Xbox’s Project Scorpio, heavily billed as “the world’s most powerful console,” finally saw the light of day at E3 2017 and it’s proper name is the Xbox One X. Amidst the hoots and hollers of the collected gamers in Los Angeles, the impressive guts of the latest Xbox were constantly praised and we got a reminder that the monstrous GPU and 12GB of DDR5 memory dwarfed that of the PS4 pro. Simply put, this is the console for 4K gaming, which it can run up to 60 FPS (if the game allows it).
Thankfully, the talking heads promised that the Xbox One X will deliver a beautiful picture to even those without a 4K TV, which is great to hear. Beyond delivering a dynamic, gorgeous picture for newer titles, it will upscale all old Xbox One games and deliver faster load times as well as dip into the new GPU to implement the possible new effects with all those old Xbox games that stuttered or just weren’t as sexy as they could be. In other words, Microsoft finally nailed 1080p after four years of struggles.
As far as pricing is concerned, gaming pundit Geoff Keighley dropped this mini-bomb early Sunday:
https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/873920094346162176
It turns out, Keighley was dead-on. Microsoft confirmed the price near the end of their conference to a tepid response. $500 may seem like a hefty price tag, but considering what’s inside the box, it’s a pretty solid deal.
One thing to consider is the PlayStation 3’s 2006 launch in which we saw a $600 80GB console and a $500 40GB console.
It’s also worth noting that a 1TB hard drive is still too small. Especially for a “premium” console.
Microsoft’s first party developers are probably working hard on updating their previous games, like Gears of War 4, so they can utilize the full power of the Scorpio, while most games will see basic frame rate and resolution upgrades. Kind of like PC gaming.
What we do know is that the new Assassin’s Creed, due out October 27th, should take complete advantage of the Scorpio’s specs. The game will be optimized for 4K and should run at 60 FPS. So far, other developers have kept mum about how they’ll be embracing the power of the new system.