In December of last year, Microsoft surprised Xbox players by unveiling their next-gen platform, the Xbox Series X, and revealing that this new console would be launching at some point this holiday. What we didn't know, however, was that Microsoft would offer an entry-level version.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't until September of this year that Microsoft officially announced the Xbox Series S, which is a console that will play every next-gen game that will be released on the Xbox Series X; the differences between the two are quite small.
Microsoft's Vice President of Gaming Phil Spencer has even revealed that loading times are faster on Xbox Series S. Actually, he also believes that their low-end console could even end up outselling the Xbox Series X, as it offers pretty much the same experience but at a lower cost.
While the concept of "low-end", "budget version", and even "entry-level" may have a bit of a negative connotation to some people, Microsoft is really betting on the Xbox Series S, and they have every reason to put their money on the entry-level version of the Xbox Series X.
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Xbox system architect Adrew Goossen has revealed why it was so important for them to give consumers an entry-level next-gen console like the Xbox Series S right at the beginning of this new generation of gaming instead of half-way through.
"Series S has been very impactful for us. As we design our new consoles for the new generation, we're very much looking forward through the generation to be thinking ahead - like, how does this work? - and that's why we got to two consoles at the same time.
"We are facing a big change in how consoles are designed. I believe when we first started building the original Xbox 360 - the smallest one without the HDD - that cost us about $460. By the end of the generation it cost us around $120 - and that cost reduction path was driven principally by silicon cost reduction," Goossen explained.
He then added: "And so that was another one of the reasons why we felt that we really had to do Series S at the beginning because we had to design for the future. For the first time, we had to have the entry-level console at the beginning.
"Previous generations were kind of easy because at the beginning of the generation, you make something really expensive - put as much silicon and as much performance as you could into it - then you would just ride the cost reduction curves down to mass market prices. That's not there anymore."
Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have just become available, so it is a little too soon to predict how each of these consoles will perform in the long run. Microsoft has really taken a risk releasing two next-gen consoles, and it looks like this could end up becoming the norm for them; it wouldn't be terrible if Sony and Nintendo embraced this concept too. Just saying.
Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are currently available.