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When you think about the great tech companies of the modern age, a few names probably come to mind: Apple, Google, Tesla, Amazon. But in an unexpected turn of events for the year 2020, KFC has recently announced what may turn out to be the greatest invention since the discovery of fire, the KFConsole.
Part gaming PC and part chicken warmer, the KFConsole gives gamers the ability to enjoy piping hot KFC chicken whenever they choose without having to make any strenuous trips to and from the microwave. Yes, this is a gaming PC with a compartment built into it to keep your chicken warm.
And yes, it’s real.
The KFConsole will be able to run games on 4K displays at 240fps, beating out both the PS5 and Xbox Series X in that regard.
In a statement from KFC on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, they officially revealed their plans to partner with hardware manufacturer Cooler Master to build this revolutionary machine. And while it may seem like a bit of a gimmick, especially in light of their recent partnership with Crocs to make chicken-patterned clogs with a chicken-scented charm on top, the KFConsole actually looks like it may be a fairly legitimate console.
The Specs
Any serious gamer might understandably dismiss the KFConsole as an attention-grabbing public relations stunt rather than a legitimate gaming console, but when you look at what’s packed into this bucket-shaped PC, you’ll find that it’s a surprisingly capable piece of hardware.
The KFConsole was designed by Cooler Master, builder of capable gaming consoles such as the Cosmos C700P and the Silencio S400. At the heart of the KFConsole is a super compact Intel Nuc 9 Extreme Compute Element housed in a Cooler Master NC100 chassis. Cooler Master set out to find a unit that was small enough to leave space for the all-important chicken drawer, but that also had a respectable amount of processing power, and Intel delivered.
The KFConsole will be able to run games on 4K displays at 240fps, beating out both the PS5 and Xbox Series X in that regard. The Intel Nuc 9 Extreme Compute Element unit, which contains an Intel Core i9-9980HK Processor, is fully swappable, meaning you can upgrade the GPU in your KFConsole at any point in the future. This is a feature that’s very common in gaming PCs, but is still an advantage the KFConsole has over competing PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
For storage, the KFConsole houses two PCIe NVMe Seagate BarraCuda 1TB SSDs, which offer twice as much storage as the Xbox Series X and nearly three times as much as the PS5. While the PS5 and Xbox may offer slightly quicker loading times than the KFConsole, the chicken-warming console is certainly not expected to be slow.
In terms of the futuristic features that separate the next generation of gaming consoles from those of the past, the KFConsole is expected to be VR ready and to support ray tracing, which is a feature that simulates individual rays of light to produce shockingly realistic light and shadow displays. But will the smell of hot chicken distract from or add to the VR experience? These are important questions.
The Chicken Chamber
So, you’ve been cruising through the streets of Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 for the last two hours, and suddenly you realize your KFC Bargain Bucket has gone completely cold. You don’t want to eat cold chicken, but there’s a whole flight of stairs separating you and your microwave. What a tragedy. Well, thanks to the KFConsole, these are problems of the past.
With the KFConsole’s patented Chicken Chamber, which utilizes the system’s natural heat and airflow, you can slide your pieces of leftover chicken into the drawer and come back for them several hours later. While most gaming consoles have cooling systems that redirect heat out of the console entirely, the KFConsole puts that heat to work by redirecting it right into your crispy drumsticks.
Now, while it’s undeniably awesome that KFC and Cooler Master would build a gaming PC with a built-in Chicken Chamber, storing fried chicken inside of your gaming console is probably not the most sanitary practice. It just seems like there’s too much potential for chicken grease or that delicious KFC breading to make its way into the hardware and damage the console’s internals. It’s probably better to do a test-drive with a food that’s slightly less messy before stuffing your new gaming PC with greasy chicken.
It’s also probably not advisable to eat fried chicken and then rub your greasy hands all over your controller. And let’s be honest, no one eats KFC with a knife and fork. At the very least, just go wash your hands before you try to beat that next level and spare yourself from finding your controller covered in grease tomorrow morning.
The Price and Release
KFC, Cooler Master, and Intel have all made no hints at where the KFConsole will be priced. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be priced at $499, so it’s safe to say that the KFConsole will have to be somewhere around there if it wants to be a serious competitor. However, rumors of the KFConsole being produced in limited supply and retailing at around $2,000 make it seem like the KFConsole may be more of a collector’s item than a serious attempt at breaking into the gaming console industry by KFC.
In regards to when the KFConsole will actually hit the market, the mad geniuses behind the machine have been just as opaque. It seems likely that it will come out sometime in the year 2021, however, because delaying any longer would put the KFConsole at a disadvantage to its competitors, who will probably have released updates by then.
Will there be a future in which everyone’s gaming console has a Chicken Chamber? Probably not. Is the idea of a gaming PC that stores fried chicken still a shining light in the darkness that is 2020? Absolutely.
