Tendo City

So, Microsoft showed off their upcoming console at the Game Awards recently.  I didn't watch (because the Game Awards are more ofa long advert than a real awards show...) but I've seen the main announcement, this.  And the new  award for in the "potentially confusing console name" contest, last won by the Wii U, has a new challenger: Microsoft!  Taking a book from the Apple school of device naming, the followup to the Xbox One is the... uh, Xbox Series?  Seriously?  Xbox Series X is the one they just announced, and it's probably the higher end of what will likely end up being two models.  It's probably a good guess that the other one will be the Xbox Series S.

I guess the idea is that since they are getting away from distinct platforms and now are working on a more PC-like iterative approach where each new system is backwards compatible with the last, with some games that work on both consoles and others that only work on the new one, they are also going even farther away from having a clearly distinct name for the console that is easy to tell apart from other Xbox systems, but as someone who has always preferred numbers and such, so you actually can tell which one the system is, this move is kind of annoying.

Oh, and I hope they make the 'which games work on the Xbox One and which don't' thing really obvious, because otherwise it will be very confusing.

And I'm not even getting in to the other, surely intentional take on the name, the acronym.  Xbox SX?  The juvenile jokes write themselves.  And come on, isn't this supposed to be a serious console?


The other news is that they also showed what is apparently going to be the shell for this console.... and it's huge!  At 12" tall and 6" wide and deep, this is a very large system.  You can also put it sideways, but 6" tall is still quite high for a modern system; the last system to need that kind of space is probably the Gamecube with its lid open. The space I currently have my Xbox One S in has 5 3/4" height, I measured.  That shelf is adjustable down a bit so I probably could reorganize to make it fit, if I pretend that I was trying to fit that thing into this same space, but if it really is that height lots of people will have issues with the size, even sideways. The thing looks alright, in that modern, "flat" style (that I think looks alright I guess but will never be a big fan of), with a curved-in grille making it a bit more than JUST straight line edges. And yeah, it's powerful, and by making it big they probably help cool it down better. But this is a console, not a PC, space is a concern...

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/12/12/m...-series-x/

We need games/graphics demos to see the power of this thing, damn it. Good thing to have handy if you need to bludgeon a burglar, though.

They had one gameplay demo in the reveal, of Hellblade 2.  The graphics definitely look very, very good!  I want one of these, even if I don't have a 4K TV and would have trouble finding a place to put the thing (because of how tall it is, even on its side).  It's kind of too bad it's almost a full year away.

If MS intends to turn the XBox as a concept into the itterative reality of say the iPad, well, I'm out. I like that I don't have to think about consoles except for once every 5 years or so.

If,
A: I have to keep track of each yearly release so I can make sure my games are running optimally and
B: Developers either have to target the latest and greatest so their games run badly on last year's hardware OR they have to target the lowest common denominator making upgrading pointless

Then I'm out. I want consoles to be simple. If they're not simple, there's no point. I might as well just stick to PC.

Well, some of that depends on how often they release new, higher-power models, doesn't it? Like, they clearly will not every year. The Xbox One X was released two years ago now, four year after the original Xbox One, and the next one will release late next year. If Microsoft starts releasing new enhanced models every three or four years, I think that would be fine. I can't imagine that they would think people would be willing to buy a new $500-plus console every year, so they won't go the Apple route I'm sure.

Anyway, the rumors are all about the other (to release sometime after the one they announced recently) other model of next Xbox not being a second more powerful one, but instead a less powerful, streaming-focused box.


But you are right, with the route MS is taking, things like 'how will this game run on my box' definitely become relevant in a way they have not on consoles in the past. It's a much more PC-like approach, and certainly loses a lot of that console simplicity. Like, for how long will their next-gen games also run on the original Xbox One? That's a far less powerful system! But for now MS is talking about how their games will run on the Xbox One as well. Performance will have to be a lot worse, but they'll run... until they phase out last-gen support. I wonder if they will put anything on the cases making it clear which platform each game supports... I don't know if they WILL, I'm not entirely expecting it, but I hope they do.

I definitely agree that MS is going for one Apple-like thing, though, an Apple-like naming scheme of confusing product names that don't make it clear in what order the things go! And yes that definitely annoys me. Like, I get it -- I'm sure MS has studies proving that calling it "Xbox 4" would be a big negative for them versus the "PlayStation 5", since 4 is a smaller number than 5 so obviously the 5 one is better, right? People are dumb. But even so, trying to act like "Xbox" is a fine name for your new console, as if it's a term like "PC" that can be applied to all Xbox system regardless of if they are compatible with eachother or not... I don't know that that is a good approach, in the console space clearly delineating what is your platform and what is not is important, and I hope that doesn't change just because MS thinks otherwise.


As for the value of consoles, I have written about that in the not too distant past and yeah, they definitely have less value than they used to. There are a couple of reasons to still care about consoles, however:
1) Good portability, the niche Nintendo has gone for
2) To have a thing easy to output 4K to to your 4K TV - unless you have an easy way to hook your computer up to a 4K TV, if you one (I don't yet, but am definitely thinking about it for next year), it's far, far easier to just use a console than to try to figure out how to get a gaming desktop PC in one room to output in 4K to a TV in a different room...
3) For the moment at least, way more physical media - physical-disc PC games are almost entirely dead, but not console. This is definitely a reason I buy Xbox games over PC sometimes even if the PC version is mostly better.
4) For Sony and Nintendo consoles, the exclusive games. Or for Microsoft ones, cross-compatible games - it's nice when one purchase gets you both a PC (usually Windows Store, but oh well) and Xbox version for one, if for convenience, screens, etc. having a console as well as PC makes sense.
5) Having something which can run all of the Xbox One games I already own, but better, has value. Plus you get free better, 4K-enhanced versions of some original Xbox and X360 games, and you can play all of those Games with Gold titles (which you cannot use on a PC!) as well.

Between all of that I think there is probably still enough reason for me to keep getting Microsoft consoles. Part of that is inertia - that I have their consoles already, have lots of games from GwG for the X1, etc - but even if they are weaker reasons than consoles had in the past for their value versus a PC they are at least something.

Come to think of it, I'm just going to lay that thing in a horizontal orientation. It better have some little foot pads to make that easier. My current entertainment center cannot abide such height.

Even sideways I don't think this thing's 6" height would fit in the space I have my Xbox One in, if I put it there. I'd need to put it somewhere else, either on the floor in front of the TV (maybe on something) or off to the right, making room where my component switchbox and Nintendo Switch dock and games are...