Gabe Newell Would Prefer a Xbox Series X over the PlayStation 5

erek

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"Gabe Newell and his family have been living in New Zealand since early March after the coronavirus epidemic broke out. The billionaire Valve co-founder recently featured on a local news program to promote his upcoming 'thanks for having us' event. Gabe Newell was asked about his opinions on the Xbox Series X vs the PlayStation 5 about 3 minutes into the interview. When asked which system was the best he quickly replied "the Xbox", following up when asked about his answer with "because it's better". Gabe Newell was likely referring to the arguably superior Xbox Series X specifications in most categories except storage. With both consoles launching later this year, it will be interesting to see which console comes out ahead."

https://www.techpowerup.com/270420/gabe-newell-would-prefer-a-xbox-series-x-over-the-playstation-5
 
Initially, the greater GPU horsepower of the XSX will be realized before the storage bandwidth of the PS5. After a couple years it'll be interesting to see if there's a killer app that shows off the storage benefits of the PS5
 
Gabe is console biased...already known. How is that SteamOS coming along Gabe? HL3 soon?
 
This guy's opinions are barely relevant to PC gaming let alone console gaming.
 
In terms of pure specs, I get it. However it doesn't factor in exclusive franchises or the availability of all of MS's titles on the PC.
 
Initially, the greater GPU horsepower of the XSX will be realized before the storage bandwidth of the PS5. After a couple years it'll be interesting to see if there's a killer app that shows off the storage benefits of the PS5

Just buy a computer, there's literally no reason to ever buy an xbox.
 
Just buy a computer, there's literally no reason to ever buy an xbox.

I used to think that was true, but the simple truth is most of us don't have the time to play games enough to justify dropping thousands on a pc just to play some AAA title. Since most AAA games are just console ports anyway you really are not giving up much. I can stream my xbox to my pc if I want to play from the desk, and the end game for xbox is to play your pc games on the console and console games on the pc. This is already being born out on the Xbox One. It just doesn't make sense anymore to drop a few thousand dollars more on a pc so you can play games or watch tv a few hours a week.
 
I used to think that was true, but the simple truth is most of us don't have the time to play games enough to justify dropping thousands on a pc just to play some AAA title. Since most AAA games are just console ports anyway you really are not giving up much. I can stream my xbox to my pc if I want to play from the desk, and the end game for xbox is to play your pc games on the console and console games on the pc. This is already being born out on the Xbox One. It just doesn't make sense anymore to drop a few thousand dollars more on a pc so you can play games or watch tv a few hours a week.

It depends a lot on the cost compared to your wealth. For some people it's nothing to spend a couple grand, and for some people the superior PC experience is worth a lot more than what they would get on console.

If I only get a couple hours to play every week it's not going to be on a console. I might not even play a game if that was my only option.
 
No mystery here, Valve and Microsoft have become friendlier, while Sony is busy giving Epic $250 million. Valve's Gabe Newell Credits Phil Spencer For Bringing 'Halo' to Steam. Phil Spencer is also known to visit Valve HQ on occasion.

Microsoft has been putting many of their titles on Steam, some of them have seen huge revivals to playerbase - Sea of Thieves for example. It's being compared to the Steam revival that Destiny 2 saw after breaking free of Activision/Battle.net.

Finally, consider Halo Infinite will be not only be on PC via Microsoft's own Windows store at release, but it'll be on Steam too. That's kind of unprecedented for a title they've traditionally tied to a new console launch.
 
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Why would anyone care what he thinks? He hasn't done anything remotely exciting in 435 years. He's just a dude. Nothing more.
 
Given Gabe’s general attitude towards Microsoft I am surprised that didn’t influence his decision. Unless it did and XBox still won out.
 
Given Gabe’s general attitude towards Microsoft I am surprised that didn’t influence his decision. Unless it did and XBox still won out.
His attitude 8 years ago when Windows 8 launched is no longer really relevant. The two companies have deepened their relationship more recently.
 
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No mystery here, Valve and Microsoft have become friendlier, while Sony is busy giving Epic $250 million. Phil Spencer is known to visit Valve HQ on occasion.

Microsoft has been putting many of their titles on Steam, some of them have seen huge revivals to playerbase - Sea of Thieves for example. It's being compared to the Steam revival that Destiny 2 saw after breaking free of Activision/Battle.net.

Finally, consider Halo Infinite will be not only be on PC via Microsoft's own Windows store at release, but it'll be on Steam too. That's kind of unprecedented for a title they've traditionally tied to a new console launch.

This. Also Newell had a fairly negative opinion on the PS3, even though he reversed his stance some years later. I assume the close proximity between the two probably helps as well.

Newell is just promoting what helps his bottom line at the end of the day, and I wouldn't expect him to do anything else.
 
His attitude 8 years ago when Windows 8 launched is no longer relevant. The two companies have deepened their relationship more recently.
Good to know, I don’t use steam too much, more like try to avoid it. It’s too good at making me imagine free time life won’t provide and prematurely depleting my funds on games I will in all likelihood not get to ever play.
 
