Why The Xbox One X Will Fail

The Xbox One X is an upcoming console from Microsoft that is set to serve as a more powerful version of the Xbox One. On paper, this move makes sense. Sony already released the PlayStation 4 Pro so, naturally, Microsoft would want to compete. However, their updated console is going a little overboard.

Why The Xbox One X Will Fail
At this year's E3 conference, Microsoft announced that Project Scorpio is called the Xbox One X. It will offer 4K gaming and is set to compete against Sony's own PlayStation 4 Pro. However, I think Microsoft has made a few mistakes with this console that will really hurt its chance at thriving in the market. I'm not sold that the world actually wants the Xbox One X and what it brings to the table at this stage of a console cycle. With that, here are a few of the reasons why I think the Xbox One X will be a failure.

Price

To be fair to this point, Xbox head Phill Spencer has always billed this as a premium console, which is probably why it has a price tag of $499. Much like Sony and the PlayStation 3 last gen, I believe Microsoft is pricing themselves out of the competition. The PlayStation 4 Pro is currently $100 less than that so Microsoft has to make a case for why consumers should buy the Xbox One X instead of the PlayStation 4 Pro. I just don't see what Microsoft has to offer here.

The price is also just getting into computer range at that point. With dedicated gaming PCs becoming cheaper and easier to get, I think many people will see the $500 price tag and decide to see what they can try and do there. This isn't helped by Microsoft putting all of the exclusives on PC as well now. While I'm certainly grateful for the fact they do this, I don't think it will help them sell this console.

Power

While the Xbox One X may have more power than the PlayStation 4 Pro, I'm not entirely sure that matters. I truly don't think third-party developers are going to go out of their way to make sure the Xbox One X version is superior to the PlayStation 4 Pro version. It very well could end up the user just paying $100 extra just for some prettier console exclusives. That may be worth it to some, but I just don't see the value in it.

I could be wrong on this front. The console isn't out yet, so maybe devs will continue to make all games noticeably better on the Xbox One X. I'm just now sure they will find it worth the investment. It is going to have a smaller user base than the Xbox One and, with it being later to the party, the PlayStation 4 Pro. I think developers are likely to use the PlayStation 4 Pro as a base and make slight improvements at best for the Xbox One X.

Why The Xbox One X Will Fail. With the timing and price point, I can't see the Xbox One X being a huge success.

timing

The Xbox One X is coming out at on odd time. Going based on the console cycle of the previous generations, it seems likely that this one is coming to an end sooner rather than later. It seems odd that Microsoft would release a more powerful version of the Xbox One for $499, then a few years later expect them to pay at least another $399 for the next version of Xbox. This could mean Microsoft doesn't have plans to release a new console soon, or that Michael Pratcher is correct and this is the last console generation. With the money Sony has made off of this console generation, then it is likely they could pay to make the pigs fly to make that a reality.

Both the Xbox One X and the PlayStation 4 Pro bring up interesting talking points either way. Is this the future of consoles? Are we just going to have to keep periodically upgrading them to make sure we don't get left behind? If that does become the case, then why have one over a PC? It seems the longer consoles are around, the more PC like they become. It isn't inherently a bad thing, but I'm not sure that it is the best path for consoles to take.

Conclusion

With everything we currently know about the Xbox One X, I just don't think it can thrive in the market. I think it is priced too high for the casual gamer to buy one, especially since a similar experience can be found for a $100 less with the PlayStation 4 Pro. I'm also not convinced that devs will make much use of anything more powerful than the PlayStation 4 Pro right now. With a new console generation coming most likely in a few years, I find it hard to believe devs will spend the money and time to improve their games beyond the basic improvement already offered by the PlayStation 4 Pro.

What do you guys think? Do you believe that the Xbox One X will succeed in the market, or do you think it will fail for one reason or another? Do you think this will set a trend where consoles become even more PC-like where they need to be upgraded every so often to stay up to date? Let me know what you think in the comments below. 

29 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    Your realy poorly informed first the xbox one x was not released as a competitor for PlayStation pro. Ps pro wad released because thats all they could do to even compete with t quality with to original Xbox which they tryed playing it off as a competitor for the xbox one s which its not xos blows it out of the water. Xbox one x was made so that games could play any game they want on any system computer, switch, xbox one x all eventually could play together the xbox one x is to give console players a fair playing ground as pc. Xbox one x is essentially a high quality gaming computer. It was made to rival comuters not the PlayStation pro which is underwhelming crap sony only want money they don’t care about customers just money. Microsoft cares about the customer and wants them to have the best for there money. Do proper research before you slander a high quality products and compare it to a money guby companies crap system.

