Friday, November 3rd 2017
Microsoft: Demand for Xbox One X Defies Expectations
Microsoft has said that demand for its upcoming Xbox One X games console is meeting expectations, and then some. Panos Panay, corporate vice president of devices, told CNBC that he wouldn't be able to talk about specific numbers, but that demand was, quote, "super high". He added that "I won't compare it to other consoles. What I'll say is the demand for Xbox One X right now is exactly where we anticipated, even more so when you see that excitement for the product... this is something that resonates with gamers."
The demand is so high, in fact, that there have been numerous reports of shortages, which means supply isn't even being able to sustain demand for the new Xbox, 4K-enabled console that launches on November 7th. Whether this stems from the fact that demand really is "super high", or limited production, or a mix of those two, is always up for debate. However, one only has to consider the amount of hardware that's being crammed in such a tiny box to glimpse the massive effort in engineering that was needed for this console - it's a mass of custom hardware, 60% smaller than the Original Xbox One, while delivering almost 5x the performance. It's likely this demand is fueled by the total of 130 games (and counting) that have already been confirmed to receive Xbox One X compatibility patches. The presence of a UHD Blu-Ray solution also doesn't hurt its media pedigree either, though the $499 cost of entry is somewhat steep by console standards. Here though, it's definitely well deserved - at least when one takes into account the hardware.But there's more to this than the usual performance increase - and accompanying resolution bump which can sometimes go to more than 4K resolution, as is the case with Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall 2. Microsoft is also cooking up a VR push with its new console, which now really does have the processing grunt to push those workloads to an external device. Microsoft's Mixed Reality ecosystem is well and thriving, and while there are currently no Xbox One X specific headsets, those are kept away only for a time.
The demand is so high, in fact, that there have been numerous reports of shortages, which means supply isn't even being able to sustain demand for the new Xbox, 4K-enabled console that launches on November 7th. Whether this stems from the fact that demand really is "super high", or limited production, or a mix of those two, is always up for debate. However, one only has to consider the amount of hardware that's being crammed in such a tiny box to glimpse the massive effort in engineering that was needed for this console - it's a mass of custom hardware, 60% smaller than the Original Xbox One, while delivering almost 5x the performance. It's likely this demand is fueled by the total of 130 games (and counting) that have already been confirmed to receive Xbox One X compatibility patches. The presence of a UHD Blu-Ray solution also doesn't hurt its media pedigree either, though the $499 cost of entry is somewhat steep by console standards. Here though, it's definitely well deserved - at least when one takes into account the hardware.But there's more to this than the usual performance increase - and accompanying resolution bump which can sometimes go to more than 4K resolution, as is the case with Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall 2. Microsoft is also cooking up a VR push with its new console, which now really does have the processing grunt to push those workloads to an external device. Microsoft's Mixed Reality ecosystem is well and thriving, and while there are currently no Xbox One X specific headsets, those are kept away only for a time.