Xbox Series S isn’t holding next-gen back, reality is

^Keep tuned for Jim’s video op-ed on how good the Sequence S actually is.

There’s a pernicious hearsay going round that the standard Xbox Sequence S, the most affordable next-gen console available on the market, is someway inflicting different, higher machines to be compromised with pointless framerate caps. Fairly how the hearsay began is a little bit convoluted, however I’ve defined all within the accompanying video. And, look, right here’s the factor: it’s a load of garbage.

If something, if the Sequence S was accountable for lowering the general complexity of next-gen video games in comparison with what they might obtain had been it not an element, then the large boy machines – it stands to cause – would have loads of headroom left over for efficiency boosts. However that’s not what’s taking place.

It actually isn’t taking place within the case of Gotham Knights, which kicked off this entire ridiculous mini-controversy by launching with none efficiency modes regardless of being next-gen unique. That is due, we’re advised, to the complexity of the sport… which was initially slated for PS4 and Xbox One, however these variations had been cancelled, and the sport we acquired feels decidedly final gen and may barely keep a secure framerate regardless. Go determine.

The Sequence S is a next-gen machine in all of the ways in which depend: particularly, its super-fast NVME storage and strong CPU, each of that are principally an identical to its greater brother, and on a par with the PS5 when it comes to uncooked numbers. It has a much less spectacular GPU and never as a lot RAM, however it is a compromise aimed toward getting the value as little as potential with the concession that this machine is meant for use with last-generation tv screens and 1440p displays. It’s not speculated to compete with premium consoles and three-grand PCs, it’s speculated to be low-cost, cheerful, and “adequate” to your common consumer. Which it’s.

It additionally represents a big step up when it comes to the bottom spec of gaming {hardware} that folks are likely to have of their houses, specifically the bottom PS4, a workhorse machine which continues to be going robust on account of varied components (as explored within the above video) however is hamstrung by a gradual HDD and a lacklustre CPU: each of those are drag components which the subsequent gen machines, together with the Sequence S, are designed to negate.

With hundreds of thousands of customers nonetheless, for no matter cause, unable or unwilling to improve from the last-gen machine or low spec PC they’re at the moment rocking (to not point out machines just like the Nintendo Swap and Steam Deck), it appears churlish guilty the Sequence S for dragging down the minimal spec that studios need to cater for when, if something, it could seem like pushing up the typical.

Some builders really feel all the identical that Microsoft’s requirement to help the Sequence S with each Xbox launch – stopping them from splitting the userbase – is cramping their type. But when they’re that decided to artificially reduce their market in half, there’s nothing stopping them from making their video games unique to different platforms.

That’s capitalism, child. The liberty to decide on!