Project Scorpio Next-Generation Xbox Gaming Console Debuts In Microsoft Store (betanews.com)

BrianFagioli quotes a report from BetaNews: Microsoft's next generation of video game console is currently called "Project Scorpio." This will be a truly new console, although it will be backwards compatible with all Xbox One games -- nice. In fact, you will even be able to use your Xbox One controllers and other accessories. While we do not have a definitive date of when it will go on sale, today the next Xbox console makes its debut in the Microsoft Store. We even get a slightly better idea of when it will be in stores. Microsoft reaffirms its prior stance that the console will launch in time for the 2017 Holiday season, giving us more confidence that it will launch then. Beyond that, we are none the wiser regarding a date. Heck, we don't even know definitively if it will use the "Xbox" branding (although it probably will). One thing is for sure, though -- simply putting the game system in the Microsoft Store is an important step leading up to the ability to pre-order. You can view Project Scorpio's Microsoft Store page here.

Comments

It's still an XBone...

[gweilo8888]

...and that means I have zero interest in it. Too little, too late, Microsoft: Your anti-consumer attitude in the original XBone launch ensured I won't consider any console you sell for at least a couple of generations.

Re:It's still an XBone...

[MtHuurne]

The XBone is built around an AMD APU, but I don't know which desktop Radeon card would be the closest to it. Consoles do get more performance out of the same hardware than PCs though, because of lower-level APIs and having only one optimization target.

Re:It's still an XBone...

[Opportunist]

That hasn't been true for at least 1, more likely 2, generations of consoles now. With MS trying to achieve compatibility between XB and PC, and with more and more games being produced that have to run on very different platforms, from XB to PS to PC and sometimes even ... whatever Nintendo has in the race now, that advantage has vanished.

The only thing that's left for now is that PC players usually try for higher resolutions and hence need more hardware power, and with 4k TVs that's going to be a thing of the past as well. So what will be left is that game makers have to optimize for consoles to make it halfway playable on the ancient hardware, while being able to cut corners with the PC version where they can simply tell their customers that they need a better rig to play their latest and greatest.

Re:It's still an XBone...

[exomondo]

That hasn't been true for at least 1, more likely 2, generations of consoles now.

What makes you think that?

With MS trying to achieve compatibility between XB and PC, and with more and more games being produced that have to run on very different platforms, from XB to PS to PC

That doesn't mean you're running the same code on all those platforms. Yes you can write UWP applications that can be run on PC and XBox but you think the AAA studios are writing their games as UWP to run on PC and XBox? XBox One hardware is not the baseline for these games, they run on older PC hardware too because they use different rendering engines and graphics APIs, just like how PC, XBox, PS and Nintendo's offerings are all different. There's a really rampant misconception that because we have cross platform games it's just all the same code so there's no optimization for any one platform, that is obviously false to anybody who knows anything about these platforms.

with 4k TVs that's going to be a thing of the past as well.

4k makes sense for gaming when you're sitting 3 feet from your display, ala PC gaming. Not so much when you're 8 feet away on the couch playing console games.

So what will be left is that game makers have to optimize for consoles to make it halfway playable on the ancient hardware, while being able to cut corners with the PC version where they can simply tell their customers that they need a better rig to play their latest and greatest.

They optimize for consoles and tell PC gamers to throw hardware at the problem because of the myriad of unknowns in the millions of PC hardware configurations, that's always been the case.

preorder...

[zlives]

"We're sorry but Project Scorpio is currently out of stock and cannot be added to your cart. We apologize for any inconvenience."

then why have the preorder now option?!!

Re:preorder...

[MrCodswallop]

Default webpage template? Or, simply no fucks given to a no fucks deserved console.

Intriguing.

[Salo2112]

I will admit my 360 is very long in the tooth, and I am intrigued by this, but without pricing, I am not going to get enthused.

4k my asshole

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless this new xbox is powered by a Kaby Lake i7, and dual gtx 1080, it isn't going to show play 4k even at 30fps without serious neutering of the graphics.

