Earlier this week at Microsoft’s E3 conference, Phil Spencer put an end to the rumors by confirming the development of Project Scorpio, the next major addition to the Xbox family that’s much more than a simple refresh.
The more powerful machine will be powered by an 8-core CPU, with 320GB/s of memory bandwidth, a peak performance throughput of 6 teraflops, and is touted as having “the most powerful graphics processor that’s been put into a console to date.” This results in a no-compromise gaming experience.
The next iteration of the Xbox One is over 4x more powerful than today’s console, and will be capable of “true” 4K gaming and rendering at 60 fps.
With what little is known about the upcoming console, many have been left wondering why the slimmer Xbox One S, also announced during the conference, would be a worthwhile purchase with Project Scorpio releasing next year.
Phil Spencer spoke with Eurogamer and addressed this concern, and the answer may or may not be what you expected. When Spencer asked Wesley Yin-Poole what kind of TV he owned, and the reply was “A standard 1080p TV,” Spencer followed up with these statements:
“Then you should buy this box, because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you. Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don’t have a 4K TV, the benefit we’ve designed for, you’re not going to see. Clearly, you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you.
Scorpio is for the person who’s got a 4K television, who’s really focused on 4K gaming. It’s going to be a premium price over what we’re selling [the Xbox One S] for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that’s what we designed it for.”
This is interesting for a few reasons, prime among those being that this reinforces the statement that Scorpio will offer “true” 4K gaming. Suggesting the upcoming console will in fact output at a native resolution of 3840×2160.
Spencer has already stressed that Scorpio will exist within the same family of the Xbox One and One S. It will play the same games, be compatible with the same accessories, and will share the same experiences without pigeonholing existing users.
Like PlayStation NEO, it introduces an interesting problem of there being no real incentive in opting for the newer, more powerful machine whether or not one owns a 4K TV. It has already been confirmed that there won’t be titles exclusive to Scorpio, and while that would create issues of its own, both consoles are potentially a costly gamble.
There’s plenty of time to learn more on the forthcoming console before its Holiday 2017 release.
EDIT: Phil Spencer has since clarified his original statement in an interview with Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gertsmann in the video below.
See more articles on E3 2016, Project Scorpio, and Xbox One.
I just had to come back here and congratulate the writer of the article, It has a lot more useful information than other sites I read around, even over the sometimes snob and self proclaimed smart site The inquierer, the following article is just lame and pointless http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2462027/5-reasons-why-the-xbox-one-s-is-worse-than-the-original
Great job Michael
Thank you. I really appreciate that.
As for The Inquirer article, I read it and it’s stating hyperbole as fact. It’s really bad.
I have a bigger concern for both the NEO and Scorpio games,
I don’t know much about game development but, it surely 4K games take longer and are more challenging to produce with all that graphical upgrade, and also they would cost more to produce.
concern 1. what if some developers don’t want to make 4K games?
then is it really worth buying a more expensive console if half of the games you want to play don’t take advantage of the extra power?
Concern 2. won’t making all games 4k put pressure on the developers and their resources, causing them to lose money or fans if they can’t deliver all of their games library at 4k (causing some devs to shut down)?
concern 3. If 4k games are more expensive to make, then won’t the prices will go up?
since the games will have to support both 4k and non-4k consoles, the higher prices will effect everyone. One the other hand if prices stay the same and the games cost more to produce, then devs will lose money where some will be able to afford to live on with lower income, some will have to stick to 1080p and lose fans, and others may decide to leave console gaming for good or close down.
unless if 4K games don’t make any difference in the production or costs to 1080p games and all my concerns are worthless.
I don’t see the point in buying VR so soon. Its new emerging tech, its expensive i don’t see that many big exclusives taking advantage of early VR. Plus all the bugs/issues. I’d rather wait several years or less until i know the tech works and it’s dependable. VR as it is right now is lower resolution than your Full HD or 4K tv. I don’t think its going to beat the kind of passive immersion experience people already get from their 1080P or 4K for quite some time. Like i said. Its not a good idea to buy into a tech so soon.
I’m waiting to make sure it doesn’t fizzle out like motion control and 3d.
I’m probably going to wait for the second generation of higher resolution screens before I get involved. Consoles and pc’s are just on the edge of having enough power to be able to do this at all and to me that’s not a good time to dive into new tech, when you are just crossing over the hill. When it’s coasting downhill is when I usually dive in.
4k console is a meaningless BS term to keep sales of old XBone.
Phil Spencer lied. Regardless of the pixel count of your TV you’ll still be able to notice the amped up visual quality of the games, their 60 fps frame rate etc.
