Xbox Series X|S Catch-All

As I understand it Series X games will have to be installed on the internal drive (or the official Seagate add on drive) but the Series X can run Xbone games from a USB connected external drive like the Xbone could.

What I haven’t seen explained yet is whether Xbone games that get a Series X upgrade will suddenly require being on the internal drive.

I’ve never needed more than the 1TB internal drive on my Xbone X for the games I regularly play as long as I delete old ones but with game sizes going up I’m not sure 1TB is gonna cut it this gen. I guess it’s gonna depend on whether the Series X upgrade for Xbone games is just higher resolution and framerate or if they are going to push out a bunch of higher quality assets.

pandasuit wrote:

As I understand it Series X games will have to be installed on the internal drive (or the official Seagate add on drive) but the Series X can run Xbone games from a USB connected external drive like the Xbone could.

What I haven’t seen explained yet is whether Xbone games that get a Series X upgrade will suddenly require being on the internal drive.

I’ve never needed more than the 1TB internal drive on my Xbone X for the games I regularly play as long as I delete old ones but with game sizes going up I’m not sure 1TB is gonna cut it this gen. I guess it’s gonna depend on whether the Series X upgrade for Xbone games is just higher resolution and framerate or if they are going to push out a bunch of higher quality assets.

Guess it depends on the upgrades. Since the base game wasn't designed for the super fast loading it is unlikely that there will be game breaking issues with it not running off of the SSD. Really in terms of Series X/S games there is no reason they should all require being stored on the SSD. High speed asset streaming won't be a feature that every game uses. Many of the early games and plenty of games period will still use more traditional loading schemes. But at the same time every game can benefit from faster storage to reduce the load times... except Mass Effect, no making those elevators move faster or the decontamination and other tricks they used to hide loading go faster

I'm reading that Seagate is going to have an official SSD expansion available during "Holiday 2020."

It is memory card sized. !!!

IMAGE(https://www.seagate.com/www-content/product-content/storage-expansion-for-xbox-series-x/_shared/images/xboxseries-x-tech-xet-storage-500x281.gif)

Top_Shelf wrote:

I'm reading that Seagate is going to have an official SSD expansion available during "Holiday 2020."

It is memory card sized. !!!

IMAGE(https://www.seagate.com/www-content/product-content/storage-expansion-for-xbox-series-x/_shared/images/xboxseries-x-tech-xet-storage-500x281.gif)

The leaked price puts a 1 TB one at $220 US. That is just slightly more expensive than a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 drive would cost.

As long as they let us move or download games to a big slow drive for storage and then move them back to the internal when we want to play them I’ll be happy. I have an external 5TB drive on my Xbox right now. Moving the games back and forth won’t necessarily be the fastest thing in the world, but it will be faster for me than deleting and redownloading. 1TB should be big enough to hold the games I’m actively playing.

Jasonofindy wrote:

As long as they let us move or download games to a big slow drive for storage and then move them back to the internal when we want to play them I’ll be happy. I have an external 5TB drive on my Xbox right now. Moving the games back and forth won’t necessarily be the fastest thing in the world, but it will be faster for me than deleting and redownloading. 1TB should be big enough to hold the games I’m actively playing.

I am a little surprised they haven't moved to some sort of smart pooled file system. Like you have 1 TB internal SSD and a slower 4 TB external HDD but the system just tells you you have 5 TB and then it moves stuff around as needed based on what you are playing using the HDD as sort of a cold storage and the SSD as active storage. Been playing a few games lately with bad load times so I am looking forward to less of that. Going to have to work on not hoarding so much stuff on my drives though. I will probably get one of the expansion drives when they are available though.

This makes me wonder, does xCloud streaming work on the console itself? So you could stream a game while waiting for it to download or just not download it at all? Apologies if this is dumb and everyone already knows the answer.

Docjoe wrote:

This makes me wonder, does xCloud streaming work on the console itself? So you could stream a game while waiting for it to download or just not download it at all? Apologies if this is dumb and everyone already knows the answer.

Not yet, but I really hope they add console support to xCloud. I do something similar to what you describe on PS4 with Playstation Now, and it's a great feature.

That would make the small SSD issue on Series S much more tolerable. A lot of times I just want to try something on Gamepass, if I could skip the download that would be great!

Totally, especially with games like Destiny or Elder Scrolls Online, where I might want to pop in for an hour every once in a while but don't want to devote 100GB+ of my HD to the game nor spend hours downloading it every time I get that itch. I used Xcloud to hop into Destiny to claim some of the drops I had received from Twitch Prime, very convenient.

Docjoe wrote:

This makes me wonder, does xCloud streaming work on the console itself? So you could stream a game while waiting for it to download or just not download it at all? Apologies if this is dumb and everyone already knows the answer.

They have used this as an example of what could be done with xCloud. Obviously hasn't been done yet but xCloud also only left beta... today? Yea today. I am really hoping for a Windows 10 xCloud Client sooner than later. Be nice to be able to fire up something at work or on my laptop and then just pick it up on my console when I get home. Specifically thinking of something like Surviving Mars.

