YouTuber makes PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2 hybrid console and it actually works

Don’t try this at home, but a YouTuber has shown how they built a Ningtendo PXBOX 5 that can play any console game.

There remains a longstanding debate about whether video game console exclusives should or need to be a thing anymore, with some (including Microsoft) arguing its inconvenient for customers to buy multiple consoles should they want to play certain games.

However, it’s proven that exclusives do still sell consoles. Xbox may have pivoted away from them, but both Sony and Nintendo have no reason to follow suit, as they continue to reap financial success thanks to their succesful exclusives.

The concept of a hybrid console that can play any game remains a pipe dream, but one YouTuber from China has taken things into her own hands and built such a device herself.

Known as 小宁子 XNZ, aka Xiao Ningzi, she published a video detailing her work back in November, although it’s recently started making the rounds in the West, having accrued over 683,000 views.

Labelling her creation the Ningtendo PXBOX 5, she essentially gutted her PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles, as well as the Switch 2’s dock, so she could combine their components into a single 3D printed triangular case.

It’s obviously a more complicated process than that, and one we wouldn’t recommend you try yourself. Not only does it require a lot of technical expertise, but we imagine it’d be very easy to just completely ruin your consoles and render them unworkable. It’s certainly ruined the guarantee.

Xiao Ningzi pulled it off, though, demonstrating how pushing a button changes the output between all three consoles, allowing her to easily switch between them whenever she wants.

It only takes a few seconds to do so, and the shell even lights up to denote which console is active (blue for PlayStation, green for Xbox, red for Switch 2), but she still needs to turn one game off before playing another. Otherwise, the whole thing overheats.

As for the games themselves, she tested Ghost Of Yōtei for PlayStation 5, Starfield for Xbox, and Donkey Kong Bananza for Switch 2 and all three ran perfectly fine.

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It’s not quite the dream piece of gaming hardware, though, as she wasn’t able to incorporate a disc drive, meaning it can’t run physical PlayStation 5 or Xbox games, only digital ones.

Physical Switch 2 games can be played on it since the device requires a Switch 2 console to be slotted into a specialised tray, which also means handheld functionality hasn’t been sacrificed.

While impressive, you have to wonder if the Xbox portion could have been left out. Xbox has grown disinterested in making exclusives (even calling them ‘antiquated’) and has already brought the likes of Gears Of War and Forza Horizon to PlayStation 5.

Even more are still to follow, such as the Halo: Combat Evolved remake, with Starfield also heavily rumoured to be seeing a port.

However, this isn’t because exclusives in general are waning in popularity. It’s because Xbox itself has struggled to offer any appealing examples to justify buying an Xbox Series X, which has contributed to the console’s dwindling sales.

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