With less than a week before pre-orders open for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, many players are wondering if they should invest in the next generation of Xbox consoles. Even though the Xbox Series S is only $300, some players have been skeptical as to whether or not the investment is worth upgrading from their Xbox One S. To rid players of this skepticism, Xbox has revealed a new trailer showing the difference in load times between the Xbox Series S and the Xbox One S.
In this new trailer, Xbox uses Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds to showcase Xbox Series S' faster loading times. With the game pulled up on both an Xbox Series S and an Xbox One S, the trailer has both consoles start from the main menu before selecting "continue" simultaneously and starting a timer. While it takes the Xbox One S a little over 53 seconds to bring up the player's save point, the Xbox Series S manages to load the save file in a blistering 11 seconds.
These load times are likely due to the Xbox Series S' 512 GB SSD, which has been a matter of contention within the gaming community. At 512 GB, players have been worried as to if they will need to be constantly managing their storage on the new console with many games having huge file sizes. However, Xbox has since clarified saying that it is expecting Series S games to be about 30% smaller than Series X games, freeing up more space on the console's drive.
With it being the cheapest of the next-gen consoles and its quick load times in mind, Xbox Series S seems to be a force to be reckoned with. Players also seem to be attracted to the hardware for its physical specifications as well. Not only is the Series S 60% smaller than its next-gen big brother, it has been reported that the console will weigh less than half of the Xbox Series X at 4.25 lbs.
It seems like Xbox's message with the Xbox Series S is to let everyone play in the next generation with as few barriers to entry as possible. One of the promises the console developer has made to ensure that's possible is allowing players to use their existing Xbox One controllers on both the Series S and Series X. Tom Warren from The Verge recently tweeted stating that Microsoft will be adding the Xbox Series X controller's Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) protocols to the Xbox One controller firmware in a patch later this year.
While nothing is guaranteed until players get their hands on, Xbox Series S seems like a great opportunity for players to get in on the next generation of consoles at a low price. However, players will likely have to wait until it releases in November to see if it actually is a suitable half-step from the Xbox One to the Xbox Series X.
Xbox Series S releases on November 10.