Hasta La Ideas

Why build a console when you could build so much more?

Meet Project Oris. It doesn’t just play games. It does everything else too. The Project Oris is a pretty delightful mishmash of features and services which honestly seem like a concept-gone-wild at first glance, but make a lot of sense when you look at it in the grand scheme of things. The Project Oris is a gaming console, a hi-fi speaker, a projector, and even a Voice AI, all wrapped into a literal black box of tech.

Designed to be at the very center of your life at home, the Project Oris lets you play games, listen to music, and even watch media. You could hook it to a screen, or you could just point it at a blank wall and let its in-built projector broadcast an 8K HDR display. For music and gaming, the display is complemented by the console’s in-built 5 audio drivers that deliver rich bass as well as crisp highs in all directions. The speakers even come with 4 omni-directional microphones that pick up voice commands, because the console has a voice assistant built right into it. Tied probably to Microsoft’s services, the Project Oris runs Cortana, allowing you to set up gaming match reminders, as well as other functions, like dimming the lights, or playing your favorite tracks.

The Project Oris is, however, more than just a feature-heavy console. It comes with its own controller that A. features a touchscreen surface on the top, similar to the PlayStation’s DualShock 4 controllers, but with a built-in display. The controller also packs a fingerprint reader, that lets you access multiple user profiles with a simple tap, and OTA wireless charging that lets you juice the controller without plugging it in. Pretty nifty, no?

Would Microsoft make this? I doubt it. Should they? I can think of a BUNCH of reasons. A. It would give the Xbox an incredible competitive advantage over the PS, B. it would mean not needing to buy an 8K TV, or a bunch of speakers, or even a smart-hub, and C. it would really get people to use Cortana, which honestly Microsoft really could use, am I right?

Designer: Joseph Dumary