It's probably not a holodeck...

God help you if you were a Turbografx-16 kid.
It was the T-Mobile of video game systems.

I am, as you may be aware, of a certain age. That is to say, I was a first-hand witness to what we now refer to as the "console wars." That period of time were advertisers for video game console developers turned sibling against sibling, neighbor against neighbor, and vague grade school acquaintance against vague grade school acquaintance over which game system they preferred. Some people hung on to their Ataris and rich kids had Neo-Geos, but mostly you were in either the Nintendo camp or Sega camps, and never the two shall meet.

So it was super-weird when Sega stopped making consoles and started publishing games on Gamecube. I suppose it would be like if Warner Brothers gave up making DC movies and let Batman show up in the next Avengers. 

Show me a nerd who wouldn't see this and I'll show you someone who's dead inside.

"Yes, more of this please!"

-Xbox's shareholders on 

the subject of money

But those were different times. Sure, most gamers now have a Switch and then opt either for a Playstation 5 or whatever ludicrously named iteration of the Xbox is out there, but it's not the same. There are some exclusives, but for the most part if a game is on say, Xbox, there's probably a Playstion or PC version of it too. And now Xbox, coming to the twin realizations that they're a distant third to Nintendo and Sony and that they would like more money thank you very much, have announced that they'll be publishing games on the PS5. Which, ok. Super. 

"Cross-platform? I have the word as I
hate hell, Ken Kutaragi and thee."

-Xbox stans

After all, this is anno domini  MMXXIV, and we're all of us past all this Montegue vs. Capulet nonsense now, right? Like, ones particular gaming console of choice isn't a thing one needs to base an entire personality around anymore. In fact, it probably never was, that was just aggressive 90's marketing aimed at kids, telling us to tribe up over the dumbest things. But here we are and evidently some fans are upset that Microsoft is basically saying that they've lost the console wars (not a thing), which is weird because unless you own stock in Microsoft or something, what difference does it make if someone with a PlayStation gets to play Sea of Thieves? But whatever, that's not what I'm here to talk about. What I did find interesting was this article from IGN.

As they say in business: always overpromise.
It definitely works out every time.

It's about Xbox President Sarah Bond going on the company podcast and saying:

"A what we're focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions they're building..." 

-Xbox's Sarah Bond maybe overpromising? A bit?

Pictured: I don't know. Like,
what even are we looking at? 

I am the first to admit that I don't know anything about hardware lifecycles, game development or CEO-ing, but I am a grown-ass adult who's played video games his whole life. And the last few generational leaps have been, you know, incremental. There's been nothing like the leap from the inscrutable squares and beeps of Atari, to entirely recognizable 8-bit and 16-bit pixel art. Or the leap from that to the--admittedly janky by today's standards--first 3-D games.

Above: ray tracing. Possibly, I can't
tell. And neither can you. No one can.

The difference between PS4 and PS5 is ray tracing, and I'm still not sure what that even is. My point is the largest technical leap we've ever seen in a hardware generation is a bold claim. And one that to my layman's ears sounds like Xbox trying to convince shareholders that they're not getting out of the hardware business, but instead are putting the finishing touches on totally amazing next gen console and it's totally going to blow everybody's mind and make all the money ever. 

I guess what I'm saying is that to live up to Bond's claims, this next Xbox would have to be what? A holodeck? Is she saying we're getting holodecks? I will 100% eat my words here if Xbox is working on a holodeck. Here, take my money now.

"I didn't say holodeck, you said holodeck. But I'm not denying it either so..."

-Sarah Bond, not saying no to holodeck