Xbox Series X and Series S

Industry rumors of new Xbox hardware had started as early as June 2018, with Microsoft's Phil Spencer confirming they were "deep into architecturing the next Xbox consoles" at that time.[4] The hardware was believed to be a family of devices under the codename "Scarlett", including a low-cost version following a similar scheme with the Xbox One family of consoles, with major emphasis on game streaming and backward compatibility.[4][5] By March 2019, further industry rumors had led to speculation of two consoles under the Scarlett family under codenames "Anaconda" and the low-cost "Lockhart" version.[6]

Microsoft confirmed Project Scarlett at its E3 2019 press conference.[7] Microsoft said they wanted a "soft" transition from Xbox One to Scarlett, with Scarlett supporting backward compatibility with all games and most hardware supported on the Xbox One.[8] During a presentation at The Game Awards 2019, Microsoft officially revealed the design of Scarlett and its branding, "Xbox Series X", as well as a late-2020 release date.[9][10] Following the event, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that Xbox Series X constituted an entry in a fourth generation of Xbox hardware, which will be branded simply as "Xbox" with no subtitle.[11]

Microsoft planned to go into detail into the hardware specifications and launch games for the Series X at both the 2020 Game Developers Conference (GDC) and E3 2020, but both events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft scheduled online presentations over the same planned days in March 2020,[12] while the company will schedule its planned E3 presentation at a later time.[13] Detailed specifications were presented by Microsoft, Digital Foundry and Austin Evans of Overclock Media on March 16, 2020.[14][15][16] Starting in May and running until launch, Microsoft planned to have additional digital events around the Xbox Series X and its games as part of an "Xbox 20/20" series.[17] This included an Xbox Games Showcase on July 23, 2020, featuring games principally from its first-party Xbox Game Studios.[18]

On July 16, 2020, Microsoft announced that it had ended production of the Xbox One X and all-digital version of the Xbox One S in preparation for the new products.[19]

The existence of the Xbox Series S had been speculated prior to the E3 2019 reveal based on a "Project Lockhart" that accompanied Scarlett, a second lower-end console.[20][21] Confirmation of the Xbox Series S naming was affirmed through early Xbox hardware accessories that some had been able to purchase.[22][23] Microsoft officially announced the Series S console on September 8, 2020, revealing that it would also be released alongside the Series X in November 2020.[24] Microsoft pointed out that the Series S had been discretely placed in the background of previous Xbox announcement videos featuring Phil Spencer during July 2020.[25]

Xbox head Phil Spencer stated that Microsoft was prioritizing high frame rates and faster load times as a priority over higher resolutions, which the Series X achieves via the better-matched capabilities of the CPU and GPU.[29]

The Xbox Series X is powered by a custom 7 nm AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores running at a nominal 3.8 GHz, or when simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is used, at 3.6 GHz. One CPU core is dedicated to the underlying operating system.[15] The graphics processing unit is also a custom unit based on AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture. It has a total of 56 compute units (CUs) with 3584 cores, with 52 CUs and 3328 cores enabled, and will be running at a fixed 1.825 GHz. This unit is capable of 12 teraflops of computational power.[30][15] The unit ships with 16GB of GDDR6 SDRAM, with 10GB running at 560GB/s primarily to be used with the graphics system and the other 6GB at 336GB/s to be used for the other computing functions. After accounting for the system software, approximately 13.5GB of memory will be available for games and other applications, with the system software only drawing from the slower pool.[15] The Xbox Series X target performance is to render games at 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, with the console being about four times as powerful as the Xbox One X. The Series X can support up to 120 frames per second, and can render up to 8K resolution.[15]

The Xbox Series X's console form is designed to be unobtrusive and minimalistic. It has a 15.1 cm × 15.1 cm (5.9 in × 5.9 in) footprint and is 30.1 cm (11.9 in) high and weighs 4.45 kg (9.8 lb);[16] while configured in this vertical orientation, the unit can also be used on its side. Its forward-facing features present only the main power button and an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive.[15] The top of the unit is a single powerful fan. Spencer stated that the console is as quiet as Xbox One X.[31] The Series X includes an HDMI 2.1 output, the storage expansion slot, three USB 3.2 ports, and an ethernet port.[32][15] The console does not include an infrared blaster or HDMI pass-through like the Xbox One line, supporting HDMI-CEC instead. An earlier leak had suggested a TOSLINK port for digital audio, but this was eliminated in the final design.[16][33] However, the console still has an IR receiver integrated into its controller pairing button next to the front USB port.[34]

