People have waited more than five years from the initial launch of the Xbox One, and Microsoft announced quite big changes with the new console. Right from the start, we can see that there will be some major changes design-wise as well as major enhancements from the last Xbox One.
However, we’ve seen Xbox revisions like the One S that simply don’t have enough changes to get people excited. Fortunately, Microsoft is working on the next generation of console and few details about the project such as the new code-name Project Scarlett.
Since we’ve seen the official PlayStation 5 details on the power and price, Phil Spencer the head of Xbox said that people will prefer the Xbox due to many more features and more affordable prices. Rumors circle that the price of the new Xbox is expected to be close to $400, we will see if they hit that mark.
The new Xbox looks like a modern PC gaming when you inspect its infrastructure. Featuring technical specifications like discrete GPU called “Arcturus 12”. It will also have a custom AMD processor and it will focus on the CPU and internal drive.
Xbox Scarlett will be 8K capable just like the next-generation of Playstation. Despite the higher resolution Phil Spencer said that they focus on playability and framerate which means that higher resolution might still affect gameplay.
Xbox xCloud
On Microsoft’s E3 2018 presentation they revealed a project called xCloud which will allow Xbox games to be played on different devices with lower performance such as mobile phones. Games will also use Bluetooth-powered Xbox controllers.
In order to use these services, you would probably need today a monthly fee and we expect to be around $15, which is more than Google’s pricing on Stadia cloud play that starts at $9.99.
Release date
There is no official date for the release, but Microsoft announced that the launch is scheduled for the Holiday season in 2020, basically the same time as the PlayStation 5.
The name “Scarlett” was confirmed at this year’s E3, furthermore, Spencer and his team announced another less powerful console called “Lockhard” alongside the next-generation console, but it seems like that is not going to happen.
Currently, the team is designing the infrastructure of their new console, which is the same team behind the Xbox One X project.
Backward compatibility and VR
Xbox Scarlett will be backward compatible so you can play all previous three generations of Xbox games. This means that you will be still able to play previous games, like the previous installments of NBA 2K. Unfortunately, it seems like the new Xbox will not have VR support even though this technology is trending at the moment. Mike Nichols, The chief marketing officer for Xbox announced that they do not have any specific facts for VR in their new console.
Games
At this time there is only one game that is going to be launched with the release of the new Xbox Scarlett or only one is reviled to the public. We will see Halo Infinite in the holiday season next year and it is expected to be amazing.
Other games are not yet confirmed, but we are expecting a few games to be released with the console.
Forza Motorsport 8 is going to be exciting since we haven’t seen a new title from them for over 9 years. State of Decay 3 will be zombie apocalyptic game just like the previous and even more malicious. Fable 4 is designed by Playground Games which is part of Microsoft. We’ve heard rumors about an open world Fable game that is expected to be released at the end of next year.
Next year’s holidays will be great for gamers since we will have the biggest console games in the same month. We expect to see some revolutionize technology and they have 1 year to create the best console that they have.
