AMD cops to using a phony render of the Xbox Series X in its CES keynote

AMD gets egg on its face during its conference at the Consumer Electronics Show, as it showed off a beautiful render of a console that, while purporting to be the Xbox Series X, was not actually the Xbox Series X. There’s a fair bit we don’t know about Microsoft’s upcoming console, and AMD’s little gaffe does raise more questions than answers.

AMD just gave us a look at the rear of the Xbox Series X. It has ethernet, 2X USB-C and 2X HDMI pic.twitter.com/NV6y40ncGC

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) January 6, 2020

The footage came from the AMD keynote, which showed a 360 image of the Series X, including the back. We’ve not seen the back of the console thus far, so naturally the footage attracted some attention. The back of the alleged console showed HDMI ports, USB-C ports, and an Ethernet port — perhaps not earth-shattering news, but definitely intriguing to those of us who’re trying to decide which of the two upcoming consoles to buy.

Or it would have been if that’d actually been what the console looked like. The footage is not actually from a picture of the Series X, but rather a render from a site called TurboSquid. That’s not to say the finished console might not look similar — the ports actually closely resemble those on the back of the Xbox One — but Microsoft confirmed in a statement that the render doesn’t accurately represent the Series X.

here's the render AMD used…deleted the other tweet and thankfully, this one is only $10, not $24. https://t.co/oHEUQInBNr pic.twitter.com/TXFm6exMSf

— Brad Sams (@bdsams) January 7, 2020

Between this and the lackluster PS5 logo reveal (a.k.a. a Sony developer somewhere turned in their homework at 11:59 pm), CES’s gaming portion isn’t off to a great start. In fairness, the latter wasn’t CES’s fault, but still.

It does highlight a gap in our knowledge about the Series X. We don’t actually know what kind of ports this baby will have. I’m not convinced it’ll have an ethernet port, but HDMI and USB would be a given. Now I really hope Microsoft doesn’t wait too long before revealing the actual rear end of the new console.

As for what we know the console will have, Xbox head Phil Spencer seemingly revealed the console’s CPU in his new Twitter photo. Given that this thick copper beast is emblazoned with “8K,” I think we can safely assume Phil wants us to know how good Series X’s games are going to look. (Seriously, Halo Infinite had better scorch my face off.)

I’m not sure why the CPU is still labeled “Project Scarlett,” unless this one was made fairly early in the process. Regardless, I demand to see more of the Series X — the actual Series X.