The Xbox One Scorpio represents a paradigm shift for how we think of game consoles, and how we approach the idea of console generations. The new system is powerful enough to present a generational leap over the Xbox One, but its intercompatibility with the existing Xbox hardware means it’s hard to figure out where to slot it, exactly.
The one thing we can be sure of is that it can very effectively play the part of an enhanced Xbox One. So much so, in fact, that existing games, and not just new ones designed for the Scorpio spec, could run better on the Scorpio than they do on the original Xbox One. In an interview with GamesIndustry, Phil Spencer hinted as much.
“There are games that were written on Xbox One, and we continue to evangelize this tech of dynamic scaling – Halo 5’s a good example – when Halo 5 runs it wants to max out at 1080p/60 frames per second or highest resolution/60 frames per second,” he said. “As scenes get more complex, the vertical resolution will shrink… to keep the 60 frames per second.
“When that same game’s running on Scorpio, because of the compute capability, it’s effectively is going to run at its max resolution the whole time. And so you will see advantages like that when your Xbox One games are running on Scorpio. So that’s why we continue to talk to developers about dynamic scaling because I think as compute capability goes up on the hardware, they kind of get it for free. Now, it’s not going to make Halo 5 run with 4K pixels. The frame buffer is not a 4K frame buffer for the game. But it will run more solidly. And certain developers might go back and decide if they’ve built a 4K version for PC already for some of their games, they might go back and decide to enable a 4K version for the Scorpio Xbox when it launches.”
So- as long as developers patch it in, existing games could greatly benefit from Scorpio’s advanced technology, too. Basically, at that point, if you want to buy a new Xbox One, you might as well just wait for Scorpio to release next holiday season, rather than buying an inferior model now.
