Porsche’s Xbox Consoles Look Amazing, Won’t Make You Faster in F1 2023

Porsche racing liveries look great on just about everything.

Published September 9, 2023

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Porsche is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a myriad of brand collaborations. (“Can we interest you in some Riviera Blue house paint?”) One of the coolest we’ve seen, however, is with Microsoft. The brand is giving away 75 limited-edition Xbox Series X consoles, with both the console and controller painted in one of six iconic Porsche racing liveries (enter to win until October 1, 2023). Microsoft offered me the chance to test one of them out.

F1® 23
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I’ve been out of the console gaming scene for a while. Consoles have gotten pricey, which became increasingly hard to justify as an adult. The game franchises I played most often — Grand Theft Auto and EA NCAA Football — have not released new versions since 2013. I now have kids. And when I do get an extended run of gaming time, I’ve generally stuck with strategy games like Civilization VI and Football Manager on my laptop.

line of porsche xbox consoles — Porsche is giving away 75th Anniversary Xbox consoles with six different liveries.

The Porsche 75th Anniversary Xbox looks rad as hell … but it’s just an Xbox

The Porsche 75th anniversary Xbox looks phenomenal. The version I tested used Porsche’s 75th Anniversary Le Mans livery. But it doesn’t come pre-loaded with Gran Turismo or any other racing game content. Under the paint, it’s just a standard Xbox Series X console. I decided to stick with the theme and test it with a racing game. I eschewed signing up for an Xbox Game Pass I would probably forget about and get auto-billed for and bought F1 2023.

porsche xbox series x console with controller on desk — I probably would have opted for the Pink Pig if given the choice. But the 75th anniversary Porsche Le Mans livery looks fantastic on the Xbox Series X console.

It now takes forever and a half to set up an Xbox

I’m old enough to remember plugging in a cartridge (after some dust-blowing), selecting either Super Mario Bros or Duck Hunt and having at it. The Xbox took an absolute eternity to set up out of the box. I had to sign up for and set up an Xbox account, pair the remote with the console, download an app on my phone and perform a software update on the Xbox. I then had to download the F1 2023 game … and then do setup on that.

My gaming window is between 11 pm and midnight after my kids and wife go to bed, and I finish the dishes. It wasn’t until the third night that I was able to play a video game.

F1® 23

$32.98 at Xbox

$54.98 (40% off)

F1 2023 meets you at your level

Typically in a sports game, the best route is to learn how to play before starting your franchise mode. But in F1 2023, it makes more sense to work the other around. It’s hard to drop straight into a race. But the franchise mode is designed to work sort of like real-life trackwork. You gradually get used to the track with reps during practice. And you can slowly up the AI Intelligence and remove nannies as you build up your skill level.

I chose to start in the 2022 F2 season and work my way into F1 — a bit more realistic than hopping right into the Red Bull alongside Max. The trouble with starting at F2 is the F2 calendar. The second race is Jeddah, a nightmare of high-speed blind corners. The third race is perennial F1 game joy killer, Monaco.

hand holding porsche xbox controller — The Xbox controller is one of the best ergonomic controllers I’ve used. But it’s not the optimal tool for racing games.

Monaco showed what the Porsche Xbox is missing: a wheel

Like in real-life, Monaco looks spectacular on the Xbox but is terrible to drive. The narrow city streets don’t mesh with the speed or size of the cars. The famed Fairmont hairpin forces you to nearly stop and awkwardly hurtle your vehicle around it. You have to be on it at all times or you’re in a wall.

The modern Xbox controller is a thing of beauty — even without the Porsche livery. It fits in your hand perfectly. The underside is textured for extra grip. The buttons have a tactility to them as well. Gone are the cramped hand and sore thumbs of my youth that would have caused me to take a break, go outside and perhaps interact with others. But you just can’t quite get the same dexterity and natural feel jamming a joystick with your left thumb. You need a wheel.

I finally got through Monaco on my second night of trying with restarts and ample use of F1 2023’s flashback feature that lets you go back in time and avoid the crash you just had. I started 11th and finished 8th; with reduced damage and low AI, you can do an epic dive down the inside of the corner and use the pack of cars to help you break. But it got tedious and sort of killed my enthusiasm for playing the game.

Thrustmaster TX RW Leather Edition (XBOX Series X/S, XOne & PC)

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And buying a wheel can be an adventure

You don’t need to go full home racing simulator with an Xbox with a direct drive base that can run into the four figures. But even a solid Thrustmaster wheel and pedal setup can run to $500, the same price as the Xbox console. A budget version can still set you back more than $100. That cost — not to mention a bit of nagging guilt that that hour or so at night is my time to read books and magazines and be a reasonably informed person — has kept my F1 ambitions on hold for a bit.