Xbox Series S
- Manufacturer
- Microsoft
- Released
- 2020
- Generation
- Gen 9
- Type
- Home
- Launch price
- $299
About Xbox Series S
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in Microsoft's Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Series X and lower-end Series S are part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, which also includes Sony's PlayStation 5, released the same month.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Library & collector facts
Lineage
Pricing
Launch price (2020)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $299
- 🇬🇧 GBP
- £449
Controller
Xbox Wireless Controller (all revisions)
Launch titles & exclusives
(Shares all Series X launch titles — same software platform): Assassin's Creed Valhalla · Dirt 5 · Gears Tactics · Yakuza: Like a Dragon · Watch Dogs: Legion
None standard; various bundles included Fortnite + Rocket League digital codes
Shares all Series X exclusives (cross-generation development requirement): Halo Infinite · Forza Horizon 5 · Forza Motorsport · Starfield · Hellblade II · Avowed · Indiana Jones and the Great Circle · Hi-Fi Rush (originally) · Sea of Thieves · Pentiment
Still in production (active platform)
Carbon Black Series S (2022, 1TB); limited regional variants; specific Halo Infinite Series S not produced
Hardware specs
- Os
- Xbox System Software
- Cpu
- Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2, Series X: 3.8 Hertz, GHz, 3.66 GHz with Simultaneous multithreading, SMT, Series S: 3.6 GHz, 3.4 GHz with SMT
- Gpu
- Custom AMD Radeon RDNA 2 architecture, Series X: 52 CUs at 1.825 Hertz, GHz, 12.155 TFLOPS, Series S: 20 CUs at 1.565 GHz, 4.006 TFLOPS
- Ram
- GDDR6 SDRAM, Series X: 10 GB/320-bit & 6 GB/192-bit (16 GB total), Series S: 8 GB/128-bit & 2 GB/32-bit (10 GB total)
- Power
- Built-in power supply (both consoles)
- Sound
- Custom Project Acoustics 3-D Audio, Dolby Atmos, DTS (sound system)#DTS:X, DTS:X, 7.1 surround sound
- Weight
- Series X: 9.8 lb, Series S: 4.25 lb
- Dimensions
- Series X: 15.1 × 15.1 × 30.1 cm, Series S: 15.1 × 6.5 × 27.5 cm
- Display Output
- All models: 720p, 1080p, 1440p, 4K resolution, 4K
- Storage Internal
- Western Digital, WD SN530 NVM Express, NVMe Solid-state drive, SSD w/ custom ASIC supporting PCIe 4.0 x2, Series X: 1 TB (Black and Halo Edition) / 2 TB (Galaxy Black Special Edition), Series X All Digital: 1 TB (Robot White), Series S: 512 GB (Robot White) / 1 TB (Carbon Black/Robot White)
Hardware revisions
- Original Xbox Series S(2020)
4 TFLOPS RDNA 2 GPU (1/3 the Series X), 1440p target, 512GB SSD, $299 launch — the 'budget next-gen' positioning that defined the platform
- Carbon Black Series S 1TB(2022)
doubled SSD capacity, $349
Launch colorways & special editions
- Carbon Black Series S 1TB (2022)
- Gilded Hunter Bundle (Fortnite, Rocket League content)
- Starter Pack Bundle (Game Pass trial)
- Holiday gift bundles
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- none
- Custom firmware
- No public CFW; Dev Mode same as full Series family
Reception & legacy
Mixed — praised for the $299 price as a 'next-gen on a budget' value pitch; criticized by developers (notably Larian's Swen Vincke and others) for the 10GB RAM constraint that requires every game to support split-memory-budget builds
Larian Studios publicly fought with Microsoft over Baldur's Gate 3 Series S split-screen support in 2023 (Microsoft later relaxed feature-parity rules); developer complaints about the platform holding back Series X versions; some publishers cite it as the reason Xbox has had cross-gen-only releases through 2024
Pioneered the 'budget next-gen tier' that Sony has not matched; Game Pass + Series S became the affordable on-ramp to current-gen gaming that arguably defined Xbox's market position this generation; controversial among developers but commercially significant
References
More from Microsoft
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Xbox Series S in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the Xbox Series S, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
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