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EXtas1s: Xbox Showcase to have the first teaser for Xbox Portable

Davevil

Late October Surprise
ross-geller-yeah-ok-sure-bdkxz5ntddyhnp9k.gif
 

Fess

Member
I think they need to do two things as fast as possible.

1) Publicly confirm the open store plans for existing Xbox owners
2) Announce everything multiplat
2) Depends if you want them to exist in gaming or not…

The multiplat ports are making the platform more irrelevant. And once Steam is on the next console they’ll make Xbox/Microsoft Store irrelevant too, everybody will just use Steam. And once their store and console is dead Gamepass will die too since the console and it’s store is the most common entry point, and Valve won’t allow Gamepass ads on Steam.

If you want Xbox and Gamepass to exist you should want them to release more Xbox exclusives. That’s how you sell a platform. And also exclusives released only on Gamepass. That’s how you get people to subscribe to a service.
 
I hope Towerborne turns out OK. Artwork seems weak compared to the Banner Saga, but I like the idea of a co-op loot grinder side-scroller beat-em-up.
 
Now thats fair, they haven't done much recently that inspires confidence.

Admittedly I don’t like the management much. Whatever praise they receive I compare it to the overall picture and it doesn’t weigh up imo.

My intention with my original post is I would like to see new management, a sort of Xbox overhaul with new ideas before anymore new hardware, if you know what I mean.

I am tired of them to be honest, the social media circus surrounding them especially. All I want is a much better Xbox then the one we have now and I’m of the firm belief the current people there won’t deliver that.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
2) Depends if you want them to exist in gaming or not…

The multiplat ports are making the platform more irrelevant. And once Steam is on the next console they’ll make Xbox/Microsoft Store irrelevant too, everybody will just use Steam. And once their store and console is dead Gamepass will die too since the console and it’s store is the most common entry point, and Valve won’t allow Gamepass ads on Steam.

If you want Xbox and Gamepass to exist you should want them to release more Xbox exclusives. That’s how you sell a platform. And also exclusives released only on Gamepass. That’s how you get people to subscribe to a service.
I'm honestly not worried about it. I think they're on the right path, especially for what I want personally. Just waiting for details before I celebrate.
 
Back when the Series X had only a codename, project Scarlett, the invitation Xbox created subtly hinted at it being, well, hinted at. I believe it was for Microsoft's E3 2019 presser and when invitation was broken down by some eagle eyed fans, they discovered that the RGB values in certain points throughout the invitation hinted at use of the colour Scarlet, subtly hinting at at the console being mentioned in some capacity (link here). Do I see any hints of a portable Xbox device on the open livestream invites that Xbox sent out to everyone? Nope. And I don't believe this Ex(whatever) dude one bit.
 

Mr.ODST

Member
Excited if its an Xbox Handheld, think that would compliment their ecosystem really well, think the Asus ROG sold quite a bit with a ton of questions about having gamepass natively on there, I'd 100% buy one of it was decent
 

Fess

Member
I'm honestly not worried about it. I think they're on the right path, especially for what I want personally. Just waiting for details before I celebrate.
I thought you liked Gamepass. How do you think that service will do without a console and store and exclusives to sell it?
 
A handheld that plays every game available on Xbox, and also has optimized versions of the games by playing the exact same version as the Series S for example, would be really cool. That would probably make me get one of those instead of a Steam Deck.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
Probably fake, but it’s certain now that their handheld will definitely be built on ARM. Excited to see what they can do with ARM and mobile, especially if they use the latest fab process next year.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Probably fake, but it’s certain now that their handheld will definitely be built on ARM. Excited to see what they can do with ARM and mobile, especially if they use the latest fab process next year.