The Xbox Series S with controller

The Xbox Series S is comparable in its hardware to the Xbox Series X, similar to how the Xbox One S relates to the Xbox One X, but has less processing power. While it runs the same CPU with slightly slower clock frequencies, it uses a slower GPU, a custom RDNA2 with 20 CUs at 1.55 GHz for 4 TFLOPS, compared to 12 TFLOPS of the Series X. It ships with 10 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD storage unit with a raw input/output throughput of 2.4GB/s,[35] and does not include any optical disc drive, thus requiring the user to gain all software from digital distribution. It is intended to render games nominally at 1440p, with support for a 4K upscaler, at 60 frames per second, although it can go as high at 120 frames per second at this resolution.[24] Selected games can support native 4K resolution output on the Series S, such as Ori and the Will of the Wisps.[36] Otherwise, the console has the same functions as the Xbox Series X, including ports, expansions, and game support.[24][37]

Microsoft designed the Series S to easily fit inside of a small bag or backpack for portability and travel usage.[38] The Series S unit is about 60% smaller by volume than the Series X, measuring 275 by 151 by 63.5 millimetres (10.83 in × 5.94 in × 2.50 in) in its vertical orientation. In this orientation, its large side surface features the major exhaust port for active air cooling, similar to the top surface of the Series X; additional vents are then located on the top of the Series S. Like the Series X, the front of the Series S features one USB port and a controller pairing button with an integrated IR receiver. The rear of the console includes the power connector, one HDMI port, two additional USB ports, and an Ethernet port. Like the Series X, the Series S can also be placed horizontally with the exhaust port facing upward to maintain airflow. The Series S will launch in a matte white case along with a matching controller, distinguishing it from the matte black that the Series X will use.[39][40]

The Xbox Velocity Architecture logo

Both consoles use a new storage solution, the Xbox Velocity Architecture, that includes hardware and software components to improve transfer speeds within the console, reduce the size of digital downloads, and give developers more flexibility.[41] Central to this is the internal storage, a custom NVM Express (NVMe) SSD. On the Series X, this is a 1 TB SSD (802 GB available)[42] with a raw input/output throughput of 2.4 GB/s. An on-board compression/decompression block includes both the industry standard zlib decompression algorithm and a proprietary BCPack algorithm geared for game textures, and gives a combined throughput as high as 4.8 GB/s.[15][41] Within the software, a new DirectStorage API within DirectX allows developers to fine-tune priority to input/output aspects with other processing threads. The software provides sampler feedback streaming that aids in loading multiple textures in segments to deal with level of detail rendering rather than having to read these textures as a whole before using them.[41] The Series S will include a 512 GB SSD (364 GB available)[42] with similar custom hardware and software specifications.[35] All SSD storage on the architecture uses PCI Express 4.0.[32]

Developers at The Coalition found that without any changes to their code, Gears 5 loaded four times faster on Xbox Series X than Xbox One X due to the higher throughput on memory and storage, and would be able to increase this further once they incorporated the new DirectStorage API routines.[43]

The consoles will support external storage through a proprietary SSD expansion card inserted into the back of the console, which will be manufactured exclusively by Seagate Technology on launch and limited to a 1 TB size, though a 2 TB version is planned later.[44] As with Xbox One, the consoles will also support external USB storage, but only backward compatible games (which can also be transferred directly from an Xbox One console) will be able to run directly from external USB storage. Xbox Series S and Series X-native games must be stored on the internal SSD or an expansion card in order to be played, but can be moved to a USB storage device to save disk space for other games..[45][32][15]

Both the Series X and Series S support real-time ray-tracing and support the new features of the HDMI 2.1 standard including variable refresh rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) that are currently being incorporated into newer televisions.[15][10][46] The console will have dedicated audio hardware acceleration.[47] A feature called "audio ray tracing" will use the graphics ray tracing processors to process spatial audio in the same manner to improve the audio immersion for the player.[48]

Another goal for Microsoft is reducing the effects of input latency to improve responsiveness, adding support for HDMI 2.1 Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate features, and "dynamic latency input" technology—a new input pathway that allows developers to incorporate potential controller lag into their games.[10][49]

Both consoles support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies.[50]

The following table is a comparison of the major components of the fourth generation of Xbox consoles.[51]

Model 1914 controller in 'Shock Blue', with share button approximately in the middle of the controller face.

Both the Series X and Series S ship with an updated version of the wireless Xbox One controller, which was aimed to be more ergonomic to fit a larger range of hand sizes. They include all the same key buttons as the past controllers: two analog joysticks that can be depressed, a circle pad, four action buttons, two system buttons ("View" and "Menu"), the main Xbox home button, two grip triggers (left and right) and two shoulder buttons (left and right). The new controller adds a "Share" button alongside the "View" and "Menu" buttons, which is used to record and share video clips or screenshots of gameplay.[53] The user will be able to take a screenshot with a single press of the Share button, while holding down the Share button will start to record gameplay, and after either, can be shared to social media or their Xbox game feed.[54]

