Is Xbox Series X going to feature a Less Powerful Cheap Variant for Budget Gamers

When the first tease of Xbox next-gen console came out, the theories over the topic of Xbox next is going to feature two variant circulated through the internet. Even I have written a couple of blogs on that topic. According to those rumors, which were actually quite logical and very much detailed in nature. Xbox was about to feature two models for their upcoming next-gen console project, and the names were Xbox Lockhart and Xbox Anaconda. Where Xbox Lockhart would be an inferior model than Xbox Anaconda. Though later Microsoft denied such information to be true and announced that the name is going to be Xbox Series X for their next-gen console. Any confirmed update related to two variants of the product not been released yet. After a long time again the name Xbox Lockhart is circulating over the internet due to some leaked documents. In this article, we are going to discuss over the matter and we would be analyzing all the available details, so let’s roll out with the topic.

What do we know so Far about Xbox Lockhart / Anaconda?

 

More proof of Lockhart, this time from the XDK/GDK release notes for June 2020. pic.twitter.com/hulDoC9owv

— TitleOS (@XB1_HexDecimal) June 24, 2020

A Twitter handle called TitleOS@XB1_HexDeciaml, who is an avid Xbox user, posted this above image on his twitter account on June 25, 2020. People have commented below while asking him about the source of such a document, though he did not clarify. But, I think he got such news from some insider, as such a document should not be available in the public domain, due to any company’s secrecy policies.

Now this news might not have caught my eyes if the other big media were not following it. IGN, Digit, Essentially Esports all are following up this story. Then I researched over the topic a little more and I found the below pic on another twitter handle.

Where you can see the twitter handle is a verified one, and what he is saying is actually true. The pic of the Xbox board attached in the post is having an Anaconda (or at least a Snake) printed on it. The post is a little bit older, dated 17^th Mar 2020, but not that irrelevantly older.

Now while both the name and at least some proof over the matter is coming in front, we can expect that we are going to get surprised when Microsoft’s official sources uncover the truth.

 

What to Expect?

As there are no official updates about Xbox Series X variants, even when the launch is already half of 2020 and the console is about to be unveiled in the Christmas Holiday of 2020; there are two things to be expected.

• One there are going to be two variants of Xbox Series X as we have discussed earlier, where Xbox Lockhart is the one with inferior power. Lockhart would have lower capable hardware, limited performance ability (4K 30 FPS probably), targeted for the budget segment Xbox users. While the Anaconda would be the flagship console under the Xbox series X brand name. This is a useful method for grabbing a new market of those players who do not buy Xbox due to the high price. Also on other hand, this technique is useful if the price of flagship edition (Anaconda) is being so much high uncontrollably, to compensate that another cheaper variant is necessary to satisfy the need of all kinds of buyers.
• Secondly, it is possible that Xbox Series X is going to feature only one variant, which is named as project Anaconda as the Snake image is being printed on the mainboard. While the Xbox Lockhart is not part of Xbox Series X at all, but an upgraded version of the existing Xbox One X itself, with improved compatibility. Just like Nvidia does, when they release a new flagship GPU series, they also release an upgraded version of the previously available GPU on the market (after the launch of RTX 2080, 2070 they launched the upgraded version of GTX 1050 & 1060 with the name GTX 1650 & GTX 1660), so that there are multiple options available for all kind of budget segment buyers. This is also a procedure of how one company can earn more from the older hardware with very less investment, just by upgrading the compatibility issues.
• As we can see most of the upcoming games in line are going to be cross-gen supported for the consoles, so the second move looks viable to me, while almost no one is taking this possibility into consideration. Now it is up to you which you are going to believe and which you are going to expect.

 

Conclusion

The information in this article is gathered from the internet, which is being scattered here and there. Some info and assumption of this article are based on the various discussions on Reddit posts, and of course, the images we provided are courtesy of Twitter. If you are interested in the details of Xbox Lockhart and Xbox Anaconda’s hardware specifications, then look for my other article on that topic What is Xbox project Scarlett anaconda or Lockhart, where I have discussed both of those Xbox’s hardware specs and capabilities. Stay tuned more next updates with us.