Initially, the greater GPU horsepower of the XSX will be realized before the storage bandwidth of the PS5. After a couple years it'll be interesting to see if there's a killer app that shows off the storage benefits of the PS5

I don't think the PS5 storage transfer capability is clear cut in its superiority. While the PS5 brute forces it, the storage access latency is supposedly designed to be lower in the XSX and the DX12 tech is suppose to be superior as it is there to take into account PCs with SSDs that have a slower bandwidth while attempting to providing similar benefits.
 
I don't think the PS5 storage transfer capability is clear cut in its superiority. While the PS5 brute forces it, the storage access latency is supposedly designed to be lower in the XSX and the DX12 tech is suppose to be superior as it is there to take into account PCs with SSDs that have a slower bandwidth while attempting to providing similar benefits.
The PS5 isnt brute forcing it. It has its own custom h/w and software similar to what MS has.
 
Good to know, I don’t use steam too much, more like try to avoid it. It’s too good at making me imagine free time life won’t provide and prematurely depleting my funds on games I will in all likelihood not get to ever play.

When I have this problem I simply stop buying games. I might pick up a few that are a couple of bucks on GoG or steam, but nothing major. I don't even have a huge backlog.
 
It depends a lot on the cost compared to your wealth. For some people it's nothing to spend a couple grand, and for some people the superior PC experience is worth a lot more than what they would get on console.

If I only get a couple hours to play every week it's not going to be on a console. I might not even play a game if that was my only option.

Ya, I used to think this too. But the simple truth is you can get a superior performance on the pc, but that performance is mostly superficial. I promise, Civ 6 doesn't look THAT much better on pc over xbox.
 
Ya, I used to think this too. But the simple truth is you can get a superior performance on the pc, but that performance is mostly superficial. I promise, Civ 6 doesn't look THAT much better on pc over xbox.
Civ 6 shouldn't, but you really don't want to be on a console playing opposite of a PC player running at 120FPS with a keyboard and mouse...
 
Ya, I used to think this too. But the simple truth is you can get a superior performance on the pc, but that performance is mostly superficial. I promise, Civ 6 doesn't look THAT much better on pc over xbox.

Try playing multiplayer games with your console controller against keyboard and mouse players...

You might go back to thinking that way again. Its not all eye candy.
 
Just buy a computer, there's literally no reason to ever buy an xbox.
I dunno, I love my 2080Ti card carrying PCMR superiority complex, but Series X does seem like a considerable value proposition the more I think about it. Meaning it'll be powerful enough that it will dissolve barriers to traditionally PC-only types of games.

Example Flight Simulator 2020 is shaping up to potentially be the most graphically impressive computer game of all time, and it'll also be on Xbox. I can see lots of people that don't want to invest in an insane PC rig running the console version and enjoying it that way. One datapoint.
 
Meaning it'll be powerful enough that it will dissolve barriers to traditionally PC-only types of games.
Consoles tend to look this way during the release year; they lose their 'sheen' pretty quickly.
Example Flight Simulator 2020 is shaping up to potentially be the most graphically impressive computer game of all time, and it'll also be on Xbox. I can see lots of people that don't want to invest in an insane PC rig running the console version and enjoying it that way. One datapoint.
I'd figure that if I were serious about experiencing FS2020, a console would be out of the question. Not enough inputs, not enough outputs, not enough configurability etc.
 
I'd figure that if I were serious about experiencing FS2020, a console would be out of the question. Not enough inputs, not enough outputs, not enough configurability etc.
Right, so I'm talking about dads and teenagers that see the FS2020 trailer and think "ooh I wanna fly", but they wouldn't have the first clue about building a "serious" gaming rig, or wouldn't want to spend the money. A $499 console gets them couch level, controller-flown access, with the same Azure-streamed maps as the PC version.
 
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Right, so I'm talking about dads and teenagers that see the FS2020 trailer and think "ooh I wanna fly", but they wouldn't have the first clue about building a "serious" gaming rig. A $499 console gets them couch level, controller-flown access.
It should be possible, I just see it as fairly antithetical to the concept of a 'flight simulator' :D
 
I dunno, I love my 2080Ti card carrying PCMR superiority complex, but Series X does seem like a considerable value proposition the more I think about it. Meaning it'll be powerful enough that it will dissolve barriers to traditionally PC-only types of games.

Example Flight Simulator 2020 is shaping up to potentially be the most graphically impressive computer game of all time, and it'll also be on Xbox. I can see lots of people that don't want to invest in an insane PC rig running the console version and enjoying it that way. One datapoint.

Flight simulator, on an xbox controller?
 
It should be possible, I just see it as fairly antithetical to the concept of a 'flight simulator' :D

Flight simulator, on an xbox controller?
Listen, guys. Between you and me, yes of course a flight simulator is a quintessential PC title, and bringing it to consoles violates certain standards of PCMR purity and decency, like the idea of putting on a pair of dirty underwear. BUT they've been bringing a lot of console titles to PC, many of them same day as console release. We have to give the little shits something. And so Flight Simulator with console controllers it is -- right trigger to accelerate the Boeing 737, left trigger to go backwards.

