More stats about KFC's improbable entry into the video game console space have been revealed via a promo site for the KFConsole. Revealed this past summer amidst hype for the upcoming launches of the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, the KFConsole promised to be the first console to include a functional "chicken chamber." This is a fully functional chicken fryer that players can presumably use while they're playing video games like I Love You Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin' Good Dating Simulator, a visual novel that is promised to be a console exclusive on the fast food chain's device.
The restaurant formally known as Kentucky Fried Chicken is no stranger to the gaming space, having formed the KFC Gaming branch of the company in August 2018. The social media account has been full of gaming parodies showcasing the pure prowess of Colonel Sanders against other fast food mascots. KFC published their aforementioned visual novel in September of last year on Steam, where it has over 8,000 user reviews and a Very Positive rating. The company is also no stranger to bizarre business ventures even outside of gaming, as the recent release of A Recipe For Seduction in collaboration with Lifetime proves.
Today, KFC Gaming revealed more details about the KFConsole, which is seemingly being worked on alongside PC manufacturer Cooler Master. The bucket-shaped gaming machine is powered by an Intel Core i9 processor and two Seagate 1TB SSDs. There is an Asus GPU onboard, as well as support for hot-swapping graphics cards to keep the machine up to date with the latest games. The KFConsole is also advertised to support ray tracing, virtual reality gaming, 240 frames per second on supported titles, and a smooth 4K output to monitors and TVs alike.
The end result is a "console" that is more like a Steam Machine than an Xbox, but the compact design does seem to fit a use case where players would plop it in the living room and start playing. KFC Gaming has not shared a release date or price point for the machine as of yet. There's also no word on if the machine will have a KFController of any kind or if it will just utilize PC-like support for existing gamepads. It's also unknown if players would have to clean out the chicken chamber periodically to keep the machine running, especially considering the grease a typical meal at KFC can leave behind.
With all these companies seemingly contributing parts to the KFConsole, it does seem that it's more than likely that KFC will release its bizarre hardware at some point in the future. Will it be a promotional item sent only to press as a publicity stunt and given away in a contest? Will it be on sale for an even more limited time than new batches of PlayStation stock? Or, perhaps the most improbable suggestion, does KFC see gaming as an actual business venture worth pursuing? Whatever the case, it will certainly go down in history as one of the strangest ways that a company ever attempted to get the public to eat fried chicken.
Source: KFC Gaming/Twitter