Winners and Losers: Xbox Collection S will get a storage increase as Ticketmaster commits to extra transparency

Sunday means it’s time for one more version of Trusted Evaluations Winners and Losers, and this week it’s Microsoft vs Ticketmaster. 

Maintain studying to find how the Xbox Collection S earned our winner title this week, together with why Ticketmaster’s dedication to extra clear pricing merely isn’t sufficient. 

Winner: Microsoft 

Our winner this week is Microsoft after the corporate introduced a brand new configuration of the Xbox Collection S with extra storage and a smooth new end. 

Up till just lately, when you needed to economize and go for the digital-only model of the current-gen Xbox, you’d have to accept 512GB of storage. Whereas the prospect of spending much less is all nicely and good, we discovered 512GB to be far too small to retailer all of our video games and software program. 

As we famous in our overview of the Xbox Collection S, the customized NVME SSD delivered substantial enhancements over the HDD drives present in Microsoft’s earlier technology consoles leading to shorter load occasions. Nevertheless, NVME SSDs are additionally far more costly than HDD drives. That is seemingly why Microsoft restricted its cheaper console to 512GB, with a measly 364GB out there for recreation downloads. 

Microsoft constructed a storage growth slot into the console however the Seagate SSD drives the slot is constructed for additionally weren’t low cost at launch (although they’ve just lately develop into a bit extra reasonably priced). In actual fact, the stingy storage capability was maybe our greatest disadvantage when reviewing the Xbox Collection S. 

This week, Microsoft lastly addressed the problem by asserting a brand new configuration of the Collection S with 1TB of storage and a shocking black end that matches that of the Xbox Collection X. 

This received’t be significantly useful information for present Collection S players, however when you’ve been holding out for an indication to select up the cheaper Xbox mannequin then this might definitely make the prospect extra tempting. 

Loser: Ticketmaster 

This week’s loser is Ticketmaster – or, extra precisely, Ticketmaster prospects – after the corporate dedicated to providing extra clear pricing in a transfer that finally received’t save prospects any cash. 

Ticketmaster has garnered itself a detrimental repute in recent times for hitting concert-goers with shock charges towards the tip of the reserving course of, leaving them with no alternative however to desert their hard-fought-for seats or comply with the upper value.

For those who’ve ever tried to order a ticket for an in-demand live performance or occasion, you’ll know that the method is usually tense sufficient with out factoring in any hidden prices that make themselves recognized on the checkout. It isn’t unusual for customers to hit purchase to safe their seats with out even paying attention to the ultimate value, leaving them with a nasty shock when the affirmation e mail comes by means of a couple of minutes later. 

This week, Ticketmaster dedicated to ending this downside as soon as and for all (the confusion, that’s, not the charges).

The corporate joined SeatGeek and Airbnb in promising an finish to non-transparent pricing. As an alternative, the app will now make you conscious of the full value of a ticket and all charges related to that seat inside its search leads to a transfer often known as “all-in pricing”.

These modifications have solely been introduced within the US up to now, which means there’s no phrase of whether or not they’ll come to the UK. Ticketmaster additionally hasn’t addressed maybe the larger downside which is the price of these usually staggeringly excessive charges. 

Transparency is definitely a small step in the proper route, however Ticketmaster might want to do extra to appease concert-goers.