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    I think you have a good point, I also think MS is actually helping Sony by bringing down the cost of

     

    newer AMD parts, so by the time PS5 is released it will make it much cheaper to produce and enable Sony to make it more powerful for the same cost.

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    Agree. Xbox one x will fail like the sega dream cast. Its to far ahead of its time. Michael Pratcher is wrong too. If he got out of his fibre optic internet bubble he would realize a great percentage of gamers who buy consoles dont have amazing internet yet. Thats why they buy them over pc.

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    Or this guy could be a Playstation Fanboy….

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    I agree it will fail

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    This console will fail, not everyone is rich and bringing this out just after the xbox one S is luke shooting themselves in the foot stupid strategy of microsoft they just dont like sony competing with them and winning

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    I think it will gather momentum as developers learn to exploit it’s full potential.

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    You know I thought the S on the upgraded iPhones was naff and MS go with this lame duck name ?

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    Maybe XBOX is financially already a big success….

     

    Keep an open mind.

     

    Some companies just want financial big WINS without spending\investing to much. Selling the most is not always the goal to achieve that.

     

    Some probably don’t like that marketing strategy 🙂 (SONY had invested a ton in owning game companies :)..

     

    Microsoft just does not…

     

    Owned game studio list by MS and SONY should give you the clear picture:

     

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios

     

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment

     

     

    As long as we are happy with the games we do play on our XBOX.I bet MS is very happy with the sales figure.

     

    It will not fail financially. If a lot of exclusives were designed/developed for it, it could fail financially. But MS did not make that mistake by investing much in AAA game development and owning game studios as SONY does.

     

    People with money will buy it because of 4K and UHD bluray player and no more 900p multiplats. And that’s should be enough to make it a ‘financial’ success. It will not beat the competition in any way. But that does not need to be the goal.

     

     

    As long as Microsoft PR is managing the crowd with power of the cloud, directx12, kinect and scalebound and now true 4K predictions, it will not fail. Microsoft allways excells in sales/marketing tactics.

     

    That’s why the XBOX one X will NOT fail!!

     

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  10. Avatar photo

    I think you should get into the stock market with the vast insight you have.

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      Smh lol

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  11. Avatar photo

    Lol try building an actual gaming PC that puts out the graphics and performance of an Xbox one let alone the xb1x for 500$, u can’t. As for the rest of your reasons u are just grasping at straws. Click bait article and I fell for it.

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      First, the $ goes before the number and second, what does the price of a PC have to do with this article? In fact, the only mention of a PC in the article was when the author talked about how more PC like consoles are becoming and that MS exclusives are also on PC. He is in no way comparing gaming on an XB1 with a PC

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  12. Avatar photo

    Complete trash! The “author” is uninformed and really just click baiting here. (Note to self:Ignore anything from Keengamer & Austin Fern going forward) Yes, patching older games with 4K assets to maximise the power of the Xbox One X could be time consuming(depending on the engine) but had the “journalist” actually done some research he’d discovered that there’s never been an easier console to develop for. Most newer games coming out will be built on 4K already. No 4K assets?, no worries, the “boost mode” is built into the hardware and needs no patch to improve gameplay (unlike the PS4 Pro) The hardware is built around software to make it almost effortless to port to Xbox One X (developers get their games running in days!!) Most developers build their games to be highly scalable these days! PLEASE do some research on the number of developers that already stated that they’ll make full use of the Xbox One X’s power and edit your article accordingly. PLEASE make an effort to maybe conduct interviews with developers and get their take on it?

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      You’re badly informed, the boost mode at Pro is also built into the hardware. The X1X will need patches in a similar way than Pro and it’s questionable many developer will care. We all know how Microsoft handle “the truth”, be it “The Cloud” or “true 4K” so unless the X1X is on the market and holds true to Spencer’s promises I advice everyone to take it with a huge grain of salt.

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    I own a PS4 but this is just another trash article from this site posted on N4G as the one posted yesterday. Do you guys only write click bait like this?!

