A report by Tom Warren over at The Verge indicates that the Xbox One X will be discontinued, meaning that the console will no longer be manufactured and sold through to stores. Whenever the stock runs out in retail stores, that’s it. This makes sense in a lot of ways. The rumored Xbox Lockhart will replace the One X as a mid tier gaming device, likely sold at $299. Lockhart is better in basically every way than a One X, so there really is no reason for Xbox to continue to manufacture the console.
BREAKING: Microsoft is officially discontinuing its Xbox One X and Xbox One S digital edition consoles ahead of the Series X launch. The Xbox One S will continue to be manufactured. Details here: https://t.co/G8ekSmiXQY pic.twitter.com/7isMMrqyJL
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 16, 2020
The Xbox One X was announced in 2017 and was the a major landmark announcement for the Xbox brand after a rough start to the generation. Xbox lost this generation for many reasons, but a large reason was hardware related. The Xbox One simply was not good enough at release, and for many years the One versions of games were worse than the competition. Xbox had no way to get rid of the fact that their versions of games were graphically inferior to what the PS4 put out until they released the Xbox One X.
When the console launched in 2017, it was definitively the most powerful console ever made. It had an impressive 6 Teraflop GPU, nearly a 5x increase over the original Xbox One. It was also noticeably more powerful than the PS4 Pro, Sony’s equivalent to the One X, which had a respectable 4.2 Teraflop GPU. After four years of consistently having worse versions of multi platform games, Xbox had regained the power crown and had positioned itself as the best place to play games.
While a powerful console is not everything, the One X completely changed the image of Xbox to the gaming audience. There were legitimate questions about whether Xbox was serious about the gaming space, and whether or not they just wanted to sell you a multimedia device that also played games. The One X quieted those criticisms, and was a major wind change in righting the ship following the disastrous Xbox One launch.
The One X was marketed as the best place to play games, nothing else. This philosophy of a serious gaming machine that focused solely on games started with this console, but has continued on to the Xbox Series X. In many ways, the Series X could not have existed without the One X. The One X was a reminder to gamers that Xbox is in the industry to make the best possible product to play games. The Series X is a continuation of that message, and Xbox continues to hold the crown of worlds most powerful console.
The Xbox One X is one of my favorite consoles of all time. It is an incredibly powerful machine, and is sleek and to the point. It is a console for people who want to have the most powerful hardware available, and it is one of the best investments I have made. While it’s life span is short lived, and will be rendered outdated when the Series X and Lockhart launch, I will always remember it fondly as the console that was a major step in turning around Xbox.
