Tech: PlayStation and Xbox owners use their consoles for things other than gaming half the time

Sony and Microsoft's gaming consoles are used for much more than gaming.

The big news at E3, the video game industry's annual trade show that's going on this week in Los Angeles, is Microsoft's introduction of a new Xbox game console.

The new gadget is called the Xbox One X, and it's designed to deliver high-fidelity, PC-quality games on a device that's easier to use than a computer. That kind of power won't come cheap. The new console will cost $499, which is well above every other current console, including Sony’s competing, but technically less capable, PlayStation 4 Pro.

Even if price weren't an issue, it's an open question whether gamers will really be interested in a more powerful machine. Instead of playing games, US owners of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 spend roughly half their console-using time doing things that don't require a super-charged game machine, such as streaming video and watching movies on disc, according to a recent report from Nielsen that's charted here by Statista.

While the Xbox One X should be able to display 4K and HDR videos with aplomb, so too can its more affordable sibling, the $249 Xbox One S, For now, the Xbox One X seems to be aimed squarely at Microsoft’s most ardent Xbox fans.

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