PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch has just got a powerful new rival that could shake-up the gaming landscape in 2020. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have long dominated the gaming marketplace, with this generation the PS4 being the biggest seller by a country mile. The PS4 has sold 106million units worldwide since launching back in 2013, far eclipsing the predicted 46.9million units the Xbox One has sold.
The Nintendo Switch, which was released three and a half years after the PS4 and Xbox One, has made plenty of ground despite its rivals’ head starts.
The Switch launched in 2017 and in the space of almost three years has sold over 41million units.
It will be interesting to see how close the Switch will get to the PS4’s overall sales when both consoles reach the end of their lifecycles.
As the Switch continues to go from strength-to-strength Microsoft and Sony are prepping their next-gen consoles which will launch later this year.
But amid this changing and evolving landscape a new – and powerful – gaming rival has entered the fray.
At CES 2020 Alienware revealed their sleek looking Concept UFO device – a portable Windows 10 gaming machine.
What makes the Concept UFO interesting, as opposed to a typical gaming laptop, is its form factor.
The Alienware Concept UFO shares many design similarities with the Nintendo Switch.
It can be docked to play on a monitor or it can be played on the go with action unfolding on a vibrant eight inch 1,900 x 1,200 display.
The Alienware Concept UFO, like the Switch, has detachable joypads that can be transformed into a bigger controller while the screen has a kickstand that aids portable gaming.
What sets the Alienware Concept UFO apart though is, at its heart, it is a fully-fledged Windows 10 machine.
Which opens the device up to a huge range of titles that could be found on a PC gamer’s Steam library.
The idea of playing graphics heavy PC games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077 on the go sounds incredible.
And it would be a big selling point over the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Right now Alienware has not revealed the specs of the Concept UFO, so it’s unclear whether it could handle such hardware draining games.
However, it has been teased that the Concept UFO offers a “full PC gaming experience”.
Which sounds like the Alienware device would be capable of running graphically intensive games.
Describing what the Concept UFO is capable of, Drew Tosh, Advanced ID Director at Dell Technologies, said: “The Concept UFO has more than enough power for a full PC gaming experience in your hands.”
Tosh added: “The idea of this product was to challenge Alienware as a team to go look at, after desktop and mobile, how do we push into a handheld market and allow us to build a full PC gaming experience in a handheld environment.”
While the Alienware Concept UFO does look and sound amazing, the caveat is that for the time being the device is merely a concept.
It remains to be seen whether it does end up on the market and if so when it will be out and how much it will cost.
But if it does launch then the Concept UFO will surely give Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo plenty to think about.
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