I have decided to buy it on the payment plan - hell it is actually cheaper! - so where do I go on the 22nd when preorders go live? Anyone know?

farley3k wrote:

I have decided to buy it on the payment plan - hell it is actually cheaper! - so where do I go on the 22nd when preorders go live? Anyone know?

I suspect the payment plan options will be only directly through the Microsoftstore.com

Cool. That gives me a place to look on the 22nd. Thanks,

That, Gamestop, Walmart and I believe Best Buy. No Amazon for financing.

I'll look for a link later.

Microsoft's announcement says Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart. My assumption would be to start at the Xbox All-Access homepage. It's currently offering Xbox One X plans, but I assume it'll update for the Series X when pre-orders for that go live.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Microsoft's announcement says Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart. My assumption would be to start at the Xbox All-Access homepage. It's currently offering Xbox One X plans, but I assume it'll update for the Series X when pre-orders for that go live.

Here are the confirmed retailers worldwide. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/...

Xbox wrote:

All Access will be available in the following countries this holiday:

Australia at Telstra
Canada at EB Games
Denmark at Elgiganten
Finland at Gigantti
France at FNAC
New Zealand at Spark
Norway at Elkjøp
Poland at Media Expert
South Korea at SK Telecom
Sweden at Elgiganten
UK at GAME and Smyths Toys
United States at Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart

In the US, Xbox All Access will be available at more retailers than before with the addition of GameStop, Microsoft Store, Target, and Walmart. We will share specific launch dates for all markets and retailers as we get closer to launch.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Microsoft's announcement says Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart. My assumption would be to start at the Xbox All-Access homepage. It's currently offering Xbox One X plans, but I assume it'll update for the Series X when pre-orders for that go live.

This is where I'll be checking. I frequently checked the All Access page the end of last year, because I was considering getting a One with the auto-upgrade feature All Access offers. In the end the consoles were generally out of stock or too high priced, so I never pulled the trigger, but the links off that page worked previously and I assume they'll be working again shortly.

It's not really cheaper to do the subscription. You can often find deals on the gamepass. For example, you can get a 3month card at CDkeys right now for $29. If you bought 2 years worth right now you'd save about $120.

True, but then you would be guilty of giving money to CDKeys.

True. It is not cheaper if you find a deal on the GamePass subscription. However it is cheaper than if you paid the regular price.

There is also something nice about being able to pay it out over time versus a big hit all at once. I am 100% planning to go the All Access route.

LeapingGnome wrote:

True, but then you would be guilty of giving money to CDKeys.

Is CDkeys bad? I thought they were a legit company.

The other downfall to the subscription is you are locked in to 2 years of gamepass. If you get a year into it and find your not really playing any of the games you are stuck with another year whereas without the subcription you could just cancel for a while until more games are added that you want to play.

pizzaddict wrote:

The other downfall to the subscription is you are locked in to 2 years of gamepass. If you get a year into it and find your not really playing any of the games you are stuck with another year whereas without the subcription you could just cancel for a while until more games are added that you want to play.

Very true but I have had Game Pass for about 2 years already so I am not to worried. Others might be but not me.

Although I have to say if someone doesn't find Red Dead Redemption 2, and the Witcher 3 to be worth getting Game Pass...well I am not sure what could convince them to subscribe.

pizzaddict wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

True, but then you would be guilty of giving money to CDKeys.

Is CDkeys bad? I thought they were a legit company.

They're a grey market seller, meaning they re-sell keys of unknown origin. Sometimes it's people selling spare keys from things like video cards, but sometimes it's keys that were stolen directly or purchased with stolen credit cards and the like. CDKeys kinda turns a blind eye to all of it.

And they are known to buy bulk keys in a low cost region and resell them in a high cost region, depriving devs of revenue. If you want to support the people that make your games, don’t buy from CDKeys.

Rykin wrote:

There is also something nice about being able to pay it out over time versus a big hit all at once. I am 100% planning to go the All Access route.

Heck, there's real actual value in holding onto your money longer. That's why subscriptions tend to offer a discount if you give them more money up front--they get value from getting the money sooner. And that's why loans and financing deals often charge interest, because they have to make up for getting your money later.

At this point I'm almost sold on the installment plan. I just need to figure out if it includes PC access to Game Pass as well before I make my decision on how to buy.

Anybody know if the Game Pass 2 year plan that comes with the system is tied to your account somehow? I've got >2.5 years left on my current sub. I'm worried if I do All-Access, I'll get the coupon, and forget to apply it in ~1.5 years when I'd be able to add it back to the full 3 years of max subscription (unless they changed that limit?).

I was considering doing All Access and gifting the Game Pass 2 year sub to a family member.

Vargen wrote:

At this point I'm almost sold on the installment plan. I just need to figure out if it includes PC access to Game Pass as well before I make my decision on how to buy.

It was advertised as "Game Pass Ultimate", which includes PC Game Pass.

Thanks for the info on CDkeys. I had looked it up online and everything I saw said they were legit.