In most cases, a player looking to access the latest titles on a console ends up funneling their resources toward one platform or the other. The final decision can depend on an exclusive franchise (for example, Halo and Uncharted), or be tied to loyalty, but if the budget is a bit more generous, you get things like Xstation. This project led by Eddie Zarick combines the hardware of an Xbox One S and a PlayStation 4 Slim inside a single shell, with dedicated power buttons and a switch to move from one console to the other without any hassle.
Replacing a device's shell is one of the simplest modifications we can make… as long as the substitute is similar. YouTube is full of enthusiasts who buy reproduction or recovered shells to improve the look of their consoles, something especially popular among old Game Boy units. But in more extreme situations, a mini drill, a soldering iron, and a lot of patience are inevitable. Luckily, 3D printing is one of our main allies, and if the shell you've imagined doesn't exist on the market, it can be built from scratch.
That is exactly what Eddie Zarick has done in his Xbook Duo console project, which combined the first generation of the Xbox One with an Xbox 360, and also made it portable. The Xstation abandons the portability factor to unite an Xbox One S with a PlayStation 4 Slim, without duplicating the amount of cables. That is one of the most complicated aspects of the project, since it requires a high-quality HDMI splitter, and modifications to the power supplies, something risky if we don't know what we're doing. The Xstation is possible thanks to the optimized versions of both consoles, because otherwise it would be much larger, and heat would present a greater challenge.
Even so, if you listen to the Xstation while it runs, you'll notice that the fans work at maximum speed (a good part of the surface was given over to grilles), and Zarick decided that the two consoles are not powered on at the same time. The thermal aspect might improve with an additional hardware revision, or with a different design that allows for larger and quieter fans. The Xstation is a prototype, and it won't go on sale.
