On stage at E3 today Microsoft unveiled the new Xbox One S console, a new controller and a slew of new games and features. But the company also started to talk about the future of Xbox consoles and where the next step in hardware innovation is.
Microsoft unveiled the "we heard you console" designed to appeal to hardcore gamers and those looking for the best performance. The next version of the Xbox will be coming in 2017, with a focus on VR, and cutting-edge performance. To that end Microsoft announced that Project Scorpio will feature "6 teraflops of power" , "true 4K gaming" and an 8-core processor.
Microsoft was quick to stress that Scorpio will be part of the same Xbox family as the Xbox One and the One S and is not designed to replace any of these consoles. Instead, the Scorpio is expected to appeal to PC gamers and VR enthusiasts.
One aspect that Microsoft did touch on is that, as expected, games will be cross-compatible across the entire Xbox platform. Though the company did not say as much, what"s likely to happen is that just like with the Xbox One and Xbox 360, new games might support all existing consoles but offer better graphics, or extra features and the newest and most powerful hardware. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, commented on all the announcements:
Gamers have never had more choice in how and where they play. We are bringing our biggest games lineup ever to Xbox One and Windows 10, uniting gamers across networks on Xbox Live and expanding the Xbox One family of devices with the addition of Xbox One S and Project Scorpio to give gamers more choice in how and where they play. There’s never been a better time to be an Xbox gamer.
Microsoft"s was light on details besides what is mentioned above, but we"re bound to learn more about Xbox Scorpio as we get closer to its launch. The Xbox Scorpio console is slated for a release in 2017 around the holiday season.