Keep this between us, please.
 
The PS5 isnt brute forcing it. It has its own custom h/w and software similar to what MS has.

Yes it is. Sony is spending an exorbitant amount of money on a very high speed SSD. Microsoft is using purely custom hardware and API to increase the I/O.

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-xbox-series-x-i-o-throughput-ps5/

Sampler Feedback Streaming is a brand-new innovation built on top of all the other advancements of the Xbox Velocity Architecture. Game textures are optimized at differing levels of detail and resolution, called mipmaps, and can be used during rendering based on how close or far away an object is from the player. As an object moves closer to the player, the resolution of the texture must increase to provide the crisp detail and visuals that gamers expect. However, these larger mipmaps require a significant amount of memory compared to the lower resolution mips that can be used if the object is further away in the scene. Today, developers must load an entire mip level in memory even in cases where they may only sample a very small portion of the overall texture. Through specialized hardware added to the Xbox One X, we were able to analyze texture memory usage by the GPU and we discovered that the GPU often accesses less than 1/3 of the texture data required to be loaded in memory. A single scene often includes thousands of different textures resulting in a significant loss in effective memory and I/O bandwidth utilization due to inefficient usage. With this insight, we were able to create and add new capabilities to the Xbox Series X GPU which enables it to only load the sub portions of a mip level into memory, on demand, just in time for when the GPU requires the data. This innovation results in approximately 2.5x the effective I/O throughput and memory usage above and beyond the raw hardware capabilities on average. SFS provides an effective multiplier on available system memory and I/O bandwidth, resulting in significantly more memory and I/O throughput available to make your game richer and more immersive.
 
I love Microsoft’s design and their locked clock rates. I think (limited understanding here) it’s the right approach. However after seeing Halo Infinite it’s difficult to not state again how much that really won’t matter because they are limited to the Xbox One as the baseline. Third party titles will look a bit better on Xbox Series X and load a bit better on PlayStation 5 more than likely.

But first party Sony games are going to be something special especially compared to Microsoft’s first party. I don’t really care about MS titles being on PC. Millions will still buy the console because they are not PC gamers. I personally won’t buy one, but I also have a good PC so I don’t need to.
 
I don't think the PS5 storage transfer capability is clear cut in its superiority. While the PS5 brute forces it, the storage access latency is supposedly designed to be lower in the XSX and the DX12 tech is suppose to be superior as it is there to take into account PCs with SSDs that have a slower bandwidth while attempting to providing similar benefits.

Hopefully Halo Infinite is not a title using the tech.
 
the current gen Xbox is also technically the more powerful console but I'll still take the PS4 over it every time...the exclusives are way better on PS4/PS5
 
I don't even do consoles, but as a PC person, I'd rather have a PS5, just for the exclusives.

But truth be told, I'd rather just do a PC build in Fall 2021 or 2022, AND *magically* have all the exclusives playable on PC.

It seems like the console producers are trying really hard to be "better than PC, at least at launch," which is valid.
But PCs catch up quick, so that's what I'm waiting for.
 
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Try playing multiplayer games with your console controller against keyboard and mouse players...

You might go back to thinking that way again. Its not all eye candy.

Really only twitch games which I don't even care about tbh, and even then Xbox supports keyboard / mouse setups and a lot of games are starting to follow suit. Like I said before, it really is inevitable at this point.
 
Listen, guys. Between you and me, yes of course a flight simulator is a quintessential PC title, and bringing it to consoles violates certain standards of PCMR purity and decency, like the idea of putting on a pair of dirty underwear. BUT they've been bringing a lot of console titles to PC, many of them same day as console release. We have to give the little shits something. And so Flight Simulator with console controllers it is -- right trigger to accelerate the Boeing 737, left trigger to go backwards.

Keep this between us, please.
but how, i get it you can probably hook a keyboard up to it. There's just not enough buttons on a controller for flight simulator.
 
but how, i get it you can probably hook a keyboard up to it. There's just not enough buttons on a controller for flight simulator.

Like Odd said, left trigger goes backwards and right trigger goes forward. Hold X to afterburn, and use R3 to shoot luggage out of the turbines.
 
Really only twitch games which I don't even care about tbh, and even then Xbox supports keyboard / mouse setups and a lot of games are starting to follow suit. Like I said before, it really is inevitable at this point.

You mean those multi millions of gamers that play those "twitch" games and even have money making eleagues set up for them? Ummm sure OK...

It is inevitable for what exactly? Not trying to argue with you just need a clarification on what point you are trying to make. Are you saying consoles are going to make PC gaming obsolete?
 
Probably as simple as self interest here. Xbox games are the ones that also get Windows ports, and thus can generate Steam Revenue. PS5 exclusives won't come to PC, and won't earn anymore more Steam money...
 
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