used that tag in (at least?) ten years though, and that I'm not sure what the email attached to it was, or if it's still in use.

I'm not sure I see any great reason to grab a Series X immediately. I think I'll hold for at least the first batch to be sold through. Considering the state of the world and how it might impact QA I think it's something of a gamble to dive in Day 1…

This was another thing that gave me pause. Also, other than possibly Demon's Souls, the only stuff I would probably be playing on day 1 would be games I already own, on a larger, faster box.

Apparently the Xbox One X's sales rank on Amazon has seen a bit of a spike, to the tune of a 747% increase, prompting many, many takes about how stupid the naming convention (and consumers) are – all built on the assumption that people were getting confused during the Series X launch.

Though it also depends on the actual figures - how highly was the Xbone selling in the (well-publicised) run-up to the Series X launch to begin with? If they'd sold two consoles the day before and then fifteen yesterday, it seems like significantly less of a big deal. The XboneX has dropped off the charts completely as of today, while the Series X is still in the top spot, so at least it doesn't look like it'll be a long-term confusion at least…

Bethesda do Fallout right? Is that such a coup?
But yes. The all access pass is an amazing package. It’s just the exclusives now which are keeping me PS5.

Bethesda do Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom and Dishonored, so it’s a pretty big acquisition. More so if they genuinely have the balls to make them all system exclusives.

(Doom Eternal is on Game Pass as of today, by the way).

DE is good.

Lots of stories doing the rounds of Series X/S and PS5 preorders being cancelled or delayed to post-launch, as retailers get updated stock allocations for launch day. It's making me nervous, though I've yet to see Game specifically mentioned in any of them (🤞 ) – or All Access, beyond the clusterfuck Klarna made of the preorder credit.

I've also preordered my first Series X game, making me Part Of The Problem™ – Yakuza: Like A Dragon. I've enjoyed all of the series that I've played, but I don't see myself playing through the rest of the Kiryu games. Jumping into a fresh story (with JRPG turn-based combat!) is much more tempting.

Yesterday there was a PS5 ad on twitter. Below the line was hundreds of comments from people who had pre-ordered, who were now receiving e-mails from their retailers saying they would not get it on launch day.
I waiting till 2021 for sure now.