Series S and X Refreshes

[Output]

https://www.club386.com/upcoming-xbo...ajor-ftc-leak/

I haven't had a console for the current and previous generation and won't be changing that, and PC games are obviously all digital releases these days, but it does still sound disappointing that they are taking away the disc drive for an upcoming Series X refresh even if it does mean an increase in SSD space and various other improvements.

As it obviously rules out the option of buying a second-hand copy or simply brand new physical copies that have gotten cheaper over time in comparison to their digital prices.

While it certainly doesn't rule out the digital prices of the Series S/X games getting reduced, I am still under the impression (whether rightly or wrongly) that the discs tend to fall faster in price than the consoles' digital releases.

It is also interesting to hear that an Xbox equivalent of PlayStation's DualSense* will be coming, but again it's something that I won't be buying myself.





* I actually bought a DualSense when it was on offer for £40 in early August, but as more of a backup if something happens to the controller I currently use with my PC. I'm still happily using the PS3 DualShock controller I've had for over a decade (with the combination of BthPS3, DsHidMini, ViGEmBus** and Ryochan7's fork of DS4Windows making it usable on Windows 10 and making it appear to the system to be an Xbox controller).

** That has recently been announced as End of Life due to a trademark conflict, but I would imagine that there is still a successor in the works that will have a new name instead, given the earlier announcement of such a successor and updater URL adjustment mentioned in the EoL notice (even if the adjustment obviously also makes sense from a privacy standpoint too).

[Saracen999]

I keep contemplating a console, having not had a new one for ages. I can't say I'm happy about tthe removal of the drive though. I still use the old one as a media player. That said, I guess it's no surprise, and one more step in the journey to everything as a service, that MS are on, and have been for years.

So, on balance? Pass, I think. Besides which, do I really need one? Nah. It'd pretty much be an impulse buy, and it's not like there's a shortage of things I'm after at the moment, currently topped by a really good set of headphones.

[DanceswithUnix]

Mixed feelings.

It feels like it takes away options. But does it?

I've had to replace optical drives in consoles in the past, specially those old Nintendo Wii consoles.
My son pays the xbox monthly subscription and mostly plays those games.
I don't think I've ever seen him use the PS5 optical drive.

[jimbouk]

We regularly pop a movie in the PS5 - I guess as it's plugged into our main/only TV is the difference. Same for the PS3 & PS4 before it - I don't think I've ever owned a DVD player! (Did have a VCR when I went to uni, PC did DVD duties back then).

With cutting back on subscriptions we're glad we've got a stack of DVDs to fall back on. Currently on PS+ (Essentials) but can't see that being renewed as the price has gone up - got my monies worth this year playing a couple of enjoyable games but don't do online with consoles - and the physical copies for games that have gone on PS+ tend to drop as people clear out old copies so if there's anything that looks good I can pick it up for a few quid.

Not that I don't have digital copies of games as well, prices tend to fluctuate with 'sales' rather than just dropping sensibly for older titles so just pick up interesting things dirt cheap and maybe will get round to them...

If you can keep the kids happy with a yearly sub rather than having to buy 2/3 £70 games then that's probably well worth it, especially as I assume they'll be playing online at some point.

[Saracen999]

....

It feels like it takes away options. But does it?

....

I suspect there's a strong correlation in that to the age of the user. The younger the user, the less tgey will be of a 'physical media' mindset.

And no, I don't meant that mos older people prefer physical media. /It's more that a much higher proportion of them will, probably in no small part due to already having a large collection of physical media because, in their youth, that was the only game in town.

In my case, I have a LOT of physical media, including DVDs (and a few VHS tapes) but also CDs and LPs. When i was buying those LPs, there were no CDs, let alone streaming services. I'm going digital, though. I'm digitising all that. LPs are almost done, CDs are done (except those I bught ast weekend) and i/'m working my way through digitising my DVD collection. I'm even still buying DVDs, the last of which was the Babylon 5 complete collection on DVD which arrived last week. But especially the DVDs takes an awful lot of both time and disk space 9even though I rip to .MKV and then convert to M4V (thereby saving a lot of space, at the price of te process being even slower to work through).

So while I'll end up wholly digital, it's under MY control (locally stored, on NAS) and not requiring a monthly subscription. That's where 'my head is', and while it's partly mindset, the young just weren't there to build up that large collection of physical media.

[Jonj1611]

I am still buying blu-rays. They are still superior in quality to what you get streamed no matter what Netflix etc try to tell you.

As for the console, I guess it takes away the resell value of disc based games, once bought on digital thats it, no way to sell it on when you have finished with it

[DanceswithUnix]

I am still buying blu-rays.

Sort of the same here, I can see the better quality. Just.

I have to know that I will be watching a film, in order to get it delivered on time. I often don't know that I will get a chance to watch a film, or what I will be in the mood for, so to avoid buying every blu-ray in sight I just stream when I feel like it.

Then there's those movies that work well in 3D. Yeah I know, but I like 3D. There doesn't seem to be any 3D streaming out there, so blu-ray it is.

But then I have a fairly large collection of DVDs from before streaming times, and they are now junk. Low bitrate and resolution movie, and the rest of the family isn't that particular about where or even if they put a film back so I might have to go hunt for it, so it's just easier to get the Chromecast to voice search for any film I want to watch.

I can only assume that in the not distant future streaming quality will overtake blu-ray in the same way as it overtook DVD, and that puts me off investing any more money in them.

[Output]

Saracen has hit the nail on the head by matching my thoughts on those likely to prefer physical media, which is why I found the Series X news about the optical drive, despite not actually being affected by it myself, disappointing.

And given how content has been pulled from video streaming services to apparently use as a loss for tax purposes recently, it makes me wonder whether it's an inevitability that it will happen in gaming in some form at some point too for subscription-based services (which I'd guess the closest potential equivalent making that possible would be in cloud gaming).

Some people will happily free up physical space and move to subscriptions at a convenient monthly fee, but for me I prefer being the one in control of whether I can watch it rather than relying on which service - out of many due to the current fragmention of the streaming industry - has the rights to it and was offering it at that moment in time (not only is it possible that it may not be offered despite having the rights, but it's also possible that nobody would have the rights and thus anyone with the physical media would be the only ones benefiting from that decision).

I wouldn't be surprised if there are attempts to fragment things into many different subscriptions for console gaming in a similar way to video streaming, all in the pursuit of profit of course, but I suspect that it's less likely to be successful given the more locked down nature of consoles.

With companies having less control over PC, it does seem there might be a streaming level of fragmentation there (although this is just speculation on my part), but that's most notably in terms of launchers rather than subscriptions (although I'd imagine there are still plenty of subscriptions of some sort too), so I'd like to think that even then companies have been making their way back to also be on other storefronts by realising - unlike video streaming services which don't seem to have made such a connection - that they are just punishing themselves in the end if they artificially limit their options to profit like that.

To clarify, that isn't to say that I'm against using subscription services (except the cloud gaming one, as I still don't believe internet connections are at a good enough speed and reliability yet for most people to actually make sense for that), just that it would be in addition to physical media (when physical media is still available at least, as in PC gaming's case I'd most likely rather buy the game than only have access to it via a subscription).