Key Takeaways
- The Xbox Series S and X will get a $50 discount on Black Friday at certain US retailers, making the Series S a neat $249.99.
- Some games struggle to run smoothly on Series S, with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 devs citing RAM issues.
- With that said, the Series S offers an affordable way to play modern games.
With Black Friday right around the corner, Microsoft has announced that certain retailers in the US will offer a $50 discount on both the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X and a $10 discount on some wireless controllers. Microsoft’s Xbox Series S has been on the market for a little over four years now, and since then, it’s been the affordable option for modern gaming.
Throughout the years, the Xbox Series S has had its fair share of ups and downs. Being the less powerful younger brother of the Series X, many players have come to expect inferior performance from it in various titles. And while news like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle potentially running at 60 FPS on the Series S help disprove this idea, there have been other instances proving it to be true.
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Recently, Microsoft announced that both the Xbox Series S (512 GB) and the Series X would get a $50 discount on Black Friday at certain retailers in the US, dropping the price of the former to a neat $249.99. It’s also been confirmed that many wireless Xbox controllers will see a $10 price drop and that Xbox Design Lab will be offering free engravings with all purchases until December 5. While these savings are attractive, it’s undeniable that the less powerful variant of Xbox’s Series family has its drawbacks, as the teams behind titles like Dune: Awakening have called development for the Series S a challenge.
Xbox Series S to Receive a $50 Discount for Black Friday
As a result of such challenges, many developers and mod creators have taken it upon themselves to find new ways to make the Series S run games better despite its hardware limitations. Recently, the Creation Kit 2 for the Xbox version of Starfield was released, which allows players to tweak the game to their liking. This is a great option for players who don’t mind lowering the title’s graphics considerably in order to achieve 120 FPS, even while playing on the Series S.
That said, not every developer has managed to work around this console’s hardware limitations, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s developers have said this factor impacted the game’s size due to the Series S’ 10 GB of RAM. This makes it much harder to create a game as vast and ambitious while guaranteeing decent performance across the board.
Warhorse Studios’ upcoming title isn’t the only one that’s been affected by the Series S’ weaker hardware, as, according to reports by its developer, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl currently runs at 25 FPS on this console amid optimization efforts. And while GSC Game World has said it intends to release the game running at least at a stable 30 FPS in every part of the map, it’s undeniably a challenge. With all that said, the Xbox Series S was never meant to be the pinnacle of modern console gaming, but rather an affordable option to play modern titles at the cost of a few compromises, and in that regard, it truly shines. For the attractive price of $249.99, the Xbox Series S is definitely worth looking into this Black Friday.
Xbox Series S
Released alongside the Xbox Series X, the Xbox Series S is Microsoft’s budget option for the ninth console generation. Designed exclusively for digital gaming, the Series S can run the same games as the Series X, albeit at a potentially lower resolution and frame rate.
- Brand
- Microsoft
- Original Release Date
- November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
- $299
- Weight
- 4.25 LBS