I’m genuinely curious has anyone abandoned the relatively high cost of a PC and all the advantages of the PC, for the plug an play convenience of the Xbox?
I know many go the other way for the obvious huge advantages.
Definitely not as popular of a move as XBOX to PC, that said, there are quite a few folks who use both platforms (if you search you can find these posts).
From a relatively high powered in current day i.e mid to high end, to xbox will be hard to find i believe, but you will find plenty of example who moved form say an older pc or a low powered laptop or desktop to Xbox. I also did that, not for flightsim, but back in the day, I moved from a laptop to Xbox One X, and i couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately that died just after the warranty ran out and in my country, Xbox warranty means having to ship the unit internationally which is a costly affair, so I ditched it and got back to high end pc. At that time, MSFS was a big reason for my migration back to pc.
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If someone has a powerful enough PC to run MSFS in a decent manner then they have no reason to switch to Xbox. I play on console because my laptop can’t run the sim, and I’m a console player anyway. I highly doubt anyone would go this route. Maybe as a secondary device in a different room or apartment, things like that. But I don’t think anyone would switch completely if they had an adequate PC to begin with.
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Agreed but to some with older PC’s or the average laptop with integrated graphics then it might appeal.
I was curious if there were many sucked back in through that window.
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I moved from a low/medium PC to XSX a while back.
Overall the Xbox delivers a generally superb performance - for the price - compared with a PC. That’s why I took the step, I could not afford the cost of a high end PC - and that is still true today so I’ll stick where I am for now thanks.
Big advantage of Xbox - you don’t have any of the high maintenance of a PC - keeping drivers and windows updated and debugging when something goes wrong - which is more often than you’d think.
There are downsides to being an xboxer
Restricted to market-place add ons only
Developers have to do a bit of extra work with textures etc to work with the lower memory of the Xbox
MS/Asobo seem to use emulators rather than COTS Xbox HW so SUs and WUs can be frustrating - one step forward one step back experience
There are signs that the current xbox X processor is starting to get maxed out now - in game clocks start to run more slowly than real time when this happens - normally when loaded with moving objects - moving map displays, traffic etc etc…
Some forum users and even devs believe that Xboxers are all just gamers and not serious flyers. Wrong - my1250 hours of commercial and GA flying (of admittedly poor standard) say otherwise and there a a lot more high hours Xbox users out there.
And finally don’t buy a series S - sadly the series S just isn’t capable of running latest iterations of MSFS.
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I have 1500hrs on the XB and went PC. I would say all of the above is correct. One really bad part about XB is you are pretty slaved to any bad issues that are introduced into an SU, where PC’s pretty much can manage through with horsepower almost unnoticed. Being I’m a bit older so $2-$4K for a PC is more how much I upset the wife on a given week than any real budget I have to abide by, I even capped my own purchase to $2500/4080S, and you can spend far less, particularly if not 4K required.
There is a lot to say about getting the abundant freeware out there. Just the 172 and 152 are completely new entities in your life on PC. FTLSL traffic with liveries and landing gear, I love VFR, etc, is astounding. My home regional airport, sure enough there’s good freeware for it… To me, just the freeware filling gaping holes in the XB version was worth it.
And then of course flying the FSR500 through it all at 100fps with crystal clear gauges and butter FPS all the way to touchdown each and every time is a huge relief. Especially if I ‘charge’ myself how many of my hours in the air have been frustrating in one way or another on XB. I haven’t even gotten around to the Beech 18 and DC3 yet. I was CONSTANTLY buying things on XB and had it up to 400gb, I haven’t even loaded half of it back and am fascinated with the experience itself, or even peeked at the marketplace since.
Now FS on XB is still a sim, it’s no less so than PC for the skill of flying, so I’m not going there. The Kodiak is the same in both, maybe a little sharper in the minutia on a PC. However, It’s definitely quite a slog to get a PC to be to a state where you just push a button and walk back over to push another when you hear the ‘start’ cue.
But hold on to your hats for 2024, I don’t think we’ve seen what the XB can do just yet. But for PC as Ferris would say ‘if you have the means’… It’s surely anything but instant gratification.
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Very well said…
I have both now having purchased an Xbox as well in last 6 months.I use Xbox at a local Flight Sim club/meeting for quick set up convenience. However,I use PC 99% of time at home. I would never go 100% Xbox,PC much better.
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The PC is better if you have the budget for a good one….
If you can’t afford a high end machine the Xbox Series X (and only the Series X) is amazing for the price.
