PS5 And Series X Have New Competition

The start of a new console generation is always a thrilling time. As companies vie for attention and support, they try to lure gamers in with mind-blowing graphics, long-awaited sequels, and shiny new gimmicks. Microsoft, for instance, has bragged that the Series X will have thousands of games at launch thanks to its emphasis on backwards compatibility, which is hugely appealing to longtime Xbox fans. Sony recently struck back hard with the "Future of Gaming" event, which revealed a number of exciting exclusives for the PlayStation 5 and set the internet abuzz.

But now a new challenger has entered the arena. Someone stepped up to these giants of console gaming with a new system that threatens to fry both of them. One simple 46-second ad promised cross-platform compatibility, the ability to play 4K games at 120 frames-per-second, and a built-in "chicken chamber" to cook yourself a nice piece of chicken while you play. This new competitor might get both the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 to kick the bucket. We are talking, of course, about the KFConsole.

Okay, so that's clearly a joke. Nobody could release a console that plays another platform's games without being sued into oblivion, and putting your games into a miniature oven is a really bad idea. The supposed "KFConsole" is just KFC leveraging the hype around the recent console reveals to sell more chicken.

With that said, the ad was far from KFC's first venture into the gaming world. The ad is currently the pinned tweet on its dedicated "KFC Gaming” Twitter account, which has over 125,000 followers. It's big enough that the KFConsole ad even got the official Xbox account to join in on the fun.

Xbox asked whether the KFConsole could be laid on its side, a reference to one of the major questions people had about the PS5 after finding out just how big and weirdly shaped it's going to be. The comments predictably devolved into console wars and memes after that, but it was good to see a company that knows how to take a joke. (By the way, the answer is yes. The PS5 can be laid down sideways without damaging anything.)

And lest you think that KFC is a company of posers, remember that there's an official Colonel Sanders dating sim which is all too real. I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin' Good Dating Simulator was developed by Psyop and published by the fast food giant itself. The game dropped in September 2019 and boasts a "very positive" rating on Steam with nearly 8,000 reviews.

If gaming and fast food seems like a weird crossover... well, it is, but that's never stopped anyone before. Around the same time as KFC's video game came out, Wendy's released a free tabletop RPG called Feast of Legends. It wasn't some thrown-together joke, either. The game comes in the form of a 100 page PDF, split about evenly between rules and setting info. It's fully playable and, according to many critics, surprisingly good. On the other hand, no discussion of weird gaming-slash-food crossovers would be complete without mentioning Pepsiman, a Japanese exclusive that's really just a half-hour ad for Pepsi.

However, while the KFConsole was just for laughs, there was one thing that caught people's attention for real. The ad ends with the phrase "POWER YOUR HUNGER" and the date Nov. 12, 2020, which has people wondering what's going to happen in mid-November. We're obviously not getting a console with cross-platform compatibility and the ability to cook chicken while playing, but it certainly seems like we're getting something.

Is KFC planning to release an expansion or sequel to its dating sim? When asked about exclusives, the KFC Gaming account replied with a screenshot of I Love You, Colonel Sanders! That may just have been the Twitter account playing along, or it could have been a clue. Putting the date at the end of an ad for a fake console certainly makes it seem like something gaming-related is in the works, so getting the Colonel back into dating isn't completely out of the question. That old dog might learn some new tricks yet.

On the other hand, maybe KFC is just rolling out some new combo deal at its restaurants. For now, there's no way to know.

Regardless of what happens in November, the KFConsole ad has drawn a lot of attention and, most likely, sold a lot of chicken. In that sense, it's already been a huge success. Let's hope that whatever's coming on Nov. 12 lives up to the finger-lickin' hype.