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  14. Avatar photo

    Click bait Fanboy article, learn how to be a proper journalist

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    Hey Austin, I do believe the Xbox One X will undoubtedly have some excited early adopters when in it launches in November and through December, as well. However, while the Xbox One X is well worth the price point based on the systems specs and the UHD bluray drive, it ultimately comes down to how the system will influence the casual market and as we all know the best way to position new hardware is with standout exclusive games which are exclusive to the hardware, justifying the steep $500 investment. So, to answer your first question of whether it will succeed in the market, that depends on Microsoft’s market goals. I do not see the Xbox One X being offered for $500 for an entire year, due to the aggressive and attractive PS4 Pro line-up of software.

     

     

    Again, the best way to influence a market is by showing attractive and exclusive games. Sure, the most powerful console tagline does raise eyebrows, however, when we see the exclusive line ups running on both the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro and those games are for example Forza 7 vs GT Sport or State of Decay 2 vs God of War, or Crackdown 3 vs Spider-Man, or Sea of Thieves vs Days Gone, or Lawbreakers vs Conan Exiles etc, at the moment we really have not seen the ‘True 4K’ advantage of the Xbox One X standing head and shoulder over the PS4 Pro and its ‘Dynamic 4K’ rendering. While Forza 7 does look incredible running in true 4K @ 60fps, GT Sport also looked incredible in dynamic 4K @ 60fps, as well. At E3, looking at Crackdown 3 in true 4K and Spiderman in dynamic 4K, interestingly enough sitting up-close and personal with both games, clearly Spiderman looked better and cleaner (of course this had much to do with the artistic styles) but my point is at the moment while the Xbox One X is more powerful on paper, in real-world examples the advantage is marginal at best over the PS4 Pro based on what has currently been showcased, which according to the naked eye doesn’t justify the $100 difference.

     

     

    Once we begin to see multiplatform titles in side-by-side comparison hopefully for the sake of the Xbox One X we see a substantial difference of the $100 cheaper PS4 Pro. Yet, based on history the difference might be unnoticeable in many cases. For games like Anthem and Assassin’s Creed Origins, we have yet to see the PS4 Pro versions of those games and when we do the difference or lack thereof will matter.

     

     

    I do believe Sony and now Microsoft have set the trend of offering mid-gen upgraded consoles, which I am a fan of if it continues to makes sense. Because of the impending 4K boom, I believe the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are viable for gamers like myself who do not mind forking out the extra money for the extra power, especially after playing Horizon Zero Dawn in dynamic 4K. This trend could be a beneficial upgrade each generation just as long as the development community is willing to take full advantage of the upgraded hardware.

     

     

    I don’t want to say Microsoft should not have introduced the Xbox One X, because who doesn’t like more power, however in light of the competition and their momentum which is heavily supported by their console exclusives, I am of the opinion that Microsoft could have better positioned the future of the Xbox brand by investing the Xbox One X budget on promising new triple A IP’s from their in-house dev teams and 2nd party development houses to. Ultimately, like the PS4 Pro I believe the Xbox One X will definitely put smiles on the faces of those early adopters, by scratching that 4K-itch. In the long run the Xbox One X has the potential of making some noise if Microsoft invests exclusive new titles for the system to take advantage of its core assets.

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      I do agree that exclusives sell consoles, which is really why this is a hard buy for me. I play PC and PS4 but since Microsoft releases all their exclusives on PC now, I don’t own an Xbox One. To be clear, I really want Microsoft to keep releasing their games on PC, K just think it negatively impacts their console sales.

       

       

      The power of the console is odd. I really can’t picture devs putting in extra effort to make sure it is the Xbox One X version of their game is better than the PS4 Pro. I’m sure their first party titles will, but is that enough?

       

       

      I certainly hope it is a sucess just for competiton sake. I guess we just have to wait and see how Microsoft handles the system.

       

       

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    Well, everyone has a right to their opinion. And PS4 pro is 100 cheaper because it’s not true 4K, doesn’t have a 4K UHD drive. Xbox one X is going to dominate and a lot of us Xbox owners really don’t care about the console wars, because our console company keeps things fresh and Xbox live still is so much more interactive with friends and media. And our rep, Major Nelson, updates us weekly with video previews and other news. PlayStation needs to step it up by interacting more with its fans.

