Xbox One X

I think the key thing about it is that it hit the right price point, 399, the cost of the original PlayStation 4 when it launched.

And obviously, we would see more successful results with 4K with the Xbox One X, which had the extra memory and the extra bandwidth and whatnot.

But that was like a year away at that point, although I think Phil Spencer was trailing it at E3 the same year, Project Scorpio.

Yeah, interesting times.

Obviously, in time, we've come to realize that's actually probably the right way to go when you're servicing high resolutions like this, especially on console hardware.

It also supported FP16 acceleration, which I believe it was the first console, home console, to support FP16 acceleration, which had more marginal utility at the time, but obviously in time, that's how QSSR is accelerated, and that's a very important format for, you know, you can do machine learning on it and stuff, so that's very important stuff.

The Xbox One X, on the other hand, was more powerful, and it was a more compelling console experience both at the time and now, but it was more expensive.

And it was a little bit more old school in the sense that it approached the problem with just like, how do we get to 4K natively with the console? And the answer was with a big GPU and tons of memory bandwidth.

This rarely ever works out, and could we just fund a big budget Halo movie at this point? I mean, come on.

As always, we end our show with fun facts about Xbox, and since we were talking about code names, well, the Xbox One X almost went by its secret codename, Project Scorpio.

When Microsoft announced the Xbox One X at E3 in 2017, it revealed that the console had been developed under the codename Project Scorpio.

But here's the kicker, Microsoft priced it at $499, and fans could actually buy a special edition that kept the Project Scorpio name.

The limited edition console features the words Project Scorpion, both the console and controller, making the codename part of Xbox history even after Microsoft dropped it as the official product name.

And what a special moment that was.

I remember I got my Xbox One X. I got my first 4K TV.

I got my new pair of Astro headphones that is still next to me this day that I use to play PlayStation 5 on.

you mean the mid-gen cycle

the mid-gen exactly refresh yes did not have a killer first party game they had a killer game outside of that they had plenty of third-party support But they didn't have their own big game to go with that to say this is going to take advantage of the Xbox One X.

And the series consoles launched with Gears Tactics.

And you're like, bro, come on.

That's like your baseline.

You also have, like, if you're playing Destiny 2, you can play Destiny 2 on those old generations of Xbox Ones, Xbox One X and Ss.

but they only go up to a certain FOV and you can't do 4K more than 60 frames.

So with the Series X and the PlayStation Pros, I think that's when you can do 105 FOV, you can do 120 hertz at 4K.

Let me bring it up here.

Uh, from retrogamer.net, uh, the Xbox One X is also going to be backwards compatible all the way back to the original Xbox.

Uh, details are currently thin on the ground as to how this will work, but communications from key Xbox figures gives us some clue.

First game confirmed is, uh, confirmed to be supported is Crimson Skies, and the fact that they're talking about which games will be supported indicates that, as with the existing Xbox 360 backwards compatibility, games will be enabled on a case by case basis.

Um, you know, I, I...

There weren't really too many games I can think of right offhand that I was crazy about with the original Xbox that this would sell an Xbox One X to me.

But I mean, as far as, like, maybe the original Halo.

Um, hmm.

Right.

For me personally, like back in the day, oh man, you know, like Dar-, like doing the Xbox One X, oh my God, six TFLOPS.

I didn't know what the hell a TFLOPS was, but hey, it's more than PS5 or a PS4 Pro.

So the specs themselves, I mean, it sounds cool.

Book now at AA.com.

This is the XNC Podcast, your Xbox newscast, featuring Cole Eastwood and Mag, hosting industry interviews and gaming talk live on YouTube every Monday night at 5 p.m. on the West Coast, 8 p.m. on the East Coast.

For all of you listening around the world, XNC Podcast is available on demand on Spotify, Google, and Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to the show.

Join the chat, hit the like button, and let's get into this week's topics with the Xbox newscast.

Welcome, this is episode 279.

This is the Ecstasy Podcast, also known as the Xbox Newscast.

I'm here with my amazing co-host, middle-aged game guy, also known as Mag, drinking the special go-go juice of the night.

I did, you know, put like a, I did like the compressed air thing to try and get dust out of it and see if, make sure that the heat sink wasn't, you know, going too crazy, but no, still completely fucked.

So, had to send the series x off for a repair that's still out with microsoft at the moment haven't got that back yet so for this week i've had to take a trip back in time and busted out the xbox one x uh and tried to see um what it would be like living on the uh what is it what 20 when did that console when did that one come out was like 2015 somewhere around there um

one x retro what if the One X would have been

2017.

Yeah.

And then, and now we're at this point when the Xbox One X is just a shittier PC.

I mean, just their branding is a mess.

They, they went from Xbox to Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S.

Series X, Xbox One X.

And I mean, I kind of, Asha Sharma, I kind of feel for her in that she's just been dropped in a post-frat party house-

[laughs]

[laughs] Uh, but if you look at like the Xbox Series X with the, its announcement, it was great, right? Took the world by storm.

But it swept the legs out of the Xbox One X sales Uh, in a time where the really, especially right now where these, these consoles they need to sell and you have, you know, you have system sellers out there with Gears of War, right? Uh, I don't think they should really show off Helix in any capacity.

I do think they can talk-

Really?

I mean, think about, think, think about the ramifications of what I'm saying, chat.

You announce the console, you announce that you're gonna support physical media, and you show a game running on the, uh...

The same way they did that in 2019 with the Xbox One X and, of course, Hellblade 2, right? Did that not stop the presses? Yes, it did.

And this would do the same thing.