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Xbox 'Project Scorpio': Everything You Need To Know, Latest News And Updates

uB Muse
First Posted: Aug 23, 2016 05:29 AM EDT

At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Xbox head Phil Spencer announced the arrival of two new consoles, including a new Xbox One model, capable of streaming 4K content and the next iteration of Xbox, codenamed Project Scorpio. Consisting of powerful hardware and software, the Scorpio marks a new era of how Microsoft markets its gaming products.  The Project Scorpio console will be available by the mid of 2017.

"We think the future is without console generations," Xbox head of games marketing Aaron Greenberg said. "We think that the ability to build a library, a community, to be able to iterate with the hardware -- we're making a pretty big bet on that with Project Scorpio."

What's New?

Microsoft claims Project Scorpio can run those same games at ultra high definition 4K resolution at a butter-smooth 60 frames per second with about 4 times the power of an original Xbox One, says Gamespot.com. It's like attaching a new PC video card into your gaming console. According to Microsoft, this will enable true 4K gaming and high fidelity virtual reality. If you're into virtual reality, you'll pretty much need Project Scorpio to get the full effect.

Performance

Project Scorpio is a console made for VR. It will have an 8-core CPU and a graphics card with 6TFLOPs of power. It'll also have 320GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox at Microsoft, told The Verge that Scorpio will feel like a new generation in terms of graphical fidelity. "I actually think the upgrade to Scorpio in terms of visual fidelity will feel as dramatic of a change as we're used to seeing in new generations," said Spencer.

How Much It Costs

Though there has not been any official announcement so far, assuming Microsoft will sell it with narrow profit margins, The console will cost around $600.

Does it support old Xbox One games?

Yes. Don't expect any vast improvements beyond slightly higher resolution. Existing Xbox One games will experience performance improvements . All existing Xbox One accessories will also work on Scorpio consoles in addition to games. Thankfully, Microsoft has gained much experience from its past and is being somewhat reserved about its approach to the future of consoles, with Greenberg adding "But we'll see. We're going to learn from this, we're going to see how it goes."

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