The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are scheduled to launch worldwide on November 10th, but it seems at least one lucky fan has already gotten their hands on the cheaper variant.
Starting at just £250, the Series S is best described as the budget version of Microsoft's next-gen console. While it boasts a lot of the power you'd expect and want from a next-gen bit of kit, some concessions have obviously been made to keep the price low compared to the Series X. The cheaper console features around 4 teraflops of GPU performance and 512GB of storage, for example - which is considerably less than the Xbox Series X's 12 teraflops of GPU performance and around 1TB of internal storage.
Of course this is reflected in the price of both consoles, and those of us who chose the Series S have likely made our peace with those lower specs. With that said, there's no getting around the fact most of us already thought that 512GB would prove a little tight for a next-gen console... and it turns out that the usable storage on the Xbox Series S could considerably less. 364GB, to be precise.
This is according to spead20, who claims to have received his Xbox Series S early, having ordered it from a Canadian retailer called The Source. Having spent some time with the hardware, they've been answering burning questions over on Reddit, where he also confirmed the console features "364GB for games and apps".
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As others have pointed out, that's less than ideal given the ballooning size of video game installs these days. A game like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare alone would take up close to a third of the console's total storage, and while Call Of Duty games are obviously on the more extreme end of the install spectrum, fans are raising concerns about how many games the Series S will be able to take before it becomes necessary to splash out for a pricey storage expansion.
"This is ultimately why I went for the Series X," remarked one user. "I will be on 1080p for quite a while, but I want to have my game on the console's SSD and I don't feel like dropping $220 on expansion."
"For a console manufacturer who's main selling value is being able to access a vast library of games through game pass, this doesn't sound like such a great idea," argued another.
Take this with a pinch of salt for now. While it is likely that users might be getting their hands on the console with less than a week to go before launch, we can't say for certain that spead20 really does have the Series S in their possession. Although 364GB would be an odd number to just pluck from thin air, wouldn't it?
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If 364GB really is the magic number, it's also not the end of the world. The Series S is the cheaper console for a reason, after all, and it's likely that install sizes on Series S will be smaller than the ones on Series X. it's also worth noting that similar concerns have recently been raised about the PS5, which is reported to feature around 664GB of usable storage.
Featured Image Credit: MicrosoftTopics: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S