Next-gen consoles have been available for just over two years now. While Sony offers two PS5s with similar performance, Microsoft has two quite different machines in its catalog. If the Xbox Series X represents the ultimate experience aimed at delivering a high-end gaming experience in 4K, the Xbox Series S stands out mainly for its resolution and the fact that it is a 100% dematerialized console at a very affordable price of 299 €.
Today we will see if Microsoft’s promises are kept or not. We will also try to see more clearly on the future of the machine, and if it is the right time to buy an Xbox Series S at the dawn of the end of the cross-gen period.
1440p and ray tracing: two things to forget about Xbox Series S?
The performance of the machine is often debated and several developers have already pointed the finger at the Xbox Series S. From Remedy to Exor Studios via id Software or Rocksteady, we have lost count of the number of times the debate concerning optimization games and the challenge of developing on Xbox Series S is back on the table.
When it came to marketing its two consoles,
Microsoft was clear: the Xbox Series S will offer similar performance to the Xbox Series X, with the main difference being its resolution. It was designed to play games at 1440p at 60 FPS, and supports ray tracing.
The main difference between Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is in the resolution.
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The Xbox Series S offers approximately 3 times the GPU performance of the Xbox One and was designed to play games at 1440p at 60 frames per second, with support for up to 120 frames per second.
Looking more closely at the latest games released, we have to admit that the observation is just as clear: the basic promise is not really kept. Xbox Series S falls far short of the same in-game performance as Xbox Series X, only at a lower resolution. We often notice it in the technical analyses, in particular those of Digital Foundry, where the small console of Microsoft is regularly in withdrawal, or even completely rejected by the developers.
Among the latest examples, GTA V has offered an update to take advantage of ray tracing reflections on Xbox Series X and PS5, without the Xbox Series S being affected. The Witcher 3 “next-gen” update also does not allow Xbox Series S players to enjoy a ray tracing mode as is the case on Xbox Series X and PS5. Deathloop, Saints Row, Gotham Knights, The Callisto Protocol, Hogwarts Legacy or recently Elden Ring, are also among the titles released recently that do not allow you to take advantage of ray tracing on Xbox Series S.
Ray tracing aside, we also note that the console is often amputated from the different graphics modes offered on Xbox Series X and PS5. This is mainly the case for the performance modes which allow you to play at 60 FPS.
The performance offered by the console depends above all on the optimization carried out by the various studios for the machine, and with a little more work, the Xbox Series S is quite capable of offering 60 FPS in large games at open worlds. Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2 are examples of games that offered 60 FPS on Xbox Series S via an update. In these cases, however, it should be noted that the resolution is still not ideal and generally oscillates between 900p and 1080p.
Unbeatable value for money despite everything!
If we have so far mentioned the rarely kept promises of the console, and mainly games in which it is not to its advantage, the Xbox Series S still offers unbeatable value for money today. Coupled with the Xbox Game Pass, it is a very good entry point into the Xbox ecosystem.
Launched at €299.99, it is regularly available at a lower price and as much to say it right away, no other machine allows this level of performance at the same price.
To afford a PC capable of competing, it often takes more than double the price of the console, and for a machine much more bulky and noisy than the Xbox Series S.
What future for the Xbox Series S?
Two years after the release of the next generation consoles, we are still in a period of transition. So far, the Xbox Series S has suffered from many comparisons, and was even sometimes dethroned in terms of performance by a certain Xbox One X.
If the latter will certainly satisfy many players, it will not allow you to play the exclusively “next-gen” games that will be showing up this year. Thanks to its new generation architecture, the Xbox Series S will be fully capable of running these games, and this obviously makes it a much more “future proof” console.
Despite everything, new questions arise: if the console is already struggling to offer acceptable performance on certain cross-gen games and sometimes even seems to be shunned by developers, what will happen to exclusively next-gen games?
