The Xbox One X might have been the most powerful console in the market, but Microsoft made the decision to discontinue the flagship member of the Xbox family, as it had recently announced in a statement to IGN.
As reported on Game Rant, Microsoft is discontinuing not only the Xbox One X, but also the Xbox One S All-Digital, leaving the vanilla Xbox One S as the only surviving “One” console before the launch of the Xbox Series X this fall.
The Xbox One X (which was originally codenamed “Project Scorpio”) was introduced in late 2017, and was a response to Sony’s PS4 Pro, which had launched in fall 2016. The X was a more powerful console than the Pro, featuring 12 GB of memory vs the Pro’s 8 GB, and more horsepower for games than Sony’s machine too.
It also helped end the narrative that the PS4 was more powerful than the Xbox One console this generation. Actually, it was the PS4’s power edge at launch together with its console for gaming focus vs Microsoft’s “media center” approach with the Xbox One which helped Sony win the console war by a handsome margin this generation.
Actually, the PS4 is now amongst the five best-selling consoles of all time, even if the Xbox One and its variants didn’t do so poorly either. And the Xbox One X still has the distinction of being the most powerful video game console ever made, something which will end when the Xbox Series X and PS5 hit the shelves this holiday season.
Also, the Xbox One X will count as one of the consoles with the shortest lifespan (less than three years). Microsoft discontinued the highly successful Xbox 360 back in 2016, after its last-gen console had been in the market for eleven years. But now that the Xbox One X has fallen, another question begs answering…
What will the Xbox One X’s replacement be?
It definitely won’t be the Xbox Series X, given its $500 US dollar (or more) price tag, and taking into account that the Xbox One X was going for about $400. This may go up, though as people fight to get hold of the remaining stock.
But as one Forbes contributor has pointed out, it’s likely that the Xbox Lockhart will be the successor to the Xbox One X, and will likely be priced at about $400 too. The Lockhart is Microsoft’s rumored answer to the discless version of the PS5. It would also ship without a Blu-ray drive, and will be capable of gaming at lower resolutions than its sibling the Xbox Series X.
But even if some will be lamenting the fall of the Xbox One X, the situation won’t be so dire for those looking to play Xbox One games as the entire library of games for Microsoft’s current-gen console will be playable on the Xbox Series X when it ships later this year thanks to backwards compatibility.
Meanwhile, the cheaper, all-white Xbox One S will still be available for purchase, even as Microsoft is bound to get gamers excited about the upcoming Xbox Series X when it showcases its next-gen games during an online event this July.