Microsoft did something unusual at this year’s E3. They announced two console iterations for the current Xbox One, Xbox One S, slimmer and slightly faster version of the current model and Xbox Scorpio which will support games in native 4K and will be VR ready. However many doubted Microsoft’s timing of the announcement. The Xbox One S’s launch was a mere two months away back then and there was a worry whether the announcement of Scorpio would have killed the S right out of the gate.
However in an interview with The Inner Circle, Microsoft’s Albert Penello revealed that he was not at all worried given the confidence they had in the Xbox One S.
“I personally, I was never worried. I wasn’t surprised that people were asking that question but I was never worried. I was never worried because the Xbox One S is rad. We knew it was going to be an awesome console and I knew it’s going to beat people’s expectations and I knew how good the product was going to be at launch and I knew about our strategy of making games and accessories to be compatible which meant that I didn’t had to make a hard choice. Of course, when we were announcing that Project Scorpio was an all new system and nothing worked and you would be like ‘that is dumb” because anything I buy today is not going to work on it but anything you buy today is going to work on the Scorpio when it comes out. So the strategy made sense.”
“The product was awesome. There are lot of people on the internet that pays attention to this kind of stuff. People are still going to go out and buy something for Holidays, people still want to play Forza, Recore and Gears of War. And so I was personally never worried,” he stated.
He also stated that he liked the fact that Microsoft announced the Scorpio more than a year ahead of its release as it gave time to people to make informed decisions.
“I like that we let know people ahead of time, I like that people can now make an informed decision so next year when Scorpio comes out at least they knew,” he added.
It will be interesting to see this month’s NPD numbers (which will be revealed early next month) given that Xbox One outsold the PS4 in July. A new hardware will most likely put them as winners in August as well given the tremendous success of Xbox One S.