And the current state of SU15 beta on the Series X is stunningly good…
But you do have to make some trades.
And you are in the hands of MS/Asobo.
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I did. And I haven’t looked back. I started with an HP pavilion gaming laptop that has an I5 and GTX 1650 hooked up to a 65 in TV. But I got the Xbox series X on sale for $350 last November and it blows that away in the 4k graphics department and flies butterly smooth. I fly mainly the default A320 and the PMDG 737-6. Other than the fact there are only ■■■■ poor liveries for the PMDG, it’s only 3rd party liveries for this plane that I miss. I blame that on PMDG. There are plenty of liveries for the A320 cheap on the marketplace. I don’t use any add on scenery because I don’t fly low and I don’t think I need it. Also I don’t have to worry about if I have the latest Nvidia drivers and PC worries trying to get rid of stutters or making it run smoother. Xbox doesn’t have any stutters and it just works. I just fly. Looks great. Fly smooth. I’m more than happy.
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While I agree with the majority of your post (admirable, by the way, that you’re perfectly content with what the vanilla package offers), the Series X does suffer from stuttering in some regions. TNCM and KJFK are two airports prone to hiccups, and there are a good number more.
When I switched to PC, I seriously thought after a few hours’ use that the Xbox was superior… until I revisited my Series X…
PC isn’t immune to performance issues, though. I’ve always said the Xbox punches well above its weight and will take on ANY PC, pound-for-pound.
But I can’t imagine anyone swapping a decent PC for an Xbox. Complementing a PC perhaps, for on-the-move gaming, but certainly not replacing.
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I also went from PC to X Box - first S and now X. The S is not good for FS20 – maybe FS24 will be better on it. The X was as good or better than my PC and that makes sense because I built it using the X Box X as my reference. I always build my own PCs. But it gets harder and harder when you multiple physical challenges getting in your way. I took a gamble on the X and I am so glad I did as it fits my kind of flying perfectly. I love flying small GA planes 50 to 150nm all over Florida – or all over California – or all over Italy – or wherever. I’ve landed the iFly737 in near zero visibility and I’ve been navigating since Chicago was just lines on a screen. I think its funny that anyone would think platform equated to knowledge or experience. Whatever they think - I think the X Box is great and when mine wears out, they had better sell me a new one - if they got them - hopefully I could afford it still.
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Well I have an Xbox x you can’t download from the net it’s market place only I bought the 737/900 £47 what a piece of pooooo I’ve spent the whole evening setting it up from the pmdg site the auto pilot will not engage it falls out of the sky yes I put fuel in I’ll be emailing pmdg in the morning to get my money back tbh the a320 neo is easier to fly use auto and track waypoints big downside nearly every aircraft you cannot access the mcdu/fmc even with auto pilot on it won’t land personally save loosing interest in a machine that doesn’t even read the game correctly as it can’t quite separate the two platforms so Xbox blames pmdg n pmdg blames Xbox brilliant so I’m saving up n getting a pc trying to access screens move about views is a joke I could go on n on n on personally I don’t think Xbox is actually powerful enough to run the game properly can’t even run forza motorsport without a one second delay though ly annoyed
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Well my PC was very midrange.
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Well I’ve been simming since FS 98. I remember what those earlier versions looked like. With 2020, well it’s amazing what it’s become, even in the vanilla package.
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One second sound delay
An i5 or equivalent is about 900 recon machine that’s what I’m saving for got the yoke n peddles which work on pc and I think most or all my add ons and game will swap over if you don’t mind flying around having fun as a game the Xbox is perfect but it does have limitations if yr after realism without limitations pc is the way to go with category 3 auto lands 50ft visibility properly accessing the mcdu free moving around cockpit accessing all the panels with ease is great fun ( played round my mates earlier on pc ) it’s ok to learn from scratch like I am but the more I’m learning the more I know the Xbox falls short
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Well … we have a 80" HDTV 4K In the family room. Along with a Playstation and X Box. When kids and friends play MSFS they use the console controller . It all looks great smooth ect. What I don’t like is the “fly by seat of your pants” meaning console controller and mostely from outside the aircraft. I guess Xbox looks great for MSFS. I suggested some better controls but the idea got nixed as they moved on to the shooting game. Lol I prefer a hopped up PC by far!!
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The PMDG 737 is a much more complex a/c than the default A320. One evening isn’t enough time to learn how to fly this a/c if your only previous experience is in the default A320.
There are plenty of people on the forum who are able to operate the PMDG 737 successfully on Xbox. If you take the time to learn it you shouldl get a great sense of achievement.
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