I really like it. I like the fact that it doesn't look like a plastic toy, it looks like a serious piece of equipment that actually looks sharp rather than something I instinctively want to hide or cover.

I'm pretty indifferent about the name, but overall I think it's a good choice. XSX looks appropriately gamertaggy and saying "ex ess ex" is less awkward than the Xbox One X.

My main question at this point is about the price. It's going to need a pretty robust gpu and SSD's aren't cheap...

I'm probably not going to buy one because I have a $3000 PC already, but I'm intrigued for all my non-pc friends.

People dunking on the name need to get out of the generation mindset.

This is just an xbox, that's what it'll be known as. I assume the X series will be the top dog and the S series will be the standard. The X series and S series will only really be a factor at point of purchase, it'll be simply known as Xbox 99.5% of the time

The console generation as we know it is dead.

@sweep: estimate seems 500bucks or 20bucks a month with gamepass and xbox live

Yup. It's called series X for a reason. Spencer has been pretty open about Microsoft's broader vision to bring console and Windows gaming together under the Xbox brand, and turning Xbox hardware into a multi-SKU cross-compatible lineup for a range of gamer budgets is part of the plan.

It’s kinda funny that we maybe went from XBONE to XSEX...

I really love the look of it and Xbox has been going in the right direction so I'm curious to see more.

I don't get the big deal on the name. It's going to make a lot more sense when they start releasing them like phones. It's one of those things were people want things to progress but when it starts everyone is acting like its goofy to follow that path.

The name isn't a big deal, it's just funny because a lot of parents buy consoles for their kids, and it will probably be confusing to see Xbox One X and Xbox Series X and not know at first which is the best. It won't matter in the end, we all know that, we're not actually stupid, just having fun with Microsoft's ways.

PS5 is pretty unambiguous, as was PS4 Pro, but no one says Sony are 'stuck in the generation mind-set' when they don't name their consoles in dumb ways, so I don't think that's a good rebuttal to the mild flak this new name has gotten. It also doesn't mean some posters here are 'stuck' in any way for saying they think a name is a bit shit (which, come on, it is a little). It's a box with computer parts inside, not a serious subject, so we might as well have fun with our knee-jerk reactions.

I am actually really glad it's called what it is and not the X2, though, because then I wouldn't be able to say XSX repeatedly and giggle.

I'm PC only at this stage so i'm more interested to see how these designs shape PC ports, if developers are optimising for 60fps+ in 4k then that's a good thing, and with back compat still being a feature maybe they'll eventually bring that to PC, i don't expect full support, but it would be nice to play certain games like Perfect Dark on PC, that is if they aren't going to get proper port treatment (on the other hand, it would probably reduce certain games chances of being ported if they can simply be emulated).
As a PC user i like the console, bigger is better, hopefully they put the bigger size to good use.

And yes the name does suck, "Xbox One" sucked as well.

Sometimes a bad name is just a bad name. It won't matter for me or anyone else on this website because everyone will know what box you're talking about. For the mass consumer out there? This is a bad name that will once again cause confusion and evoke a lot of questions from confused parents. It's just not doing Microsoft any favors in the wide market.

I think the general public will take to Xbox Series X like they did to Wii U, or rather, understand what it is as much.

@humanity: I think what Jeff said on last night's stream was pretty right. There will only be confusion during next years' holiday season. After that the current Xbox One X will likely not be sold anymore, so parents will only have to think about buying the Xbox X, Xbox S, Xbox E etc.

@stephen_von_cloud: I agree that it WILL make more sense if they stick to that model. They do have the baggage of a weird naming lineage, though. It will take some time for that to settle.

I’m curious if it’s always just “Xbox” going forward with the series names having some relatable significance.

I've been playing video games for 25 years now and the first words out of my mouth when I saw the name were "Wait... so is this the new thing... or what?". Not " Oh rad. It's the new Xbox." which it should have been. That's bad. It's a bad name. The "Well... It will only be confusing during it's first year on sale for parents who aren't in the know" is a really poor argument. It shouldn't be confusing for anyone for any period of time. It should be abundantly clear from the name that this is the new thing. That this is the exciting thing. That this is the thing you want. A name that doesn't do that is a bad name. It's why the Wii U is a bad name. It's why this is a bad name. Slap a number on it. Slap a year on it. Something that differentiates from the name of the last thing you put out more than it does now.

@brunothethird: PS5 doesn't need to be "stuck in the generation mindset" for Xbox Series X not to be. I agree that the context that comes with a family of "Series <blank>" products would make the naming scheme fairly sensible.

@isomeri: You are right of course. People will come around as they always do, but as @Brian_ above me pointed out so well, the problem is that there shouldn’t be a break in period at all which is what makes it such a bad name. After a year or so no one will really care. To my great relief people mostly stoped making the awful “lol xBONE” joke after a year or two. We will all call it “the Xbox” in due time anyway and it just would have been great for them to nail it coming out of the gate rather than another sloppy launch full of uncertainty.