Would they be able to include Xbox 360 BC with an ARM handheld?
 

mhirano

Member
The only way a Series S portable is possible is if they figured out porting the OS to ARM like Apple did and have an equivalent to Apple's Rosetta. ARM is the only way it will work.
Have you ever heard of the Handheld PCs/SteamDeck initiative?
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I thought you liked Gamepass. How do you think that service will do without a console and store and exclusives to sell it?
I think the console is failing anyway so they have to adapt now or it just drags them down further. GP is positioning itself so that its ready and available everywhere so that at some point in the next decade if people decide to look towards cloud or more open local devices like PCs, it could experience rapid viral growth. Basically they're going to wait around and see if more people migrate to cloud and PC, or the handheld. The handheld is going to be their cheaper entry point into their ecosystem for people not wanting a PC. If it was even a quarter of the appeal of the Switch, it would probably be a success.

And they're going to be putting all their games on every device, and I think they're going to see a lot of success there. Also, I do think a lot of people not on Xbox have severely underestimated the MS game library for a long time. When they see they can play it all for $70 a pop, and most of them are pretty good, more of them are going to consider GP and PC. You already saw some bitterness about Call of Duty and the amount of games is just going to keep increasing, but at $70 a pop for people not subscribed. Those releases will keep snowballing since they have so many studios.

I don't think MS hardware is ever going to outperform PS5 or Switch or anything like that. It'll be a niche market, but I think it has the potential to hit exactly what console gamers want at exactly the right time. It's a much better chance than just continuing the closed Xbox set up we have now. Personally, I think they already outcompeted PS5 this gen on games, price, system, sub, and it's doing worse than ever. If its true that people are never leaving their digital libraries, then it's time to adapt to that and just put your games on everything and get out of a no-win fight.

I could keep going but I don't want to derail much more than that. Needless to say, if they pull off all the things rumored here I will personally give Phil Spencer another award myself. If they manage to pull off forward compatibility alone, just that is probably saving me close to $8000, and would be a huge, huge consumer win. There's potential here for me to get virtually everything on my wishlist. So I just want to wait and see before I celebrate, because it's not confirmed yet.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
The only way a Series S portable is possible is if they figured out porting the OS to ARM like Apple did and have an equivalent to Apple's Rosetta. ARM is the only way it will work.

Why couldn't they just use another AMD APU?
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
Would they be able to include Xbox 360 BC with an ARM handheld?

Good question, but everything I see on Google seems to note that it wouldn’t be much of an issue, and it would be seamless (and better) with UE5 and Unity software.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Would they be able to include Xbox 360 BC with an ARM handheld?

It would require emulation of PowerPC to ARM instructions.
With modern ARM CPUs, even on mobile, it is probably feasible.
But making that emulator, would cost quite a bit of time and money.
I'm not sure MS would be willing to spend that much effort, into a feature they sometimes claim "everyone wants, but one uses"
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Have you ever heard of the Handheld PCs/SteamDeck initiative?
Why couldn't they just use another AMD APU?
The Steam Deck is very underpowered compared to Series S. We don't have the technology to make a reasonably priced portable Series S with x86 APU with low power draw to support a good battery life.
Steam Deck already exists.
Steam Deck has a power draw of 15 W, while Series S has a power draw of 74 W.
Would they be able to include Xbox 360 BC with an ARM handheld?
Xbox 360 BC already works with x86 on Xbox One. The question is can they built something like Rosetta that translates it (and all other native Series S/One games) for ARM. A Series S portable is only possible with ARM.
 
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Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
The Steam Deck is very underpowered compared to Series S. We don't have the technology to make a reasonably priced portable Series S with x86 APU with low power draw to support a good battery life.

Steam Deck has a power draw of 15 W, while Series S has a power draw of 74 W.

Xbox 360 BC already works with x86 on Xbox One. The question is can they built something like Rosetta that translates it (and all other native Series S/One games) for ARM. A Series S portable is only possible with ARM.
If they pull that off, everyone giving them shit for making a lower spec Series S version of every game is going to change their tune fast.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
The Steam Deck is very underpowered compared to Series S. We don't have the technology to make a reasonably priced portable Series S with x86 APU with low power draw to support a good battery life.

It doesn't need to be the equivalent of a Series S. Z1 Extreme would work fine.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Xbox Games are optimized for the Series S though.