It is difficult to answer this question at the moment. On the other hand, we can hope that with only three consoles to focus on, the studios will be able to allocate more time to optimizing the Xbox Series S versions.
Availing exclusively in 2022, Xbox should experience a second wind in 2023 and release many first-party games on Xbox Series X|S. These games will be the brand’s showcase, and we imagine (and hope) that the Xbox Series S will be properly exploited by Xbox Game Studios. “Next-gen” game engines like the Unreal Engine 5 will also be decisive for the Xbox Series S and we have recently seen that the console is doing very well on Fortnite.
On the other hand, it is legitimate to apprehend how games like Starfield will run on Xbox Series S. What sacrifices and other compromises will have to be made for the console to offer an acceptable gaming experience on titles of this magnitude?
What about storage?
In addition to performance and the lack of a blu-ray drive, the Xbox Series S stands out from the Xbox Series X with its storage. The console has indeed a storage of 512 GB, and only 364 GB usable for the installation of games.
With titles getting heavier and heavier, there’s a fear that console storage will be an issue at some point. Keep in mind, however, that Xbox Series S games are lighter than Xbox Series X games, allowing you to scrounge up a few gigabytes on each installation.
It is also always possible to buy a Seagate card in order to expand the storage, but the prices charged are far too high to make it an attractive option today. As a reminder, a 1 TB card is currently sold at around €235, almost the price of the console alone!
Is it a good time to buy an Xbox Series S?
If the Xbox Series S is officially sold for € 299.99, it is often available at a more attractive price. Faced with these attractive prices for a console, you must surely be wondering if this is the right time to buy an Xbox Series S.
Again, it is difficult to give a clear answer to this question. On the one hand, we keep a console with an unbeatable value for money that will be able to run games exclusively “next-gen”. On the other, it is precisely the performance of said games, and even cross-gen titles, that raise questions.
If you’re buying a new console, chances are it’s to enjoy better graphics, better framerate, and better resolution. If you had an Xbox One X, then you might be a little disappointed when it comes to cross-gen gaming. First, remember that the Xbox Series S does not allow you to take advantage of the Xbox One X optimizations of backward compatible games. You will then have to settle for the Xbox One versions of the games, with a resolution not exceeding 1080p, and a framerate rarely above 30 FPS.
On the other hand, some titles have real next-gen optimization, which the Xbox Series S allows you to take advantage of without any problem. You can also play certain titles with a better framerate thanks to the FPS Boost available on just over 130 games. However, the optimization of games on Xbox Series S depends essentially on the time that the studios are willing to allocate to the console. As we have seen above, the Series S is often dismissed and not fully exploited on third-party games, which does not necessarily allow us to approach the next few years with great serenity when we dwell on the subjects mentioned. upper.
Wait for the first excluded “next gen” to decide
If you already have an Xbox One S, or an Xbox One X, we could only suggest that you wait and see how the first exclusively “next-gen” games will run on Xbox Series S. Whether it’s the exclusives or the games third parties, their performance on Microsoft’s small console will be a good indicator of the attention the machine will receive throughout this generation. Recently, for example, we learned that Forza Motorsport will run in 1080p at 60 FPS on Xbox Series S, with reflections as well as global light management via ray tracing. On the other hand, we do not yet know under what conditions these will be used and it will be necessary, once again, to do without 1440p.
In the immediate future, the console nevertheless brings great developments, in particular thanks to its SSD which allows reduced loading times, or even the support of features exclusive to Xbox Series X|S such as Quick Resume.
If you don’t have a console yet and want to play occasionally at a lower cost, then the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Game Pass subscription are an offer that will allow you to discover many games easily.
However, keep in mind that without a blu-ray player, you must buy all of your games from the Microsoft Store. This obviously includes backwards compatible games, but obviously the latest games released, some of which are now selling for €79.99. You will therefore not be able to take advantage of the reduced prices of physical games when they are released, as supermarkets do.
