Xbox Series X

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About

The Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s upcoming fourth installment in the Xbox series of home video game consoles. The Xbox Series X was unveiled in December 2019 and is rumored to launch with a Series X and a Series S variant. Microsoft has not yet confirmed an official price or release date, but the XSX is slated sometime for the Holiday 2020 season.

History

On June 9th, 2019, Microsoft teased the next generation of the Xbox console under the codename “Project Scarlett” during its press conference at E3 2019.^[1] At the event, the company hinted at some of the new potential features of the console, including the need for a “soft transition” from Xbox One with backward compatibility, boosted hardware and new features. A rumored lower-end variant was also speculated to be in development under the codename “Lockhart” (reportedly renamed the Xbox Series S).^[2] After it was uploaded to the official Xbox YouTube^[3] channel later that day, the video (seen below) accumulated over 3.6 million views in nearly one and a half years.

On December 12th, 2019, Microsoft unveiled the next-gen console to the world, dubbed the “Xbox Series X,” during The Game Awards 2019. Announced alongside the reveal, Microsoft confirmed that the XSX would release sometime in late 2020. Following the event’s conclusion, the trailer was uploaded to YouTube^[4] where it received more than 14 million views in roughly nine months (shown below).

After the console had been revealed, the controversial tower-like design resulted in a series of memes and Xbox Series X design parodies depicting the console in a multitude of photoshopped edits. Many online joked about the cubeish design of the console. For example, Twitter^[5] user itsTOZZE compared it to an image of SpongeBob SquarePants in a tweet (seen below, left), receiving more than 7,300 likes and 1,800 retweets. Others compared it to a building and a refrigerator (seen below, center and right).

On July 23rd, 2020, Microsoft held its Xbox Games Showcase event where it teased the lineup of games planned to release alongside the console, including Halo Infinite (which was later delayed until 2021). The graphics shown during the demo of Halo Infinite later gave life to the Craig the Brute meme. One such example, tweeted by Twitter^[6] user HMKilla the day of the event, received over 1,400 likes and 399 retweets in roughly one month (shown below).

Online Presence

Since the confirmation of the XSX, the console has had a prominent presence online through various communities and fan pages. On Reddit,^[7] the /r/XboxSeriesX subreddit was created on December 13th, 2019, and has grown to over 88,000 members in roughly nine months.

On Facebook, the @XboxSeriesFans^[8] page was created on May 21st, 2013, and accumulated over 476,000 followers in over seven years. The Facebook^[9] group for the Xbox Series X was started on December 29th, 2019, receiving over 49,000 followers in roughly eight months.

Xbox Series X Parodies

Xbox Series X Parodies refers to a collection of photoshopped parodies of the Xbox Series X that mock the rectangular cuboid shape of the Microsoft entertainment console. These memes emerged shortly after the reveal of the next-generation console in late 2019.