@lv4monk: Even though I was being facetious when I said that, you're still right, but if it was called Xbox 4 and not Series X, no one would have said, "It should be called something more ambiguous!"

What are the others going to be called, something like Series S, Series E, etc? I can see people being confused, no matter what. I remember seeing puzzled faces when we had the 360 'arcade' version and 360 'core' version, and this isn't even as clear as that IMO.

Once we've seen the series, it'll make way more sense, but for now, I'm going to giggle.

@brunothethird: I think the current smartphone naming conventions have gotten people more used to weird letter abbreviations and asking stores just for "the new iPhone" etc. In the end Microsoft doesn't really care, as long as people buy or own platforms to play their games on. Pretty soon there will probably be an Xbox app on most smart TV's that connects to xCloud. People buying consoles will be the same weird people (like me) who still buy BluRays for the better image quality and a guaranteed offline copy.

I thought phones were named quite clearly? iPhone 1-11, Galaxy Note 1-10, Galaxy S1-S10, Pixel 1-4. You definitely get odd variations like iPhone XR, but that is kind just another way of saying 10S anyway. I dunno, that argument has never sat well with me, even if I understand it's about how trends can shift more than actual hard numbers of this slew of phones called confusing names. Edit: As far as we know, the difference between these Xbox consoles will be drastic, more than iPhone 5 vs 5S, and you should have obvious clarity when those drastic differences aren't suggested by the name. Just a thought.

Laptops, on the other hand? Companies like Asus and Acer outdo MS when it comes to confusing names, but there are so many of them it isn't really their fault.

Anyway, interesting and fair replies. I'm still on MS's side with the name, I'm just laughing at the same time.

I think a lot of my issue on the name is that my own name is really confusing. Not only am I named after my father, but my last name is also a very common first name. So, not only do I have to ask for clarification in a situation where someone could be referring to me or my father, I also have to clarify that my last name is actually my last name. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "What is your last name?", I give it to them, they respond "No. Your last name." and I have to tell them again that that is my last name. Or how many times I've heard "Wow. You've got two first names.". Or that year of school that I had two classmates who's first name was my last name, and had to double check every time to make sure the teacher was calling on me.

... I guess what I'm saying is that in 30 years the Xbox Series X is going to have hair down to his waist, a huge beard and considering legally changing his name to some unpronounceable glyph like Prince did.

i actually love the look. it's sharp and tastefully minimalist. i think it's smaller than most people realize given it appears to be a little bit wider than a controller or so.

that name though, woof. 'series x' sounds like something that is trying to be a luxury or prestige product (like a watch or expensive set of knives). it sounds like something that's leaning more to the side of lifestyle brand than console- and that's fine but it feels a little soulless.

it almost makes me wish they leaned a little harder into tech lingo with something like 'xbox model x' or 'xbox verison x' or even 'xbox revision x.' all those abbreviate way better (model x; XVX; rev. x)- 'series' is just an awkward word to work with- and XSX doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Looks nice. Name is whatever. Hopefully it's not noisy.

The name is dumb but doesn't really matter and the look is fine, i guess. Almost certainly gonna get this over the ps5. ms seems to not be making the same mistakes as the xbone and i like the first party studios more and gamepass.

The average parent calls the xbox and xbox and have done during the 360, One and One X evolutions. They'll just go 'u got the new xbox'and that's that

Wii U on the other hand was a sub name of a console that people probably would've otherwise known as the nintendo of it weren't for daytime TV

they say fully backwards compatible BUT does that mean i can play Jet Set Radio Future on it?

@crommi: it looks like it has clearance for a good cpu cooler. My Noctua cooler is gigantic.

It seems fine, but Xbox has a tendency to go from killer prototype names (Xenon! Scarlett! Scorpio!) and then giving the final prodcut the most banal release name. As others have mentioned, I could see some confusion from parents looking to buy a console, which is bizarre, given how recent the Wii U's troubles were.

@crommi: I'm no expert so I can't argue one way or the other. I kind of like how it's just this cube thing.

It’s great. It will look great in the dark in my entertainment center

Looks cool, don't like the full name but Series X is alright by itself.

And I just realized the Xbox one is the first xbox console I've never owned.

@crommi: @humanity: The Series X uses a single large fan to cool the entire console. This should make the console very quiet, but also necessitates this more oddball packaging solution.

Here's a quote on the matter from the GameSpot article.

