This Major Xbox Series S Leak Is Turning Heads
With mysterious white controllers recently ending up in the hands of customers, the existence of the Xbox Series S has all but been confirmed. Even still, there is plenty that fans don't know about the true power of Xbox's long-rumored all-digital console. However, a new leaks appears to have listed most of the specs for the upcoming system, and some people aren't exactly happy with what the Series S could be.
What's peculiar about this apparent leak is how it came about. The specs for the Xbox Series S were included at the tail end of an article from TweakTown describing the long process of creating the Xbox Series X's solid-state drive. The rest of the article feels more or less unrelated to the Series S, so it almost seems like a mistake was made somewhere. This could also have been TweakTown's sly way of getting the information out there.
As for the specs themselves, they appear to show a few different ways in which the Series S performs at a much lower standard than the Series X. For one thing, the Series S apparently has 10 GB of RAM next to the Series X's 16 GB, as well as 20 computing units (or CUs) compared to the Series X's 52 CUs. This last tidbit regarding the CUs of the Series S was provided by The Verge's Tom Warren, who seemed to believe that the rest of the specs listed by TweakTown were right on the money. In other words, it's very likely that the Series S will run slower than the Xbox Series X.
Also, while the specs list the Series X as being capable of 8K gaming, the Series S will not be able to muster that. It will still reportedly aim for a healthy 1440p and 60FPS, but that falls quite short of the Series X's target of 4K and 60FPS.
The lack of a Blu-Ray drive in the Series S is not surprising, but it has raised quite a few questions regarding backwards compatibility. At least one fan on Twitter asked how their ownership of a last-gen game could possibly be verified without a disc drive. To this, Tom Warren responded that there are rumors of some kind of mail-in service provided by Xbox that would allow gamers to make those upgrades. This, however, has also not been confirmed by Microsoft.
There is also some peculiar wording in the breakdown that almost sounds exclusionary when it comes to providing games for the Xbox Series S. As one fan on Twitter pointed out, the compatibility specs for the Xbox Series X mentions specifically that it supports Xbox Series X games. Meanwhile, that exact verbiage appears to be missing on the Series S side of things. This has led some people to believe that the Xbox Series S will actually be incapable of running certain Series X exclusive games.
If that is the case, then it would seem to completely contradict Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer's previous comments regarding console exclusivity in gaming. He told GamesIndustry.biz back in September that the idea of console exclusives ran "completely counter to what gaming is about." Then again, Xbox has unveiled multiple Series X timed exclusives since then, seemingly breaking that very promise to its fans.
Despite the confusing wording in the list of specs, it's highly unlikely that the Series S would be unable to play Series X games. Supposedly, the entire purpose of the Xbox Series S is to provide a budget-conscious alternative to the Series X, which would mean that it would have to be able to provide many of the same entertainment options. It may end up packing less power than the Series X, but it will more than likely support all of the same games, much like the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition vs. the standard PS5. It's also worth noting that the specs do in fact list "Next-Gen support" as one of the features of the Series S. Still, it's the vague wording that has some people concerned.
Again, these specs should be taken with a grain of salt. For one thing, it's still entirely unclear where TweakTown received the information listed. Despite being co-signed by a reporter from The Verge, there is always the chance that this information could prove to be outdated by the time the Xbox Series S is officially announced. Hopefully that announcement comes in the very near future. At this point, pretty much everyone knows that the Series S exists. All that's left now is for Microsoft to give everyone the information they're clamoring for: price points, release dates, and official specs.