Gaming

The Xbox Series S Has Everyone Totally Confused, So Now It’s Become A Massive Meme

"Okay who the fuck is naming consoles over at Microsoft."

by Joseph Earp  16 September 2020
Xbox Series S memes

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The Playstation 5 roll-out has been pretty simple, coronavirus notwithstanding. Earlier this year, Sony announced the console, with its sleek, easy-to-understand name, and gave a tentative date for its release — quarter four, 2020.

Sure, there are still questions remaining about the console. Due to pandemic-related production delays (what a sentence) it seems pretty likely that the device will be in “low supply” these holidays. There’s also a little bit of confusion over the console’s backwards compatibility, as always, and a general question about why consumers need to buy another pricey device, given the PS4 is doing well.

But such quibbles are nothing compared to the general confusion breaking out over the Xbox’s new devices, a mess partially kicked off by this tweet from IGN:

Because this is the internet, the confusion over the multiple Xbox-related phrases in that one, mind-boggling sentence has become a massive meme. Now, all anyone wants to talk about is the difference in the way that Microsoft and Sony name their consoles, resulting in days of high quality jokes like these ones:

To be fair to Microsoft, such a sentence will make perfect sense to gamers, the target market for IGN‘s stories. Moreover, even if you are not a gamer, it’s not too hard to explain what precisely is going on here, which I’m going to do for you right now.

The Xbox Series S, Explained

The Xbox Series S is a sleeker, smaller, cheaper version of Xbox Series X. Because of that smaller capacity, the device will run backwards-compatible games differently to the beefier Series X. So, while people who buy the Series S will be able to play Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, just like those who buy the Series X, those games will look a little different on the former device.

Basically, they will look ever-so-slightly worse. The Xbox Series X will give players the chance to play spruced up versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. The Xbox Series S won’t. It’s essentially just a confirmation of what we already knew — that because the S is a smaller, cheaper machine, players will be making a slight compromise on quality.

So yeah, not too complicated. But still, Microsoft naming conventions sure are weird, huh?