With the recent release of Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X, early adopters have been looking for ways to give the next-gen consoles a unique twist. Some PS5 owners are already customizing their consoles with unique faceplates, coloring, additional accessories, and more, but one Xbox Series X owner came up with a simple, effective way to pay homage to a fan-favorite superhero movie.
Spider-Man is largely associated with Sony, both in terms of filmography and video games. Sony owns the rights to Marvel's web-slinging hero on the silver screen (though they have made deals to keep Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and Insomniac Games has now produced two PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man titles. In fact, Insomniac has gone out of its way to add an Into the Spider-Verse suit in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, leading many players to recreate scenes from the film.
What Sony does not have is a console that appears to be a perfect analog for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's take on Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk. As Reddit user TheBardAbaddon pointed out on the r/gaming subreddit Tuesday, the all-black rectangular Xbox Series X is strikingly similar to Spider-Verse's Kingpin; essentially a brick wall in a suit. Using just a print-out of the character's face, the joke writes itself.
The simplicity of TheBardAbaddon's customization idea also makes it widely accessible to fans of the acclaimed 2018 film. A lot of fan-made custom Xbox Series X designs by popular creators such as XboxPope are detailed, appealing tributes to their source materials, but Kingpin Xbox Series X is a fun reminder that sometimes less is more.
That being said, Xbox fans may still be unable to customize the next-gen console. After launching just over a week ago, both the Xbox Series X and its counterpart Xbox Series S have had shortages, and these shortages garnered an apology from Xbox Head Phil Spencer. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has purportedly had an effect on production, but Spencer expects availability will normalize over time.
Though Sony's PS5 has also been popular since launching last Thursday, it is not currently available worldwide. Only select regions could buy Sony's console on November 12, but a larger launch for the rest of the world is planned tomorrow, November 19. Those PlayStation owners may not be able to turn their consoles into Kingpin, but fans have shown that Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Seto Kaiba is a viable option on the PS5.
The Xbox Series X is available now.