What The Ambitious Mad Box Console Implies About The Future Of Gaming

This is one hype train I’d avoid.

- Hayden Dingman

No, I’m not talking about Microsoft’s Xbox One X. That’s old news at this point. We’re looking to the future now, to the so-called Mad Box (go.pcworld.com/mabo), a new console announced by Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios this week. CEO Ian Bell promises the Mad Box will run games at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, with full support for the major virtual reality headsets—thus the “most powerful console” comment.

And he promises it will ship in three-ish years, for a price comparable to other nextgen consoles—which raises the question, what will those next-gen consoles look like? What does the Mad Box tell us, if anything, about the PlayStation 5 and whatever Microsoft’s next Xbox is named? What features will be important? And, in turn, what effect will that have on the PC?

THE STAR CITIZEN OF CONSOLES

First, let’s talk about the Mad Box itself. We might as well.

I don’t see a world in which the Mad Box sells. I just don’t. There’s been a lot of credulous reporting on the Mad Box this week, a lot of people reiterating Bell’s claims without analysis. I can’t find that same cautious optimism within me.

The Mad Box strikes me as a modern-day version of the infamous Phantom vaporware (go.pcworld.com/pva). I’m no analyst, but I call them like I see them, and the Mad Box’s bizarre hype push leaves me wary. There have been weird miscommunications, like Bell saying it would run VR at 60 frames per second (go.pcworld.com/vr60)