Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s next big Xbox console, has garnered quite a bit of hype even if it hasn’t been properly showcased. The “most powerful console ever built” is out in Holiday 2017 and arrives four years after the Xbox One, which is still weird considering the Xbox 360 lasted a good eight to nine years.
Speaking to Game Informer, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed the possibility of Microsoft releasing new console hardware on a regular basis. While plans could always change, Spencer did note that he wasn’t interested in regularly releasing new console iterations.
“As for the ‘more regularly’ part, to be completely honest, I don’t know what the next console is past Scorpio. We’re thinking about it. We’re looking at consumer trends and what the right performance spec and price would be, and [asking ourselves], ‘Can we hit something that has a meaningful performance characteristic that a gamer would care about?'”
“I don’t have this desire to every two years have a new console on the shelf; that’s not part of the console business model, and it doesn’t actually help us.”
What’s most important for Microsoft is that you buy one console and plenty of games. “That’s the best customer for us in terms of the pure financials of it. I don’t have a need to get you to go buy the newest console, or I don’t have the need to create an artificial loop of, ‘Here’s a new console every two years,’ in order to get you to go buy,” according to Spencer.
It’s important to note that just because a new console may not come out every two years doesn’t mean Microsoft isn’t confirmed to do some kind of re-iteration every few years. Things could always change. As Spencer notes, “The reason I hesitate to say yes to your question in terms of the future is, I don’t know what the next thing is past Scorpio right now…I’m not trying to turn consoles into the graphics card market where every so often Nvidia or AMD come out with a new card, and if I want a little bit more performance I’m going to go buy that new card. I think for consoles it’s different. I think you have to hit a spec that actually means something in an ecosystem of televisions and games.”
