The Xbox One Scorpio, when it was announced at E3, appeared truly astounding. As Microsoft rattled off the specs for the console, it became clear that they had managed to build a beast of a machine. It would be the most powerful console ever, they promised, when it launched in 2017- and for now, we can believe it. But will that necessarily hold true by the end of 2017, which is when it will launch? Are Microsoft confident that those specs will be as impressive then as they are right now, when new GPUs, new CPUs, and new computer advances will be on the market?
Speaking in an interview with Gamertag Radio, Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg, Marketing Lead for first and third party titles for Microsoft, tackled that question.
“Well, the idea for us was, how do we bring true 4K gaming to the console market?” Greenberg said. “And in order to do that, today on the PC side, if you invest in a super high end rig, or a really high end PC, you can get 4K gaming now, right? But it’s thousands of dollars, often. You can even get a high fidelity VR experience. But you can’t get that in the console market. And in order to do that, we know that requires 6 TFLOPs of power, so for us, that’s what we’re coming into with Project Scorpio. We’re going to build a box, we’re going to build a beast of a box, that will be 6TFLOPs of power, that will be able to deliver true 4K games, and be able to do high fidelity VR, in the living room, on a console.
“And, think about that, with Xbox Anywhere, we’ll be able to have that ecosystem across both your console, and your PC. So I’m excited about that vision, and I think it’s great that we’re able to tell fans that ‘hey, if you’re looking to upgrade the Xbox One, and you want 4K video and HDR, and a smaller size, we’ve got a great box for you this holiday. But if you want the beast, you want the 6 TFLOP monster coming net holiday, we have that too. And it feels so great to be able to share that, not just with our fans, but also with our development partners, who’ll be thinking about ‘how do I make those great experiences come to life on the console next holiday?'”
We know, and Sony have even tacitly admitted, that the PS4 Neo will not be as powerful as the Scorpio- and unless Nintendo somehow manage to unexpectedly make the most powerful console of all time with the NX, which, I mean, it’s Nintendo, so they won’t, I think Microsoft are pretty safe with their claim for the foreseeable future.