Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, announced in a blog post this Thursday that Microsoft would unveil Project Scorpio at the E3 2017. The official event will happen on Sunday, June 11 at 2:00 p.m. PDT or 5:00 p.m. ET at The Galen Center in Los Angeles, California.
Spencer framed the next generation of consoles as not only a jump in performance but also a different approach to gaming platforms. Project Scorpio is set to be a piece of hardware with native 4K and VR capabilities.
Tech reporters and enthusiasts have managed to learn most of the specs of Microsoft’s new console, but the E3 briefing will focus on all aspects of the system. Attendees will likely get a first official look at Project Scorpio, as well as its price and release date.
Project Scorpio will bring console gaming closer to a PC experience
Project Scorpio is a game-changer in many respects. The next box in the Xbox family might depart further than ever before from traditional console gaming, bringing a more unified experience for both players and developers.
In a lengthy interview with Gamasutra, various members of the Project Scorpio team described the system regarding what it can do performance-wise as well as the games it will be able to run.
✅ True 4K Gaming
✅ 6 Teraflop GPU
✅ HDR Games & Entertainment
✅ 4K UHD Blu-ray player#ProjectScorpio: https://t.co/mpwk7PXJSH pic.twitter.com/pxraswvn3Y— Xbox (@Xbox) April 13, 2017
The Scorpio Engine sits at the heart of Microsoft’s latest console, with a CPU packing eight 2.3 GHz x86 cores, a GPU with 40 custom compute units at 1172 MHz, 12 GB of GDDR5 RAM, 326 GB/s of bandwidth, a 1 TB hard drive, and an optical drive compatible with 4K UHD Blu-ray.
These specs have been taken from the developers’ kit version of the product, so the actual system for players might end up having some similar components or a little bit less power.
Regardless, Scorpio is by far “the most powerful” console coming soon, and that launch gets even more exciting when people consider what this will mean for Xbox gamers and developers.
Phil Spencer said Scorpio would bring with it a development platform to make it more seamless than ever to create games without worrying about making them hardware-specific.
Instead, games as far back as Xbox 360 will run on Project Scorpio, and new releases will behave more like PC titles in that they will live longer on the system through constant updates, patches, DLCs and more. Your game library will look and play better than ever.
Project Scorpio points to being the one stop to upscale and play your Xbox titles, potentially disrupting the concept of console generations and shifting the industry’s perspective on home gaming.
How much will the most powerful console in the world cost?
The first look at the developers’ kit edition of Project Scorpio hints at nothing spectacular design-wise, but its internal architecture and cooling system are something to admire. It will do the job, but experts have yet to agree on a price tag.
Reports say Microsoft’s new system will be price above the $399 mark for sure, but nobody can say exactly how far north. Based on the specs, some suggest it might be reasonable to think of a $499 price tag and a release window this holiday season.
Source: Xbox Wire
