On Wednesday, there was rising tension amongst early adopters of the Xbox Series X as a video of it smoking like Thomas the Tank emerged on Reddit. Never fear, it was fake and the result of some pesky vapers. Truly, don’t try this at home.
If you’ve just received your Xbox Series X or are still waiting for yours, you’ll have likely looked on in horror when these rather terrifying images emerged of your impending console looking like it was about to ignite into a flaming ball of vengeance. However, the panic quickly settled and some sensible people uncovered the dark truth – vapegate.
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Here’s the initial toe-curlingly-concerning video, which has 2.5 million(!) views:
Same… pic.twitter.com/QcnWY9VQBF
— Arek Adamowicz (@Arek_Adamowicz) November 11, 2020
Some cautious and some less cautious headlines emerged before cooler heads prevailed and we saw the video debunked by outlets like The Verge and Eurogamer, with the help of diligent Twitter account XboxStudio:
CANSADO de las FAKE NEWS.
— Xbox Studio (@XboxStudio) November 11, 2020
Os dejo un video MIO explicando porque es Fake lo de la consola "Quemada" y como han logrado este efecto incluso estando la consola "APAGADA" pic.twitter.com/LfXzIBSu6N
So yes, it would appear any of these mischievous videos flying around suggesting your Xbox Series X could begin smoking like an outdoor BBQ are indeed caused by a vape.
Along with its fridge stunt (see our weekly What the Tech? column for more on that), Xbox has largely gone with the flow in the run up to the launch of the Series X but, this time, we appreciate them stepping in to set the record straight – putting it a bit more eloquently than we did at the beginning of this story:
We can't believe we have to say this, but please do not blow vape smoke into your Xbox Series X.
— Xbox (@Xbox) November 11, 2020
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A less frightening use of the Series X’s apparently handy ventilation set-up was in keeping a ping pong ball suspended in the air.
People have realized they can float ping pong balls on the Series X vent and
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) November 11, 2020
it's glorious pic.twitter.com/VuDdxFUwjp
Surely this was another harmless bit of fun, right? Wrong, it’s another darned fib.
Apparently it was faked.. pic.twitter.com/4CfBxpO2Md
— DireRaven97 (@DireRaven97) November 11, 2020
While it’s been a fun ride seeing the Xbox Series X launch descend into a special episode of Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, we think that’s about enough. Don’t vape into your new next-gen console and don’t get people’s ping pong ball-related hopes up, honestly.
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