Today, November 7th, marks the release day for the Xbox One X, a console I’ve been waiting years for. Specification wise, the machine is a powerhouse, to be sure – currently, it’s the “most powerful” game console available, and honestly I want it. That simple. I want to go out and buy one today.
Well, as badly as I want it right now, as much as I think it would be awesome to open the box, maybe do a video on the unboxing, enjoy the setup process and try to see just how snappy it is compared to my original model Xbox One, I know it would be $500 that I wouldn’t see the benefit of for probably a year or more.
Here’s the thing – while yes, on a whole most games should run even better than they do on my original Xbox One (people have reported many games run better on the Xbox One S, so it makes sense an even more powerful machine would provide even more improvements) that’s about the only benefit I would experience right now.
I don’t have a 4K TV, and I honestly don’t even want one. Seriously, I’m fine with 1080P, given my vision, so the biggest upcoming benefit, 4K gaming output and 4K media playback, has no benefit for me. I have, I think, only one or two of the games that will be upgraded anytime soon to take full advantage of the One X’s power, so that’s another element wasted on me.
Sure, the power usage is decreased from what the original Xbox One uses (at least when idle) but is that worth $500 right now? Not really.
The increased storage? That’s really not an issue for me – I’ve got a 1 TB hard drive connected to my Xbox One, and that holds most of my other games – a few “main” titles stay installed on the console itself, and while I’m about at the limit of space, I have what I want on the system with room to install a game or two and remove others. Seriously, I actually have over 100 games installed at the moment (like I’m ever going to play all of them) and I’m not feeling “lacking” on space, even though I am at the limits.
Basically, where is the benefit to me right now to buy it? It’s my love of technology that makes me want it. It’s a beautiful machine with incredible specs, and I just want it for the sake of it – it won’t actually benefit me right now to spend the money on it. It would be much better to buy it later, when more games are made to run with the systems full power (mainly, Destiny 2.) There are no games that I will need the console for (original Xbox games that are on the back compat list are playable on all Xbox One models, not just the One X, contrary to what people keep on thinking) and the games I already have play fine on the Xbox One.
What do I need this machine for, really? Right now, nothing, but sometime in the next year I know I will probably go on and get it. Perhaps then there will be a price drop, and some improvements made to the system.
Time will tell, but when I get one, you will certainly hear about it!