"In an effort to make the console "disappear" into your entertainment center, Microsoft designed it to be as quiet as possible: with a single, large fan pushing high volumes of air out of the top. Spencer and Ronald confidently told me that the Series X systems in their homes are no louder than Xbox One X, which is to say, not noticeably audible when sitting couch-distance away from your TV. "There's always this tension between design and the kind of acoustics and cooling and function of the console," Spencer explained, "and we were not going to compromise on function. I'm just incredibly impressed with the design that they came back with.""

I feel like ever since the Red Ring disaster of the Xbox 360, Microsoft have decided to slightly over-engineer the cooling on their consoles. One of the reasons why the original Xbox One was so big and bulky was to allow for larger fans and more airflow inside the console. I for one am happy about this, as all of my Xboxes this generation (XBO, XBO S, XBO X) have been extremely quiet compared to my PS4 or PC.

I really like how it looks! Its monolithic design will absolutely stand out as a showpiece in any living room. The name doesn't roll off the tongue at all though. I wonder if this will have a Wii U-like effect on the console. We'll see.

I like it. Best looking Xbox so far IMO. Clean and nice. Name is disappointing, but that's par for the course with Microsoft, and I would have it no other way.

Actually, bad names is the norm for consoles in general. Very few have had cool names. Many of the best ones have had the lamest names of all.

I hope they don’t go with multiple SKUs because then developers will always have to code for the lowest common denominator.

So this is the beginning of Xbox becoming more PC, now if we could side load Windows 10 on it I would actually consider buying a xbox

What's the extent of the backwards compatibility? Will I be able to stick an original Xbox game disc in it and it'll work?

Well that's a stupid fucking name, isn't it? It it too late for Xbox 1080 or Xbox 8k?

So it turns out it is just called Xbox after all. The Series X is just the first one of those they're going to sell you.

https://www.polygon.com/xbox-scarlett/2019/12/16/21025133/xbox-series-x-name-scarlett

Probably pretty much the same way it works on the Xbox One. There's a limited list of games on the backward compatibility list. If you've one of those discs, you stick it in and a back compat version is downloaded to the console. You then need to have the disc in to play the game.

MS and the Polygon article's author say 'Series X' way more than just 'Xbox' in that article, so I don't believe it's so simple. An iPhone is an iPhone and an Xbox is an Xbox, of course, but the specific model is still the name, and if 'Xbox Series X' is written on the packaging and in the manual come launch day, that is definitely its official name. I think they're just explaining it's the main SKU in a potential umbrella referred to as Series X, not a single device named it, and this model is the first -- we got that already, makes perfect sense -- but it's still the name.

To me, it's a syntax thing. They're saying it's not 'Xbox Series X', it's 'Xbox: Series X.' The fact there's even this amount of discussion regarding the name proves it's kinda dumb, but I agree with this clarification they're making 100%. It is totally Xbox first and Series X second.

@frytup: That's what I was suspecting. I don't own an Xbox One though, so I kind of forgot how that BC-system worked.

Not sure what to think of it honestly. I don't see myself selling my 2080 Ti to get one, though.

The name is dumb and MS' prototype names are consistently better than the retail product names, but at this point I'm used to it and don't really care. I think it's less than ideal from a branding standpoint, but this isn't atypical of marketing from giant companies who often overthink and underdeliver on a name. I'm confident the product itself will be somewhere between good/great, and that's what I care about.

I will say that I think the potential confusion is overstated, though. The only one that seems like a possibility is the Xbox One X with the Series X, and by the time this comes out, the One X will probably be selling for a few hundred dollars cheaper. I'm sure some dumb parent will buy that instead, but that's also kinda on them for being uninformed on a major purchase.

It's silly to me that the gaming community gets all up in arms about this stuff, as if how well a product is named somehow affects them. I'd extend that to the aesthetics discussion as well. There has never been a console that has looked good enough to be some display piece, nor one that has been ugly enough to where it wouldn't allow it in my home. It seems like much ado about nothing for something that's going to to be stuffed in an entertainment center or under a TV.

Design = Very Good. But it won't fit on some people's entertainment centers. A fat cubular rectangle is actually a bit less flexible than a lower profile slab.

Name = Terrible, confusing and needlessly confusing to boot - Xbox Series X means what in relation to Xbox One X? Does the average consumer know is One X is better than Series X just from the name?

Hardware = The same as PS5 in a lot of ways, this is good for both and I think good for the gaming ecosystem - I award no points (but give a thumbs up)

Controller = Sounds good in theory

Storage = Well...everyone is going with some sort of SSD in some form - I award no points (but give a thumbs up)

Backwards Compatibility = People love this in theory; but only small % of buyers use it - I award no points (but give a thumbs up)

Messaging So Far = To be honest, they could try to be a bit more clear - K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid)

Halo Game = Really? Well, that name is not much of a draw anymore MS, how about saying Forza next time - I award no points & no thumbs up.

ADVICE: Microsoft, just call the damn thing XBox 5...or XBOX 8 The Ocho!