Microsoft are currently working on the Xbox Scorpio, their next console, which is due to launch in Holiday 2017. Unlike the relatively disappointing PS4 Pro, the Scorpio seems to be a beast of a machine- it was unveiled at E3 as ‘the most powerful console ever made,’ and with a 6TFLOP GPU, it looks like Microsoft will deliver on that vision.
And now, Windows Central seems to have more information on exactly how they will do it. Citing insider sources, Windows Central claims that the Scorpio will become the centre for first party game development, for all Microsoft games on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One (the same tools will also be extended to third parties, of course). Any game that is created for the UWP PC platform will run on Scorpio in 4K natively, including older games that are already out- which means that titles like Gears 4 and Forza Horizon 3 will run in 4K on the device, as well as any new titles that are released in UWP format.
The Scorpio can mimic a standard Xbox One at a hardware level, so essentially, developers can now simply target a Scorpio for development, make games for it, and then test them across multiple configurations (the Scorpio configuration and the Xbox One configuration) on the Scorpio itself- essentially, on the development end, the Scorpio will become the nexus of Xbox Play Anywhere.
With that said, the Scorpio will have exclusive VR games that will simply not be compatible with existing Xbox One systems, which are too weak to run it. Scorpio is also slated to run on the Xbox One OS, though again, with some alterations and additions for VR.
All of this sounds incredibly exciting to me- and if this is what Microsoft are pushing with the Scorpio, then I’m all for it. I cannot wait for the details to be confirmed as we near Scorpio’s launch a year from now.
