Xbox Series S Refresh Featuring Machine Learning Was Canned Due to SKU Saturation, Marketing Concerns

[Gamernyc78]

Xbox Series S Refresh Featuring Machine Learning Was Canned Due to SKU Saturation, Marketing Concerns

An Xbox Series S hardwar refresh was planned at some point, but ultimately canned due to SKu saturation and marketing concerns

wccftech.com

An Xbox Series S hardware refresh was planned at some point, but the project was ultimately canned due to some concerns, according to rumors circulating online.

According to RedGamingTech, the Xbox Series S hardware refresh was planned to feature an RDNA 3-based GPU, a general increase to specs, more RAM, and even some machine learning features meant to power upscaling. The project, however, was canned quite early, so much so that even the system's APU wasn't fully fleshed out. An Xbox Series X refresh was also planned, but it was canned even earlier than the other refresh.

As for why the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X hardware refreshes were canned, sources told RedGamingTech that it was due to a couple of concerns. First, Microsoft and some other developers were concerned about SKU saturation, as having four SKUs on the market at the same time would have led to a variety of issues. Additionally, regarding the Xbox Series S hardware refresh, there were also marketing concerns, as it would have been difficult to market a console that was more powerful than the base model but not as powerful as the Xbox Series X.

While the new information regarding the Xbox Series S hardware refresh is obviously unconfirmed, the concerns that led to its cancelation definitely sound valid and in line with previous statements from Microsoft, as the company considers the Xbox Series X as its mid-gen refresh and the Xbox Series its standard console.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Definitely wouldn't have sold either! They made the right call.

 

[Nhomnhom]

They just have a completely wrong read of the market. Series S isn't a problem because games are ugly on it, it's a problem because it's a burden for devs and limits what they can do. They just made way too many cuts and the end result was a disastrously weak console, did they not learn anything from the 360 and Xbox One generations? Like not messing up the memory configuration or forcing digital on people?

It would've make much more sense to go with Something slightly less powerful than PS5 but undercut them on both the digital and disk SKUs. They were driven by marketing and console war concerns when designing their hardware. Series S also had to have a disc drive, for folks trying to save money physical media can't be beat.

For the general public, who isn't watching Digital Foundry it doesn't matter if consoles have DLSS or not, any good enough solution to take a 1080p and turn it into 4K is going to work, PS4 Pro demonstrated that. Uncharted 4 had very offensive in your face artifacts for objects close to the camera and nobody talked about it or cared (I don't even know if they later fixed it).

We are in 2024 where are the games that justify a new generation of hardware being released for Xbox? Is it Pentiment, is it Hifi Rush? Is it yet another Forza Horizon than even happened to be crossgen? Is it that ugly ass game called Halo Infinite?

When they announced the console in 2019 they showed Hellblade 2, that game is yet to be released and will apparently be a 24~30fps techdemo.

 

[Jim Ryan]

Can't see any Xbox console selling big members in the future.

 

[Batzy]

The series s plan backfired and now being sold less then a ps5 is a burden to them. They really will be fucking stupid to release a 3rd sku when no one wants to buy their cheaper sku.

 

[Dabaus]

I was thinking when they make a handheld or whatever, will it natively run games or like the rog and steam deck stream them or how ever those 2 work.

What I’m getting at is developers would have to add a 3rd sku to make for a console that won’t have a large installed base like the series s and x. That is to say the S and X are both different skus that both have a low installed base. Series X might be less than 12 million compared to ps5 which is probably approaching 56 million.

 

[Box]

The series s plan backfired and now being sold less then a ps5 is a burden to them. They really will be fucking stupid to release a 3rd sku when no one wants to buy their cheaper sku.

I got banned from reddit for calling the Series S the "Cuck" console

 

[Batzy]

I got banned from reddit for calling the Series S the "Cuck" console

Good for you??? Not sure what to do with this information...

 

[Gamernyc78]

No itineration Wil help them.. They have killed all hope with how they fucked up mind share.