The New Xbox Is Called The ‘Series X’ And Is Officially Coming In 2020

Microsoft has gone through a number of naming conventions for its Xbox video game console, and its next generation is a mishmash of old and new. As revealed at The Game Awards on Thursday, Xbox’s Project Scarlet has an official name, The Xbox Series X.

Billed as the fastest Xbox ever — which should be no surprise given that it’s the next generation of console and all — the Series X is yet another black rectangle, but this one looks much more like a PC tower than a video game box.

The Xbox has evolved over the years since its ribbed 2001 debut, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One that followed all had various uses of numbers and Xes. The newest version of the Xbox One, the current latest console from Microsoft on the market, also uses the X distinction at the end to signify its elite status. So all of this may be a bit confusing, but the shape of the console is unmistakably different from past iterations.

Microsoft showed off a first look at Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II using the Series X engine and it looks pretty great as far as graphics go. But little else was revealed about the details inside the rectangle itself.

Though details about the actual hardware were scarce, the resulting tech specs are solid and promise minimal load times moving forward.

From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.

The official Microsoft blog post about the news points out that the console is ready for both vertical and horizontal orientation in case your entertainment center is not ready for a black tower. There will be a new controller, however, and though it will apparently be compatable with the Xbox One it isn’t clear if the same can be said for your current Xbox One controller.

The release info does say a Holiday 2020 debut is coming, and “four generations” of Xbox games will be available for the console. So that Game Pass library you’ve been building will carry over, it seems, if you’re ready for the next generation of consoles in a few short months.