Beware of those viral Xbox Series X smoking videos, they’re mostly fake

With the release of the new Microsoft Xbox Series X, a new kind of video started going viral. These videos showed smoke coming out of the top vent holes of the Xbox Series X.

At first instance these videos appeared to suggest that the insides of the Xbox were on fire. But soon the narrative cleared and it was obvious that the effect was from blowing smoke from the bottom of the device.

Xbox Series X smoking videos: Easy to make using vapes

Early adopters are the first to notice and suffer launch issues, but misinformation only hurts the brand. But Microsoft seems to have taken this tirade of Xbox Series X smoking videos in its stride.

This nigga Xbox is smoking pic.twitter.com/Hqo7QHPO1FNovember 11, 2020

Same... pic.twitter.com/QcnWY9VQBFNovember 11, 2020

But soon, people in the tech industry explained how this effect can easily be created by blowing vape smoke at the bottom of the air inlet. Some even made videos showing this whole process to explain things.

CANSADO de las FAKE NEWS.Os dejo un video MIO explicando porque es Fake lo de la consola "Quemada" y como han logrado este efecto incluso estando la consola "APAGADA" pic.twitter.com/LfXzIBSu6NNovember 11, 2020

Microsoft, for its part, wrote on Twitter, “We can't believe we have to say this, but please do not blow vape smoke into your Xbox Series X.” It even put out a statement on this whole thing saying, "We take all product safety reports seriously and our products meet or exceed industry standards. We are in the process of investigating further."

In other instances it took a more jovial approach and even replied to a tweet saying, “We're sure we'll look back on this and laugh.” The company confirmed that this effect would also work even if the console was turned off which means that the fans in it were not working. In fact if the console was turned off the smoke would continue to rise for a while.

While there were some quick to claim how their Xbox Series X console has started smoking, others have started to make a meme out of this.