wraggster
March 2nd, 2020, 19:03
While Sony is keeping its powder dry for what will presumably be a mammoth reveal of PlayStation 5 in a few months -- assuming, of course, that supply chain disruption doesn't derail its launch plans for the system (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-21-covid-19-looms-over-planning-for-next-gen-launches) -- Microsoft is taking quite the opposite tack with Xbox Series X. We know rather a lot about the new Microsoft system already, and the firm isn't being shy about info-dumping plenty of additional details about the console and its launch plans on a regular basis.
That strategy is absolutely sensible, because one of the bigger tasks facing Xbox Series X is a communications challenge. Microsoft is doing something very new with this console, committing fully at last to the paradigm shift it has hinted at since the very outset of the Xbox brand -- moving away from the notion of the console as a monolithic, static platform (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-17-microsoft-goes-all-in-on-the-evergreen-platform) that lasts five to seven years and is then replaced, and embracing the concept of the console as a consistent, eternal platform running on a variety of steadily evolving hardware products.
It's a lot to take in, even for the games industry itself. For consumers, though, who have been used to the former model for decades, and will continue to be offered variations on that model by Sony and Nintendo... Well, it's more than reasonable for Microsoft to take a few months to communicate exactly what it's doing and why it's doing it.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-28-xbox-series-x-gets-its-first-great-soundbite-opinion
That strategy is absolutely sensible, because one of the bigger tasks facing Xbox Series X is a communications challenge. Microsoft is doing something very new with this console, committing fully at last to the paradigm shift it has hinted at since the very outset of the Xbox brand -- moving away from the notion of the console as a monolithic, static platform (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-17-microsoft-goes-all-in-on-the-evergreen-platform) that lasts five to seven years and is then replaced, and embracing the concept of the console as a consistent, eternal platform running on a variety of steadily evolving hardware products.
It's a lot to take in, even for the games industry itself. For consumers, though, who have been used to the former model for decades, and will continue to be offered variations on that model by Sony and Nintendo... Well, it's more than reasonable for Microsoft to take a few months to communicate exactly what it's doing and why it's doing it.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-28-xbox-series-x-gets-its-first-great-soundbite-opinion