Re:4k my asshole

[exomondo]

Rendering realistic graphics is always a compromise between quality and performance. The real question is when they do things like render post processing effects at lower resolution and then upscale them do you even notice? Probably not. The ability to optimize for a VERY small target of hardware configurations (3 maybe?) and capabilities rather than the millions you have on PCs means consoles don't need to have as much power as PCs to achieve the same performance and quality because it isn't wasted on higher overhead APIs and lack of optimization. You know how many CPUs you have, how fast they are and how much cache they have, you know what functionality is supported in your GPU, how many processors it has, how fast they are, how much memory it has and how fast that memory is, you know what the system bus speed is, how much system memory you have, how fast that system memory is, etc, etc ... and thus you can optimize for it much more effectively.

Re:4k my asshole

[pezezin]

If I'm not mistaken, the Scorpio will have a Ryzen CPU and a Vega GPU.

AMD laughing all the way to the bank

[edxwelch]

So now, Sony is going to have to give AMD another pile of cash and release a Playstation that's even faster than "Project Scorpio", just after they thought they scored a winner with the PS4 pro.

Re:AMD laughing all the way to the bank

[hackwrench]

That's SKUs not skews. Stock Keeping Units. https://www.bing.com/search?q=...

Derp

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Hasn't been that expensive in a LONG time.

Re:HAHA

[Narcocide]

Well you can extrapolate it out to all the PS4 models except the most recent, yes. But since this article was about Microsoft, I didn't feel right about bringing up Hillary Clinton. Woops, er, I mean Sony.

Re:PS1, most likely

[hackwrench]

I think it uses the PS1 and not the Sega Saturn version of Castlevania: SOTN. It has been awhile since I had a usable 360 console. I have since bought SOTN on PS3. I have owned copies of SOTN on PS1, 360, and PS3 now. I wish Sony would release an upgrade path for all the classics to the PS4. But you say that the classic games released on the 360 will play on the One? I may look into that again. I have Blade Kitten on the PC. thought I had it on the PS3, but I don't see it in my downloads. I thought I bought it originally on the 360, but without one, I don't know how to check. https://www.playstation.com/en... says that it has been available for the PS3, but click on the link and it opens a store page that says the url does not exist and searching for Blade Kitten on the store proper turns up 0 hits. Very frustrating.

Re:Feel right

[hackwrench]

Don't worry... after doing it enough times you will get over it not feeling right. On that note, today I commented on how people feel obligated to buy things from restaurants if they go in to use the restroom, but not at grocery and department stores, so I preferred to use the restroom at a KMart and not a Long John Silver's. I browsed the merchandise at the KMart and I can see why the Sears/KMart company is doing so poorly. They had a video playing in the toddler's clothes section to the left of the electronics section. The electronics section had many empty spaces for televisions and the display televisions they did have were all off. The toy section to the right of the electronics section had items strewn all over the place and not neatly arranged.
This is actually quite fun. You should try it. I can see how people wouldn't care for actually reading it though. Still better than the copy and paste drivel.

I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[HalAtWork]

It's already underpowered compared to last year's GPUs, they're requiring compatibility with the original Xbox One undermining its potential, announcing it only a couple of years away from a new generation giving it little time to amass support much less thrive, diving in with little first-party support as-is, and their PR line is that it is a premium system that will carry a premium price. If this is what you want you can already get a PC plus have access to Steam and other game catalogs.

It doesn't exactly sound like Scorpio will have much of a chance.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[exomondo]

It's already underpowered compared to last year's GPUs

But you're talking about GPUs that end up underutilized in PCs due to the need to support millions of configurations. For the price of a highend gaming GPU you could get and xbox and a playstation.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[HalAtWork]

No matter how many configurations there are, they still spec the game based on a majority of systems, what everyone is expected to handle. A game will be built around this ballpark spec, and then just run at a higher resolution, frame rate, higher anti aliasing... But still the same basic framework and assets.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[exomondo]

No matter how many configurations there are, they still spec the game based on a majority of systems, what everyone is expected to handle.

Right so instead of exploiting specific architectural features of the GPU for efficient processing it's usually just a generic implementation because you need to target millions of different configurations with various different capabilities. Whereas on the console since you only have 1 or 2 targets you get the results by optimizing a platform-specific solution rather than having your customers throw expensive hardware at a generic solution.

