Microsoft handled the reveal of Xbox One X a little differently than many console announcements. It gave Digital Foundry an inside look at specs ahead of a proper reveal, meaning all that was left for E3 2017 was the name, price, look, and release date. Still, it was many developers' first look at the console, or at least the first time they were allowed to talk about it. So, what did they think? We've gathered a few quotes below:
Bob Roberts (Middle-earth: Shadow of War): "Crazy powerful"
"It’s a crazy powerful box. [Shadow of War on Xbox One X] will be the prettiest possible version of the game [among consoles]. We have some devkits which also load a lot faster. While in development it’s extra nice to load a giant world in a matter of seconds so we can iterate faster. But it will also have faster loading times for players, I think that one of the big things in this console generation is that we got a lot more memory, but in a lot of games I played loading times got longer rather than shorter. It’s nice to see them push on this side of the technology."
Paul Bettner (Super Lucky's Tale): "Most developer-friendly console"
"From a developer's standpoint, [Xbox One X] is the most developer-friendly console we have ever worked with," Bettner told GameSpot. "Not just because the hardware is super over-powered--which it is. I don't understand how they... it's like a high-end PC crammed into this tiny little box."
"The tools and support we had developing the game is the most advanced it's ever been. And I think that's because Microsoft hasn't necessarily been reinventing [with every new console], they've been refining and making it more powerful. This is the best version yet of the Xbox."
Enric Alvarez (Raiders of the Broken Planet): "It's a beast"
"We couldn’t be happier to be supporting this powerful, exciting new console from Microsoft. They have been really supportive during the development of the game and we want to make the most of their new technology. Seeing the game on a 4K TV just completely takes your breath away. It’s been really awesome working with this new console. It’s a beast."
Jonathan Rogers (Path of Exile): "Very powerful"
"Bringing a PC game to Xbox, Microsoft makes it really easy because of the… in terms of tools. So it really just comes down to making the gameplay good. And especially on Xbox One X, two hours after we got the dev kit it was running at 4K, 60fps. That thing is very powerful. It was that easy. I think we were expecting it to take a little longer than that, but no, it was a cinch."
Jesse Rapczak (ARK: Survival Evolved): "It's just phenomenal"
"The Xbox One X is great. Everything from the devkits is so much easier to develop for. It’s faster in all sorts of ways, especially for us developers it’s easier to iterate. In terms of horsepower, it’s just phenomenal, it is expensive but when you think about the price for a similarly spec'd PC, it doesn’t unreasonable at all to me," Rapczak told WCCFTech.
"If you think about it, it’s kind of equivalent to a GTX 1070 maybe and the Xbox One X actually has 12GB of GDDR5 memory. It’s kind of like having a pretty high-end PC minus a lot of overhead due to the operating system on PC. So I would say it’s equivalent to a 16GB 1070 PC, and that’s a pretty good deal for $499."
And while we're no developers, we have our own thoughts on how Xbox One X can help Microsoft. Personally, I just find it fascinating to watch an Xbox One X be assembled and get a good look at its guts.
