Xbox One X: Microsoft Explains New Console's Name

By Amee Florence Payno, Christian Post Contributor Friday, July 07, 2017

Since Xbox's "Project Scorpio" was officially unveiled at the recently held Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017 as the Xbox One X, there has been much debate among members of the gaming community about the console, particularly its name.

Many fans have expressed their misgivings about the chosen name for the highly anticipated Xbox gaming console, with some complaining that its name implies that the upcoming gaming machine is not a third-generation console in the Xbox line but is only an upgrade of the existing Xbox One consoles.

And so, many have been curious to know why the company chose to name the new console "Xbox One X" when "Scorpio" seemed like a better name in comparison.

Those who have been wondering about the motivations behind the name Xbox One X finally has an explanation from an Xbox executive. In a recent interview with MCV, Dave McCarthy, Xbox's head of operations shed some light on this issue, saying:

"There was a real appeal to going back to our roots as an 'X' box team. That original Xbox was founded on a principle of real technical innovation, opening up some new avenues for games developers, and gamers overall. So it didn't take us long to land on the X name. It spoke to us, it meant something in our history. So, as a team, we gravitated to the name pretty quickly. But I like Scorpio as a project code name as well."

Per McCarthy's explanation, the added "X" to the console's name indicates technical innovation. However, GameRant mentioned in its report that regardless of its name, what really matters about the Xbox One X is the capability of its hardware.

According to the news outlet, existing games will definitely show better performance on the new console, given the increase in frame rates and the reduction of graphics processing unit (GPU) power usage. Hence, playing on the Xbox One X will reportedly be "a marked improvement" as its power is at par with current premium-level gaming PCs.

The Xbox One is set to officially launch on Nov. 7.