I've been a gamer pretty much all of my life. When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to navigate the puzzles and defeat the bosses in Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past on the original Nintendo. Those are some of my earliest childhood memories, which is why console gaming will always have a special place in my heart. That said, now that I'm in my mid-thirties and value comfort and convenience above all else, I've mostly switched to PC gaming these days. I'm not going to lie, my argument for switching to PC gaming is mostly rooted in my persnickety personality.

Microsoft has confirmed its fourth-generation Xbox, the Xbox Series X, will be released this November to square up with Sony's PlayStation 5 in the gaming market. The new games console, which Xbox has described as its'most powerful ever', will feature processing power twice that of the current generation Xbox One X. Xbox Series X will also have backwards compatibility technology, which allows games from older consoles to be played on the new system. There are 50 new games planned for launch this year, including Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Gears Tactics, and Watch Dogs: Legion. However, the release of the new console's flagship game, Halo Infinite, will be delayed until 2021, giving Microsoft more time'to finish critical work'. The Xbox Series X release will coincide with the arrival of Sony's new console, the PlayStation 5, which is expected to launch in the last three months of the year.

Sony and Microsoft have been walking the same path for nearly 20 years, when it comes to gaming hardware. Instead of leaves, shiny silver game discs dangle from the trees, while black and white boxes of varying sizes line the underbrush, covered in decades of debris and Doritos dust. Both companies know this trail well -- but it's about to split in two. Microsoft is taking the right fork. This one doesn't have game discs at all: The latest Xbox, revealed just this week, is called the One S All-Digital Edition and it's designed for online, download-centric gaming.