Xbox One X is Xbox, Enhanced (Premium)

Over the weekend, I described my expectations for Microsoft’s Xbox One X reveal. Reflecting on what Microsoft did announce last night, I can now say that my expectations were nicely matched, exceeded, and then blown away.

The Xbox One X is exactly what Xbox fans have been asking for: the world’s most powerful console. With no caveats.

I love that.

The trouble with most Microsoft product launches, frankly, is that there are always important unanswered questions. But with Xbox One decisively losing the current generation of video games consoles despite many improvements over time, we needed certainty. And we got it.

Xbox One X is a beast. It neatly leapfrogs its only real competition, the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. And provides a level of performance that is impossible to duplicate on gaming PCs at this price point. In fact, you’d pretty much have to spend double—or triple—the Xbox One X’s $500 price tag to achieve this level of performance on a PC. But you’d still be stuck with the PC’s reliability and complexity problems.

Are you kidding me?

Xbox One X should also be viewed in a continuum of platform improvements that benefit all Xbox fans. Microsoft has completely rewritten the traditional console playbook and now offers a cohesive family of solutions that bridges consoles, Windows 10 PCs, and various online services. Your investment in Xbox is just that, an investment. And the payoff is both obvious and material.

For example, with Backward Compatibility, Microsoft has protected your investment in the Xbox platform by bringing forward almost 400 (so far) Xbox 360 game titles to the Xbox One family. And starting this year, you’ll be able to play classic Xbox 360 game titles via Backward Compatibility too. That’s several hundred games, spanning over 16 years and three console generations.

Are you kidding me?

The correctness of Microsoft’s Xbox strategy can also be seen in how the firm is positioning Xbox One X. Here we have not a brand new and incompatible console, but rather a brand new and completely compatible console. It offers important and desirable new features and it works with all your games, peripherals, and services.

Are you kidding me?

What’s beautiful about Xbox One X, aside from the obvious—4K graphics, 60 fps, and so on—is that it’s not a hard stop with the past. It’s part of a progression. And for users with different pricing concerns, Microsoft has options. For users with different needs, Microsoft has options. For users with 4K, HDR, and home theater setups of all kinds, oh my, does Microsoft have options.

Look, I know that gamers are a tough audience. Critics will point to Sony’s apparently unassailable lead, which is absolutely fair. Some will point to Sony’s exclusives, which is also fair, though I’d point out in return that 22 of the 42 Xbox One games that Microsoft showed off yesterday are, in fact, Xbox One exclusives.

But we’ve moved past the point where we can argue that Microsoft isn’t doing enough. Microsoft hasn’t just answered the criticisms, and it hasn’t just risen to the challenge. It has a delivered a console that is absolutely and provably superior to that offered by the competition. And it has done so at a price point that is both reasonable and fair. And within an ecosystem that is both broad and deep.

Last November, when Sony released the PlayStation 4 Pro, I reevaluated my console preferences to determine whether I’d stick with Microsoft or make a switch. But the strength of the Xbox platform of which Xbox One X is now a part won me over. From the “perfect thing” that is the elegant Xbox One S to the incredible and unrivaled Xbox One Elite Wireless controller to the many online services and offerings—like Xbox Live Gold, Backward Compatibility, Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass, and more—that we all enjoy, Xbox is something special, folks.

And the Xbox One X makes it better. All of it.

I can’t wait to buy one.