A short but sweet video released today from Microsoft shows off the inner workings of the Xbox Series X, the fourth incarnation of the company's long-running console series. The new Xbox's tower-like design was the subject of both cheers and jeers from players when it was revealed in December at The Game Awards, but fans have warmed up to the unusual look with an absence of concrete information on the console's biggest rival, Sony's mysterious PlayStation 5.
The quirky aesthetic of the console fits a lot of gear into a relatively small package, taller than the Xbox One but not as wide. The Xbox Series X will have a custom GPU sourced from AMD, as well as an eight-core CPU and 16GB memory system built by Microsoft called the Xbox Velocity Architecture, which is designed to give both players and developers more flexibility in how to interact with the games installed on the console.
The Xbox Series X is equipped with 1 TB of onboard storage, and fans will be able to expand their collection down the line with Microsoft's Xbox memory cartridges for the console. The company promises that transfer speeds for the NVMe-based carts will be just as fast as internal storage, but fans are probably going to be disappointed that the system won't support USB storage expansions like its Xbox One predecessors. The feature has the potential to make or break a console's reputation with fans, so Microsoft will have to stick the landing if it wants players to be willing to buy Xbox-exclusive tech over a regular external SSD or hard drive.
Microsoft also took the opportunity to poke fun at the Xbox Series X's look with another tweet shared today, putting the console next to a refrigerator several times its size for scale. A frequent jab at the next-gen system from players has been its resemblance to the household appliance through its oblong design, so seeing the company itself embrace fan reactions to the console shows that we're dealing with a much different Xbox launch than the disastrous debut of the Xbox One in 2013. The console's release is still promised for this year, but only time will tell if it'll arrive on time thanks to potential coronavirus-caused production delays.
The Xbox Series X is scheduled to arrive in late 2020.