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    • Avatar photo

      Fell for the MS marketing lies I see…PS4Pro is just in the same way a “true 4K” console as the X1X. It does nothing the Pro can’t do. X1X also does checkerboarding and dynamic resolution on third party titles. The UHD drive is hardly a deciding factor when there are close to no UHD BluRays on the market. It’s essentially a dead format. The Pro will be 150,- cheaper coming fall not 100, that’s quite a difference, plus it has the games to back it up.

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      I will give you that Xbox Live is generally a better, more consistent service. I’m sure all the real Xbox fans will buy the console, I’m just not sure that is enough people to really call the console a success. You have to attract the casual console buyers and I don’t think the Xbox One X can do it.

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    Honestly go fuck yourself with all these articles. Every day at least one more bullshit article like this appears based on pure speculation from someone who has no clue about the topic. It was article about Windows 10 games and store from someone who never used it. Then like 10 articles about E3 from blind fanboys. And now this from someone who thinks PS4P and XBX are close in HW and have no clue about Xbox development.

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      I do know about the topic. I’ve played video games for over a decade. Knowing the inside of Xbox is unecessary when you are juat analyzing a console they have given the specs to.

       

       

      I never said the xbox one x and ps4 pro are close in hardware. Just that I don’t think the extra power actually means anything. Tgurd party devs are very lukely to use the already established and successful ps4 pro as a base. I don’t think they will go out of their way to do anything for the xbox one x.

       

       

      Nothing you said actually refuted anything I said. Add to the discussuon, tell me why you think it will succeed.

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  18. Avatar photo

    Its so easy to write them off. But I do think it has a place.

     

     

    But even if it somehow under performs this holiday, it may not mean much in the long run. How powerful are the next gen consoles going to be? How much will they cost? And most importantly, when would one release them?

     

     

    Even if you remove Nintendo, last gen was a combined 160 million consoles sold between PS3 and X360 systems. We are just over halfway there after almost 4 years. In another 3 years or so, we’ll catch up to last gen numbers.

     

     

    But then, will the move to a new system make sense? Are the developers, outside of 4K resolutions, struggling to provide their visions of their games with the current specs? What will they be able to do in the next gen consoles that they cannot do now? Simulate the sweat of 100 NPCs on-screen at once? That’s a lot of work for little payoff. Last gen, RAM was a huge bottleneck. But that’s hardly the case now. Open-world games are possible with incredible detail and with near smooth framerate, and definitely possible in the Pro and X systems.

     

     

    Next-gen systems, unless they provide some gimmick (VR?), may be further that you think. At which point, the case for X makes much more sense.

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      When considering the time for next gen consoles, we can’t forget that hardware is constantly improving and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were already behind the curve when they launched. They could be closer than we think or farther than we think, it is hard to tell right now but it is something worth considering when dropping $499 on a console. Just how long will this be relevant?

       

       

      You also have to look at this as a competitor to the PlayStation 4 Pro, which is part of the reason I don’t think it will succeed. Microsoft hasn’t been terrible saleswise this generation, but they have been crushed by Sony. Will users spend an extra $100 on something similar to the PlayStation 4 Pro? Especially since it seems to be doing quite well for itself. I’m just not sold that it can properly compete at that price point.

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  19. Avatar photo

    Sorry but I’m tired of hearing “I don’t understand who the X1X is for”, or “I believe the X1X will fail”. Only time will tell once it hits the market. With 4k becoming more and more common as prices drop people will naturally gravitate toward a console that supports native 4k and has UHD player standard.

     

     

    I do agree if companies do not take advantage of the extra processing power then they will be in trouble. It WILL be slow out of the gate because of the price, but they are also making smart moves in regards to support i.e. full backwards compatibility across all Xbox consoles and being able to play said games online.

     

     

    Come on people. I don’t understand all the negativity for a console that is 5 months away.

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      The main issue is, why get this over the PlayStation 4 Pro? If devs make full use of the power, then I could see it being worth the extra $100, but that is a huge if. The PlayStation 4 Pro has been selling really well and see devs using it as the base. I feel Microsoft priced themselves out of the competition. I may be wrong, but I can’t help be cautious about the new console. Especially since Microsoft is working with the same install base this gen as Sony. I just think it is a tough sell.

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      • Avatar photo

        All valid points. I hope your wrong though. If it’s as awesome as everyone says spec wise I can’t wait to see how our games will look. See isn’t it nice to have a constructive conversation with two differing views…well sorta and not have to insult each other or say this or that console sucks.

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