I would think it would be easier to scale down to Z1 Extreme than translate to ARM. I'm not saying there is no way they go with ARM. I just don't see think ARM is the "only way".
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Easy enough to set up PS5 like this? I've got one of those Razer Kishi V2 hardly used, might look a bit goofy with black bars on my phone tho as it's one of those 21:9 Xperia's :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I loved my Razer Kishi v1. I preferr it over backbone, but mine shit the bucket after a while. The dpad stopped working. Amazon was out of stock when I needed a replacement, so I went with the backbone. The buttons are noisier on the backbone.

Setting up a PS5 is super easy. Just need the PS Remote Play app, and to enable it on the console. Login in to your account and it’s that simple.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Maybe a clocked down strix or halo strix along with a special ai co processor for scaling?
Which would be ironic if that was delivered and worked out as this was almost the switch 2 everyone hoped for but potentially with a lot more potential horsepower.

If they by some miracle pulled off a portable that upscaled to 4k with quality and very little hit to performance and included a dock, this could have potential than one would think otherwise. Not that I think it would do badly if it's just "regular" performance.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Member
2) Depends if you want them to exist in gaming or not…

The multiplat ports are making the platform more irrelevant. And once Steam is on the next console they’ll make Xbox/Microsoft Store irrelevant too, everybody will just use Steam. And once their store and console is dead Gamepass will die too since the console and it’s store is the most common entry point, and Valve won’t allow Gamepass ads on Steam.

If you want Xbox and Gamepass to exist you should want them to release more Xbox exclusives. That’s how you sell a platform. And also exclusives released only on Gamepass. That’s how you get people to subscribe to a service.
Xbox is on the way out.

No way are they going to go back to exclusives.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Would they be able to include Xbox 360 BC with an ARM handheld?
I doubt it. We can’t even play 360 games via remote play. I think it’s probably some legal reason why they wont even let use play original Xbox or 360 games remotely.
 
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sendit

Member
I would pick this up if it has dedicated local hardware and not just a cloud portal.
 
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Fess

Member
I think the console is failing anyway so they have to adapt now or it just drags them down further. GP is positioning itself so that its ready and available everywhere so that at some point in the next decade if people decide to look towards cloud or more open local devices like PCs, it could experience rapid viral growth. Basically they're going to wait around and see if more people migrate to cloud and PC, or the handheld. The handheld is going to be their cheaper entry point into their ecosystem for people not wanting a PC. If it was even a quarter of the appeal of the Switch, it would probably be a success.

And they're going to be putting all their games on every device, and I think they're going to see a lot of success there. Also, I do think a lot of people not on Xbox have severely underestimated the MS game library for a long time. When they see they can play it all for $70 a pop, and most of them are pretty good, more of them are going to consider GP and PC. You already saw some bitterness about Call of Duty and the amount of games is just going to keep increasing, but at $70 a pop for people not subscribed. Those releases will keep snowballing since they have so many studios.

I don't think MS hardware is ever going to outperform PS5 or Switch or anything like that. It'll be a niche market, but I think it has the potential to hit exactly what console gamers want at exactly the right time. It's a much better chance than just continuing the closed Xbox set up we have now. Personally, I think they already outcompeted PS5 this gen on games, price, system, sub, and it's doing worse than ever. If its true that people are never leaving their digital libraries, then it's time to adapt to that and just put your games on everything and get out of a no-win fight.

I could keep going but I don't want to derail much more than that. Needless to say, if they pull off all the things rumored here I will personally give Phil Spencer another award myself. If they manage to pull off forward compatibility alone, just that is probably saving me close to $8000, and would be a huge, huge consumer win. There's potential here for me to get virtually everything on my wishlist. So I just want to wait and see before I celebrate, because it's not confirmed yet.
I like your optimism and thanks for a detailed explanation of what you think will happen,

For me a platform start and end with exclusives. Doesn’t matter if it’s games or movies or music. I’m not going to sign up on a new subscription or buy new hardware or even create a new account somewhere if I don’t have to. And I don’t think the $70 a pop versus ”free” on Gamepass is going to work.
 
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