At E3 2016, Microsoft unveiled the new Xbox One S console along with an even more powerful “Project Scorpio”.
The new Xbox One S will be more than a simple refresh, according to Xbox Chief Phil Spencer. Having the native ability to support 4K and HDR, “it’s the most powerful console ever built,” he said.
The successor to the Xbox One S, code-named Project Scorpio, is a new console boasts even more power than the S with full VR support. “Having something at six teraflops that will get millions of people buying it is very attractive to some of the VR companies that are out there already, and we’ve architected it such that something will be able to plug right in and work.”
Developers also will have access to HDR capabilities, which stands for High Dynamic Range, making colors brighter and more vibrant on correlating televisions.
In an interview with Polygon, Rod Fergusson, head of Coalition studio, boasted about the new capabilities of the Xbox One S. With additional CPU and GPU power, Coalition is able to take advantage of this to improve upon their upcoming title, Gears of War 4. This will allow the developers “to reduce the frequency of frame rate or resolution penalties in more demanding sections of the game.”
Another new, and shocking feature is in the new console’s size. An amazing 40% smaller than the current Xbox One is almost inconceivable while having more processing power and other new features. Not only that, but it also managed to eliminate that pesky paperweight that was the power brick.
While all games will be able to work on the new Xbox One S, the additional abilities will be mainly for the developers to help the game run more smoothly, and won’t necessarily make all games look better. “We have the same SOC architecture as Xbox One today,” said a spokesperson from Microsoft. “For games that want to take advantage of HDR, we gave developers access to a small amount of additional processing power.”
Project Scorpio has yet to be given a firm date, tentatively Fall of 2017. The Xbox One S will be in stores this August and will come in three different versions: $299 for the 500GB model, $349 for 1TB, and the special 2TB “Launch Edition” will cost $399.