I don't understand how people can still be surprised by this, console hardware always has a theoretical performance deficit compared to PCs because on a console it is more effectively utilized. This has been the case for pretty much the entire history of consoles and every time a new one is announced we see the same surprised comments about how the processing power isn't cutting edge ... it doesn't have to be.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[gravewax]

I am a PC gamer but your comparison is moronic. Most people have PC's with graphics capabilities that even last gen consoles can keep up with. according to last months Steam Hardware results more than 65% of people still only have machines with graphics cards with 2GB of less of VRAM. People also don't generally buy a console for the latest and greatest in grpahics, if they want that they spend 2-4 grand on a PC. consoles are fast to setup, predictable experiences for users and provide a generic platform that developers can target and hence better leverage the hardware. I will stick with my PC but I can certainly see the value in consoles for many people.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[Waccoon]

Indeed. What amazes me are the people who insist that CPU technology has stalled because what we already have is good enough for day-to-day use. These same people insist consoles suck because they're underpowered.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[Waccoon]

Same reason why some people build $10,000 PCs: bragging rights.

Yeah, but, does it have RGB lighting?!

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[LordWabbit2]

What a lot of people on /. seem to forget, is that most people are not that computer literate. Hell, my brother in law is an IT manager and he prefers gaming on consoles, because after a tough day at work he doesn't want to come home and fight with yet another PC. It's vastly simpler to just switch on the console and start playing, which is what makes them so attractive to the great masses.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[HalAtWork]

Right but what you say is part of my point... that devs are designing for these low spec systems because that's what everyone has. They won't be optimizing for the few percent that have high end hardware... all they will get is the same game running in higher resolutions, higher frame rate, and more anti aliasing... Basically Scorpio will do what the Xbox One does but at 4k (or attempt to). This won't be a new level of gaming.

The only real advancement we will get is when the majority moves over to a new threshold... like say PS5 and Xbox Two, when devs are effectively cut off from supporting the older hardware and can assume everyone will have higher spec systems.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[Kitano123]

Platform specific optimization isn't the magic fix you seem to think it is. Console hardware is always underpowered, most games perform badly hitting 30fps at best. It doesn't matter what optimization are done the creaking hardware is simply years behind the times.

People complain about consoles being underpowered because guess what... they are underpowered.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[Kitano123]

Consoles being cheaper than PC is a myth. Consoles prices are subsidised. You pay £10-20 more for each console game and for that reason over the life time of the system you end up spending more than you would on a PC for inferior hardware and performance.

I'll stick with 60fps and max settings for the same price as 30fps and mid settings you would get on a console.

Re:I don't get why they are bothering to do this

[exomondo]

Platform specific optimization isn't the magic fix you seem to think it is. Console hardware is always underpowered, most games perform badly hitting 30fps at best.

Actually it is and the important thing is consistent framerate.

People complain about consoles being underpowered because guess what... they are underpowered.

But they just aren't, it's just not necessary to throw more powerful hardware at the games. It's certainly not as though we're seeing these great innovations in PC games vs consoles by virtue of the higher theoretical power, ultimately it ends up just being higher resolution and more AA. Which often is not noticable on consoles because you're sitting further from your TV than you are your PC display.

Frame interpolation, checkerboard render, 1080p fx

[HalAtWork]

In a leaked presentation, MS has already outlined how performance will be achieved. Frame interpolation, checkerboard rendering, and rendering effects at 1080p and compositing them with 4k geometry, all this is on the table

Wake me when it's here

[Opportunist]

Seriously, why does anyone still give a fuck when MS announces something?

Re: Wake me when it's here

[Opportunist]

Yes, yes, this will be the most ... well, considering it's Microsoft that's announcing here, let's see IF, and if, WHEN the console arrives, and whether it still IS the most powerful console when it finally gets here.

It's trivial to announce something. Want me to announce a PS5 that will blow the snot off that XBox? Easily done. Delivery? Umm... Really Soon Now (tm).