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Microsoft’s new Xbox console hit stores around the world on Tuesday, kicking off a Christmas season battle with Sony’s latest PlayStation model as the coronavirus pandemic creates unprecedented demand for games around the world.
The Xbox Series X launches just two days before Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 5, in a showdown that’s likely to dominate the gaming industry this shopping season.
The launches are well placed to capitalize on a massive increase in demand for games. A growing number of people around the world seek to distract themselves during a pandemic that has killed 1.25 million people and left at least 3 billion more in some form of lockdown since the virus emerged in late December.
But while the locks and restrictions may have boosted sales, they have also forced companies to move their launch events online.
Xbox, famous for games like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza Horizon, counted down online until midnight for Australia and New Zealand.
Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s executive vice president of games, told gamers at a Facebook live event that they were taking “the first step toward the next generation of games.”
“And you will be the first in the world to experience it.”
The pandemic also means that there will be no long lines of customers camped out outside the stores, and that pre-orders are placed online, instead more likely to be delivered to players’ homes.
But demand has been vigorous and is expected to continue, Morris Garrard, an analyst at specialized financial consultancy FutureSource, told AFP before the launch.
“As soon as some action is available, it will be bought, even in a few minutes,” he said.
He said that part of that activity would be people trying to buy shares to resell them, but that he expects “a high level of excess demand for these consoles, at least in the short term.”
“Speaking of three to six months, I think we will see that a lot of people who want to have a console cannot get one.”
Swan song for physical consoles?
Microsoft hopes its next-gen offering will help close the gap with Sony, whose PlayStation 4 has sold twice as much as the Xbox One since both were released in 2013.
Unlike the PlayStation 5, which will roll out in different countries starting Thursday, the Xbox Series X will hit shelves around the world on Tuesday.
Both Sony and Microsoft have lined up a roster of highly anticipated games, spearheaded by the latest edition of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, an open-world Viking epic, to launch with consoles, which will feature much more powerful core processors and graphics than their predecessors. .
In a competitive industry where the focus is shifting to online gaming, this could be a swan song for physical consoles, with both companies turning to cloud servers to do the heavy lifting for future processing.
But for now, the Xbox design team boasts that its product, which looks a lot like a PC, is “the fastest and most powerful console ever.”
The kit, which has potential 8K video capabilities, has a faster graphics processor than the PS5 and superior power to process data.
The “premium” Xbox Series X costs $ 499 (roughly Rs 36,900), the same price as the PlayStation 5, but both companies also offer cheaper digital “mini” versions of the new machines. On these smaller consoles, players will be able to play titles only as downloads, not on disc.
Microsoft’s scaled-down console, the Xbox Series S, costs $ 299 (roughly Rs. 22,100), $ 100 (roughly Rs. 7,400) less than the digital-only PlayStation, a move that analysts say Sony can afford as a market leader. .
What is the best TV under Rs. 25,000? We talked about this on Orbital, our weekly tech podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