IMHO if you don’t already own a 4k TV this is not the time to spend money on one if your primary goal is gaming. The era of VR is here, and it makes little sense to invest in a higher-resolution display. Save your $$ and put it towards your choice of VR equipment. I’ve been doing stereoscopic gaming for years, even GT5/6, on non-HMD 3D displays (DLP and monitor, depending on location). The amount of perceived detail increase you get with stereoscopic equipment is far great than what you get from 4k, which is sharp obviously, but still just a flat display, and honestly not all that much better than 1080p unless you are sitting absurdly close to your screen. True-3D on the other hand, is mind-bogglingly good. So that’s my advice anyway, for what it’s worth.
Seems like a waste of time to me. They are just trying to get one up on Sony with their Neo. Sonys aim was just to get VR running properly. It’s a waste of time to offer a ‘new’ 4K console that is completely restricted because all games have to run on all versions of Xbox One as well. I feel they have lost the plot, they don’t know what their offering and not does the customer. All they’ve done is hurt future sales of Xbox One S. Idiots. The real next generation will be PS5 and Xbox One 2.
Not sure what you’re on about. This console is designed to play games at 4k. If you don’t have a 4k screen and don’t intend to buy one then it’s not for you. If you have one or intend to buy one this console is a revelation and beats Sony to the punch for a couple of years most likely.
You seem confused, mate, PS4 Neo has to run all PS4 games and vice versa, no exclusives, just higher fidelity, same for Scorpio. Plus Scorpio might support Oculus and Vive as their VR solution.
The most power console ever built is only 40% faster than the current generation consoles. Its a nice achievement but you’ll need alot more than that to play games properly on 4K. PC’s with Nvidia GTX 1080’s still struggle with some games running at 4K so unless they cooked up something weird along with some magic, I suggest not to buy it just because of 4K.
It’s designed to push 6 TF. That’s 4x the XBone and more than 3x the PS4. With optimization 4k is definitely on the table.
Clueless comes to mind after reading your comment and many others in here.
Only 40% more powerful? It’s 400% more powerful..
4K is isn’t much different to 1080p? It’s 4 times the pixels.. And uses HDR.
@Johhnypenso I hope you realise that 6TF is not enough to run 4K60fps. A GTX 1070 has 6.5TF and look how it runs games on 4K. Even the GTX 1080 struggles with most games out there and thats a 700$ card. Sure it might at 4K30FPS but thats not really a great idea.
Following on from my last post. The Scorpio will still work connected to a 1080P tv. It will just downscale to run on a 1080P screen.And anyone who owns a Full HD 1920 x 1080P screen will still see the graphical upgrades although not as much as if they had a 4K tv, but it will still work. This is the main issue here where Phil lied. Scorpio will run on a 4K tv, he shouldn’t try to trick people by saying otherwise marketing hype or not.
Yes if you have a 4K tv you will see more benefit, obviously more pixels. But you will still see a difference on a good 1080P tv. There we have it, I’ve said my piece on this. That said, i won’t be buying a Xbox One S, I don’t use the home media tv streaming or netflix. I watch movies from Xbox One Store not on Blue ray so i’m not hyped for the One S yet. But I will be waiting for the Scorpio because it will be a whole new console with much more power than either current consoles.
Xbox Scorpio should be marketed as a next gen console, this is where games are about to get a whole lot more realistic. I personally can’t wait to see what Frontier Development do with the extra power for Elite Dangerous. Because so much more is possible with this new console.
Yes but they same game needs to be able to run on an Xbox One, so other than the resolution surely this is going to hold the potential of the game back..?
Yeah I know that, but I thought the the for Neo was that you didn’t need to buy the extra hardware to run VR ? Perhaps Iam confused ? Understand the reason for Neo just not Scorpio…
Why would it hold the game back? I play Assetto Corsa for example and I have dozens and dozens of resolutions and refresh rates available at the push of a button. From the bare minimum all the way up to 4k with combinations of 29.97/30/59.94/60 and more, refresh rates
@BrunetPaquet.
If you have a good 1080P Full HD tv already then your ok. You do not need to upgrade to a 4K tv. You will see the benefit and the better resolutions and better graphics on your 1080P tv.
Phil Spencer is kinda telling people you need a 4K tv for scorpio, buy a xbox one s for Full HD tv, but this is a lie from Phil.
I understand where hes coming from, for Microsofts sake, hes got to keep selling the Xbox One, Xbox One S aswell as the Scorpio. Microsoft clearly need to be very clever with their marketing here.
It was a mistake to release two new products at the same time, hence this marketing problem. This kind of move could adversely affect their sales and not sell any Xbox One or One S and make everyone wait until Scorpio arrives.
However there are plenty of distinguishing factors they could use to sell Xobx One S, for instance one S has 4K netflix playback and 4K blu ray playback, triple a games as well as upscaling 1080P to 4K screens. Phil needn’t have lied and clearly marketed the xbox one S to casual gamers – basically home movie, theatre, home entertainment kind of audience this console should be aimed at, the types who like to play the odd triple rated game now and again.
The xbox one can do none of the above. So yes the One S is worth an upgrade what with 3 different prices for 3 different size hard disks starting at really really decent prices, not to mention the smaller slimmed down box with no seperate huge power brick.
