Game director Josef Fares is known for his penchant for saying whatever’s on his mind unfiltered. Also cursing a lot. “Fuck the Oscars,” he notably said back during the 2017 Game Awards. Now he’s back, this time roasting the Xbox Series X/S’s mind-numbing naming conventions.
In an interview over at IGN, Fares was asked about whether his upcoming game, It Takes Two, a platformer about a married couple dealing with relationship issues, might have been more ambitious had it been developed primarily for next-gen consoles. “But to be honest with you, they came in so late in our production–of course it’s going to look better on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but we didn’t really have the time to adjust them and make the PS5 version special, or the Xbox blah blah…whatever they call the Xbox Series,” Fares said.
[referenced id=”1111226″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/09/i-cant-with-these-confusing-xbox-names/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/09/09/onzungtc1mby67n6ghzx-300×166.png” title=”I Can’t With These Confusing Xbox Names” excerpt=”With the price of one of the next-generation Xbox consoles confirmed and the other one likely forthcoming as Microsoft and Sony’s big game of next-gen pricing chicken drags on, there needs to be a frank discussion about the names of these consoles. A discussion wherein I sit down with Mr. Microsoft and ask a simple question: What the fuck?”]
Then the F-bombs started dropping:
That’s a fucking confusing name. What the fuck’s going on with Microsoft? They’re losing it, man. What the fuck is going on? Like Series S, X, Mex, Next. I mean, who knows this? Come on. Madness. Call it the Microsoft Box and that’s it. I don’t know. It’s a total fucking mess. Trust me, even them, they’re confused in their offices. What is this X, S…I don’t know, what the fuck.
Fares is of course 100% correct and only saying what we’ve all been thinking since Microsoft first revealed its plans to trick confused consumers into buying older, outdated consoles. For anyone who doesn’t live and breathe video games — and let’s be real, some of us who do — The Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X nomenclature is extremely confusing. People thought Nintendo’s Wii U name was a trainwreck, but the Xbox Series stuff is way worse. Just wait until Microsoft tries to release an Xbox Series X Pro.
Microsoft seems to even agree somewhat. “On the pronunciation capability of S and X, I kind of agree they’re not the easiest words to enunciate or letters to enunciate completely, but I think it’ll be pretty obvious when someone goes into the store,” the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer told Kotaku in an interview last fall, adding that the company was relying on the different prices of its consoles to help people shopping online or at the store to tell them apart.
Hopefully the tech giant eventually admits its mistake and decides to just call its next console the Xbox 6 or Latest Fastest Xbox, 2024 Edition or something.
Leave a Reply