Five Things I Want to See in Xbox Series X|S

So, here’s the thing: As you read this, this list is probably already hopelessly outdated. We’ve learned so much about the Xbox Series X|S over the last several months, I think some things are already fairly debunked. But other stuff… well, you never know what the future may bring, right? I doubt the Series X and Series S will be the last iterations of Xbox we see, and other stuff could be brought through updates.

The truth is, I came up with the idea for this list all the way back in December of last year, when the Series X was first revealed at The Game Awards. And doing it before the launch has been a driving force in trying to get things around here back in a functional, working order. So following my return, even with the launch less than three weeks away and review units out in the wild, I always knew this had to be my first real piece coming back.

Let’s begin.

1) Voice Commands

Kinect for Xbox One has had no shortage of controversy surrounding it, enough so that Xbox decided to decouple it from the system’s inner-workings so it would no longer be integral to both purchasing the console and running it. Nevertheless, they made sure that there was still support for those who wanted it, extending all the way into the Xbox One X — even though doing so required the production of a not-inexpensive adapter.

I got my Xbox One after the Kinect requirement had been lifted, but I made a point of getting one anyway. The purpose for me was twofold: First, I was told that if my wife and I were to stream together from the same device, then two headsets would not do; we would have to use Kinect. Ironically, we never did get around to doing that (plans remain in the works), but for me, there was a secondary benefit that wound up being the primary use for the peripheral.

That was the voice controls. I never used them in a game — in fact, I’m not sure that I’ve even played a game that uses them. Rather, it came down to the console itself, particularly being able to turn it on and off with naught but a simple voice command. The main reason for this is simple: cats. While their tendency to do so has decreased in frequency over the years, there was a point in time where they would always sniff and run at the console, turning it on. Rather than getting up or turning on my controller just to shut the whole thing down, “Xbox, turn off” became all I needed.

It remains the best part of Kinect, and the one I still use even today. With that said, it turned out to be practical for turning the console on and off with regards to another item on here:

2) HDMI In

With an Xbox One, a PlayStation 4, and a Nintendo Switch (née Wii U), there was no more room for my cable box to be hooked to the television. HDMI in to the rescue! This one handy feature meant that I could watch TV as easily as I could say “Xbox, on!” without having to disconnect and reconnect HDMI cords.

Of course, we’ve seen the ports on the Xbox Series X|S, and HDMI in is nowhere among them — no doubt a relic of their attempt to become the “One” box underneath everyone’s television, and so removed as their focus realigned on games. Still, when you’re in this line of work and have as much hardware as we do, that one little port goes a very long way towards making things more convenient.

I understand we’re in the minority here, but it would have been nice to see it return. Guess we should look into an HDMI splitter or something. Oh well.

3) More Backwards Compatibility

One of my favorite aspects of the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S is the backwards compatibility. If I’m reading this right, they’ve made 607 titles from the Xbox 360 and original Xbox libraries backwards compatible on the Xbox One, and subsequently, the Xbox Series X|S as well. That said, Wikipedia has the original Xbox library standing at 1,001 titles, and the Xbox 360 at 2085.

Suffice to say, I think there’s room for more.

I still have some favorites I can’t play after my Xbox 360 died, and it would be great if I could forgo getting a replacement (at least for now) in favor of just playing everything on a Series X|S. And I know it’s highly unlikely that all 3,086 titles will ever work on one machine alongside the One and Series X|S libraries, but I think some of what I’d like to see added is fairly reasonable. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 are both backwards compatible, for instance, yet Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and Bionic Commando Rearmed remain backwards incompatible. And as long as Capcom is keeping the NES version of Bionic Commando under lock and key, I’d be largely satisfied with just having the excellent remake available to me again.

Incidentally, speaking of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, it’s great that it’s backwards compatible, but… it could use a little fine-tuning. Case in point: Can you spot what’s wrong with these pictures?

I’ll give you a hint: My Avatar is not supposed to look like Noob Saibot, Dr. Manhattan, or a literal pale imitation of himself. These are all the same settings in a single game session, by the way; nothing was changed between going to each track, despite the drastically different appearance otherwise.

We know the backwards compatibility team halted work on adding new titles to the Xbox One library to focus on making sure these all work with the Series X|S, but word on when they might resume has been virtually nonexistent, at least from what I’ve seen. Still, the backwards compatibility page above provides a glimmer of hope:

“Check back on November 10 to see the full selection” sounds like there’s more to come, which the text list seems to confirm. I’m eager to see what will be added… and you can bet I have another article in mind with some more titles I hope make the cut.

4) The Chime

From the moment I first turned my Xbox One on, I was instantly in love with the chime.

It’s such a small thing, especially compared to pretty much everything else on this list. But every time I start up (or turn off) my Xbox One and hear that chirpy little sound, I smile a little bit inside.

As I once said, it’s an almost Nintendo-like touch of charm that I was surprised and pleased to discover, and one which even Nintendo themselves haven’t quite ever replicated that I can recall (start-up screens don’t count).

Naturally, this is a touch I hope will carry over. With review units out in the wild, I imagine that whether or not the Series X|S has this has long since been confirmed/denied, but in all honesty, I haven’t looked to see. I want to save some bit of surprise for when I eventually (hopefully) get one.

5) For Xbox Series S and Beyond: A USB Disc Drive

So, here’s the thing: As it stands, my sights are firmly set on getting an Xbox Series X over a Series S, and the reason for that is quite simple: It’s the one with the disc drive.

In truth, I still don’t even have a television capable of taking advantage of the 4K visuals afforded by the Series X. Comparing the two, the only other real benefits for me at the moment would be the larger internal storage and the smaller footprint, and I feel like I can work around those to some degree, especially the internal storage, since Series S file sizes are said to be smaller, anyway. Oh, and the price is good, too.

In virtually every other way that matters, the Series S makes more sense for me. So why am I hung up on the disc drive?

This is why:

Tying back to #3 on this list, backwards compatibility means a lot to me, and this is a good chunk of why. Sure, not everything here is going to play on the Xbox Series X|S (or even the Xbox One, for that matter), but I’ve still invested a fair bit in a physical Xbox library over the years that will play on them. Backwards compatibility is great, but as it stands, it only goes so far on the Series S if you’re like me and have a stack (or stacks) of discs.

Simply put: For games that are backwards compatible, I want to be able to use the copies I already bought, rather than have to buy them again.

I understand that the removal of the disc drive is something that helps give the Series S a competitive advantage with a lower price, but I feel like there’s a middle ground here that I hope we’ll see in due time. And that middle ground is… a USB disc drive. Let me incur the added cost if I want (without going a full $200 more, otherwise, what’s even the point?), and then I can play my disc-based games to my heart’s content.

That seems reasonable enough, right?

(Oh, and for those wondering, I’ve got a rather considerable digital library, too.)

And there you have it: Five things I would like to see in the Xbox Series X|S. I don’t think I’m being too unrealistic with any of these (save maybe HDMI in, and again, who knows what future iterations could bring?), so hopefully whatever isn’t already in the cards might get shuffled into the deck before too very long.

Thanks for reading!

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.