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Xbox Series X And PlayStation 5--Microsoft And Sony Both Have Their Next-Gen Console Names

The name of the new Xbox has been officially confirmed, and it's not one anyone predicted.

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2019 has seen both Sony and Microsoft reveal the names for their respective next-gen consoles, letting us know exactly what consoles we're looking forward to. In both cases, the companies stuck to tradition when it comes to console names. Sony just upped the number, as they have in the past, choosing to call the system the PlayStation 5. Meanwhile, Microsoft used a name that describes what the console is all about: Xbox Series X. Microsoft held out a little longer on the name reveal, announcing the official title of Project Scarlett during The Game Awards 2019.

Funnily enough, Microsoft's reasoning for the name is similar to the explanation The Coalition gave for branding the fifth mainline Gears of War game as simply Gears 5. When people talk about Gears of War, they typically shorten the name to just "Gears." Likewise, the first three generations of Xbox consoles--Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One--are often referred to as just "Xbox."

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Now Playing: The Game Awards 2019 Livestream

"We know that our Xbox console is just such an iconic part of how people think about their connection to our Xbox brand, and if I asked you what platform you were playing a game on and it happened to be Xbox you'd say, 'I'm playing on the Xbox,'" Xbox boss Phil Spencer told GameSpot. "Instead of trying to get descriptive [with] our own terms...we talked to people and got feedback. It was just, 'Xbox is the core of my relationship with this brand,' and we wanted the console to embody that."

This newest Xbox console is, thus, Xbox. It can play games from the previous three generations, including those for Xbox One. The new console supports some of the previous generation's accessories too, such as controllers. Meanwhile, the new Series X controller will work on Xbox One and PC.

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