Microsoft found that by aiming the size to fit an eight-year-old's hands, they were able to make the design fit a larger section of the population, and thus features more sculpted grips, and reducing and rounding the trigger buttons.[53] The D-pad is a new concave design that senior console designer Ryan Whitaker said was a means to merge the normal D-pad style on the standard Xbox One controller and the version on the Elite variant to accommodate a range of playstyles.[53] Small tactile dot patterns have been added to the buttons to help players orient fingers on the controls.[53] The controller will continue to use two AA batteries, though a rechargeable battery pack will be available as an accessory. Microsoft found from focus group studies that players were split nearly 50/50 on the use of batteries versus recharging and thus gave the controller the option to use either.[28]

The controller uses the same wireless protocol introduced by the Xbox One, and is backward compatible with existing Xbox One consoles. Existing Xbox One controllers will also be compatible with Xbox Series X.[53][49][55] The new controller also supports the Bluetooth Low Energy standard allowing it to pair with mobile devices and other hardware supporting that standard, and will have internal storage to remember those connections.[53] The new controller uses a standard USB-C charging port for its battery.[53]

Spencer said that the Xbox Series X will likely not have immediate virtual reality (VR) support at launch, and that they expect that any VR support will be based on the Windows Mixed Reality components contained within the console's Windows 10 components, but was otherwise not a focus of the console's development prior to release.[56]

Microsoft has stated that Xbox Series X and Series S would support all games playable on Xbox One (excluding those that require the Kinect sensor),[1] including Xbox 360 and original Xbox console games currently supported through backward compatibility on the Xbox One, thus allowing the console to support four generations of games.[8][24] To achieve this level of compatibility, Microsoft announced they would no longer be bringing any additional Xbox 360 or original Xbox games into the Xbox One backward compatibility program in June 2019, and instead using their manpower to make sure these older games were playable on the Xbox Series X.[78] Backward compatibility is a launch feature, with Microsoft having put more than 500,000 man-hours in validating thousands of games from the supported Xbox One library;[79][80] Spencer said in December 2019 that he himself had been helping to test backward compatibility games.[81] As Microsoft neared launch, they reopened the means for players to suggest additional games to add to backward compatibility, stating "Resurrecting titles from history often presents a complex mix of technical and licensing challenges, but the team is committed to doing everything we can to continue to preserve our collective gaming legacy."[82]

It is possible for advanced graphic processes options not originally programmed into these older games to be worked into the game when played on the console, such as automated High-dynamic-range rendering (HDR) support using machine learning, framerate doubling, 16x anisotropic filtering, and resolution upscale.[15][83] Work done by the Xbox Advanced Technology Group prior to launch was focused on how far into the backward-compatibility library they could take these improvements including into original Xbox games, adding in features like HDR or improving the framerate of games that may have been programmed to be locked at a specific framerate.[84] Backward compatible games are supported under the Quick Resume feature as well.[85] Cloud saves can be used to migrate from Xbox One, and Microsoft stated that it would also add free cloud saves to the Xbox 360 so it can be migrated to a Series S/X console as well.[83][86]

Xbox Series S can play Xbox One games with improved performance, texture filtering, and auto HDR support, but does not support Xbox One X-specific enhancements.[87] Microsoft is providing development tools for developers to check the performance of their Xbox One games on the Series X and S consoles, which can suggest optimizations "as easy as changing three lines of code" to support the improvements in backward compatibility.[88]

Ahead of the Xbox Series X/S's release, Spencer reiterated Microsoft's stance that they will not release exact sales numbers for the new consoles. Spencer stated that "I know it seems manipulative and I'll apologise for that but I don’t want my team's focus on [console sales]."[106]

According to Microsoft, the Xbox Series X and Series S were the biggest launch of an Xbox console ever, with more consoles sold in its first 24 hours, in more countries, than any Xbox before. The Xbox Series S also added the highest percentage of new players for any Xbox console at launch. Previously, the Xbox One had sold more than one million units within the first 24 hours of its launch.[107] There were shortages of supply for both models of the Xbox console.[108] Spencer stated that they had gotten a later start on manufacturing the console in mid-2020 as they were waiting for key AMD chip technology to be in place which reduced the availability of supply at launch, and though they had reached full production capacity by launch, they were still rushing to meet sales demand, as well as having made projections on proportions of Series X versus Series S sales.[109] Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart has stated that shortages were likely to persist through the first quarter of 2021, as their supply chain was expected to be up to full capacity by the second quarter of the calendar year.[108] The shortage of supply at launch led to price gouging and scalping on Internet marketplace sites, with consoles going for as high as US$5,000.[110]

Throughout the system's first week of release in Japan, 16,247 Xbox Series X systems were sold, while 4,287 Xbox Series S systems were sold throughout the same week. A combined total of 20,534 Xbox Series X and Series S systems were sold in Japan throughout the week.[111]

Microsoft continued to state that the Xbox Series X and Series S launch was its biggest console launch ever on reporting its quarterly report for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, with "the most devices ever sold in a launch month".[112] According to industry analysis Daniel Ahmed, combined sales of the Xbox Series X and Series S were about 3.5 million through the end of 2020.[113]