That didn’t take long! The next-generation Xbox was announced last night, and people online already have nicknames for it.
In the English-speaking world, it’s either being called “Xbox Sex” or simply “Sex,” a shortening of “Series X.”
In Japan, it’s also being called “Xbox Sex” as well as another nickname, Shiri X (尻X) or “Butt X.”
The Xbox has long had naming issues in Japan. The letter “X” in Japan is batsu, means “no,” “no good,” “impossible,” “bad,” or even “futile.” The word batsu can also mean “punishment.”
The Xbox has also been somewhat derisively referred to as “hako” (箱) or “box.”
In Japanese, Xbox Series X is Xbox シリーズX (shiriizu X). But Xbox X said phonetically in Japanese that is エックスボックスエックス (ekkusu bokkusu ekkusu), which sounds kind of like “Xbox Sex” to Japanese ears.
Soon after the new console’s announcement, people on 2ch, Japan’s biggest web forum, began goofing on all the Xs in the name, writing things like:
“Do they like X that much?”
“Is that XXX?”
“XBOXSEX”
“They gonna sell that effing box here?”
“x0xb0x?”
“XXX for short.”
“I will even get Xbox Sex.”
“That looks big.”
“BOXXX is better”
“XXX SEXBOX XXX”
“That’s too big for Japanese homes.”
“XBOXX XXOXX XXXXX”
“Current: Xbox X After that: Xbox Xo ... In the future: Xbox Xobx And then: Xbox Xobx X”
“SEXBOX?”
“Their naming sense is batsu.”
However, on Twitter, people started shorting Series X in Japanese (シリーズX or Shiiriizu X) to Shiri X (尻X), which means “Butt X.”
In Japanese, Butt X seems to be the nickname that will stick.