The scorpio should clearly have not been released so as not to polute Xbox One, One S and give people a reason to keep buying these products until nearer the time it was ready to launch. I feel Microsoft could have kicked them self in the teeth. This is why they need to be very careful how they market and destinguish the Xbox one, One S, Scorpio and be very specific and clear what each can do the other can not. Aim them at different users.
If I’m understanding correctly, when I’ll get an Xbox Scorpio and play on my 1080p HDTV I will get the speed increase but it’ll be lowered to Xbox One graphics, am I correct?
I just wanna make sure… If someone who knows the answer could answer that question, I’d be thankful.
Wouldn’t wanna have to buy a 1k$ TV. For now, the speed gain is more important to me, I’ll upgrade my TV later.
They can upgrade, increase everything they want, but if the game companies don’t invest more money nothing is gonna change.
But not just ANY 4K TV.. If you Don’t Already have one, You Need to do your Homework…
Video Display LAG will kill your Game.. That is the Time it takes for the Video Signal to Be Processed and Displayed on Screen…
on 1080p sets, you could expect 35ms to 60ms as an Acceptable LAG
( this is NOT a Spec that they Advertise. You have to read On-line Reviews where they Actually Test it. )
BAD Video Lag is 70ms plus.. some 1080p sets were upwards of 100 to 120ms.
And on 4K TV’s it could be Much Worse on the bargin brands…
What does 100ms lag mean in a Racing Game? that’s 1/10 of a Second by the way…
At 200 MPH, you are traveling 294 feet per second
so 1/10 of a Second of lag, Means your Car is 30 feet Ahead of Where you See it on Your Screen.
That will make you miss Braking Point, miss Turn in Points, over shoot the Corners, run up the back end of the car in Front…
The Game is Sending the Signal to the TV, but it has to Process it, then Display it, and in that 1/10 of a Second, your car has gone another 30 feet….
So Save up, buy a Premium 4K screen. Check the Online Video Lag Specs…
Hey, you Might be a better driver than you think.. It could be too much Video Lag, making you miss all your brake, and turn in points…
Look for under 35ms
( Video LAG IS NOT the same as refresh rate – Video Lag is not a Published Spec. )
You always provide the BEST technical information! Thanks for the reminder!
I’ve been looking into 4k for a while now and Wyldanimal makes some very good points. Input lag is crucial for all competitive gaming but you don’t need to buy premium to get reduced lag effects. One of the best rated tvs in terms of input lag is the Vizio D P and M series of tvs that come in under 20 ms and that includes both 4k and 1080p screens.
If I remember, I’ll post a link to a database when I get home unless someone beats me to it.
Voila:
http://ca.rtings.com/tv/tests/video-games/input-lag
Would pCARS benable to benupdated to run at locked 1080p @60 fps or even 900p but at locked 60fps?
*be able to be updated…
Damn iPad keyboard…
I think it should be a simple unlocking of the resolution from 900 to 1080p. I’m not a programmer but it should be a simple update and away you go. Of course SMS has to think it’s worthwhile and push the right buttons but that’s another issue.
You’ll see the improved graphics without a 4k TV.
I am not sure why down-sampling is mentioned in this article, what relevance has it to the console or 4k or working on 1080p? Anything that can down-sample from native 4k rendering, can also display that native 4k rendering on a screen. The author might mean it will not upscale to 4k, rather it renders at 4k?
down sampling is a 4k image just squashed to show up on the screen. its extreme popular and doesnt require a 4k monitor. it has a similar effect to anti-aliasing. The image is handled by the gpu hence why you can throw it on a monitor with a lower resolution and why i can downsample from 4k with my dual link DVI cable which only has the bandwidth to handle up to 2560×1440
That quite silly considering how popular downsampling is on pc with 1080p screens.
Spencer has already backtracked on that statement, Devs are free to use the resources however they wish, no 4k mandate by MS, 6Tf is simply not enough for that. Other than Forza 7 maybe don’t expect many 4k games.
Has he? Where?
Jeff Gerstmann: “If they just want to have a 1K (1080p) frame buffer, and then, you know, upres to 4K, to take advantage of and use that power in different ways…”
Phil Spencer: “Yeah, we will absolutely be open to that. I mean we’re going to talk more specifics of Project Scorpio, so we’ll get into more of the details, but I think creative freedom in how you want to use the power of the box is something that I always support. I mean, I came from first party as you know, so putting the right tools in the hands of the creators, the best creators, is our job as the platform. One thing though that we should make sure everyone understands, every game that comes out in the Xbox One family will run on the original Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Scorpio, so we had some questions if there are going to be Scorpio exclusive games. No, the line of games you get to play is the same, regardless of [one you own].”
source
Giant Bomb’s E3 interview with Spencer
So this means is not “true next gen” (whatever next gen means these dsys)
That was a question ?