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 architecting the next Xbox consoles at that time. The hardware was believed to be a family of devices under the codename Scarlett, including a low-cost version following a similar scheme as the Xbox One family of consoles. By March 2019, further industry rumors had led to speculation of two consoles within the Scarlett family under codenames Anaconda and the low-cost Lockhart version. Microsoft confirmed Project Scarlett at its E3 2019 press conference. 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. 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. After the event, a Microsoft spokesperson said Xbox Series X was a fourth generation of Xbox hardware, which will be branded simply Xbox with no subtitle.
When Microsoft's Xbox development team started work on the successor to the Xbox One consoles around 2016, they had already envisioned the need to have two console versions, similar to their Xbox One X and Xbox One S models. For the high-end console, the Xbox Series X, Microsoft's primary goals were to at least double the graphical performance of the Xbox One X as measured by its floating point operations per second. They also aimed to increase CPU performance four-fold compared to Xbox One X while maintaining the same acoustic performance from the Xbox One consoles. As the engineers collected power requirements to meet these specifications, they saw these parts would draw a large amount of internal power, approximately 315 W, and generate significant heat. This led to the decision to split the components onto two separate circuit boards. One board housed the CPU, GPU, memory, and power regulators, while a second board acted as a Southbridge for slower input/output functions. The boards mounted on opposite sides of an aluminum chassis helped create air channels for cooling. The remaining components, including the heat sink, electric shielding, power supply, optical drive, and cooling fan, were arranged in a Tetris-like fashion according to principal designer Chris Kujawski.
Both consoles use a new storage solution called the Xbox Velocity Architecture that includes hardware and software components to improve transfer speeds within the console. Central to this is the internal storage, a custom NVM Express SSD. On the Series X, this is a 1 TB SSD with 802 GB available and 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. It gives a combined throughput as high as 4.8 GB/s. Within the software, a new DirectStorage API within DirectX allows developers to fine-tune priority to input/output aspects with other processing threads. 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 higher throughput on memory and storage. They would be able to increase this further once they incorporated the new DirectStorage API routines.
Both the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles launched on the 10th of November 2020, with the Series X priced at $599 and the Series S priced at $299. Microsoft affirmed that 31 games would be available at launch, including those from its Xbox Game Studios and from other third-party publishers. While Halo Infinite had been planned as a launch title when the Series X console was first revealed, Microsoft and 343 Industries opted to delay its release until after the console's launch due to production issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon reveal of the Xbox Series X's vertical form factor, a popular Internet meme compared the design to a mini refrigerator. In the lead-up to the console's release, Microsoft manufactured a limited number of refrigerators modeled after the Xbox Series X exterior. Some were distributed to celebrities like Snoop Dogg and iJustine, and others were offered as part of promotional contests. At launch, critics praised the new console hardware but remained hesitant of the console's true power
due to the lack of any console exclusives.
Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series X/S was the biggest Xbox console launch, with more consoles sold in more countries in its first 24 hours than any previous Xbox. The record was previously held by the Xbox One, which sold more than one million units at launch. Daniel Ahmed, a Niko Partners analyst, has provided estimates for the worldwide sell-through of the Xbox Series X/S. The combined worldwide sales of the Xbox Series X and Series S would have reached 3.5 million by the 31st of December 2020. Sales would increase to 6.5 million by the 30th of June 2021, outpacing the 5.7 million units sold of the Xbox One in the same timeframe. The 2020, 2023 global chip shortage prevented Microsoft from producing enough Xbox consoles to meet demand. Upon launch, both models almost immediately sold out across all retailers and in all markets. This led to scalping on Internet marketplace sites, with consoles going for as high as $899. Spencer said that they had gotten a later start
on manufacturing the console in mid-2020 as they were waiting for key AMD chip technology.
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Common questions
When was the Xbox Series X officially revealed to the public?
Microsoft officially revealed the design and branding of the Xbox Series X during a presentation at The Game Awards 2019. This event also confirmed a late 2020 release date for the console family.
What are the specific internal specifications of the Xbox Series X storage system?
The Xbox Series X features a custom NVM Express SSD with 802 GB available space out of 1 TB total capacity. It delivers a raw input/output throughput of 2.4 GB/s which reaches up to 4.8 GB/s when using combined compression algorithms.
How much did the Xbox Series X and Series S cost upon their launch on the 10th of November 2020?
The Xbox Series X launched at $599 while the lower-cost Series S model launched at $299. Both consoles became available in stores on the 10th of November 2020 after being delayed from earlier plans due to production issues.
Why did Microsoft split the Xbox Series X components onto two separate circuit boards?
Engineers determined that meeting performance goals required parts drawing approximately 315 W of power which generated significant heat. Splitting the CPU, GPU, memory, and power regulators onto one board and the Southbridge functions onto another allowed for better cooling through air channels in the aluminum chassis.
When were the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles officially released to consumers?
Both the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles launched on the 10th of November 2020. This release date followed years of development rumors starting as early as June 2018 and official confirmation during E3 2019.