Microsoft at E3 – Project Scorpio and Xbox One S confirmed

Microsoft has officially confirmed the existence of the two mid-generation updates to the Xbox One. Their E3 press conference included the confirmation of the already highly expected editions of their latest console. The conference can be viewed in full here.

Xbox executive Phil Spencer took to the stage and revealed that the two new Xbox One models are in fact very much similar to the suggestions made by the rumour mill in the run up to their official announcements.

The Xbox One Scorpio will indeed be the more powerfully capable enhancement to the original console. Project Scorpio will include a total of 6 teraflops of processing power, significantly higher than the Xbox One’s 1.31 or the PS4’s 1.84 teraflop GPUs. Independent sources claim that 6 teraflops is ‘way ahead’ of the value expected of the PS4 Neo.

Phil Spencer also revealed that Project Scorpio will include 60fps 4K gaming, and has been specifically designed for such capabilities. It will also support hi-fi virtual reality gaming. Project Scorpio will be released at Christmas time 2017.

Spencer also gave official confirmation of the Xbox One S, the slimmed down version of the console that will be a full 40% smaller than the original. This will include support for 4K Blu-ray and video streaming. A 500GB version will retail for $299, a 1TB for $349 and a 2TB for $400. A specially redesigned controller will be bundled.

All three editions of the Xbox One will be fully compatible with each other.

Another of Microsoft’s significant announcements was that of Xbox Play Anywhere, a service that will let gamers buy any compatible game digitally, to be used on both Xbox One and Windows 10. These games will share achievements and progress, with the possibility of cross-platform play.

In addition to these announcements, Microsoft discussed some of the upcoming games heading to Xbox in the coming months. They spoke about and showed footage of Gears of War 4, Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3, Dead Rising 4, Halo Wars 2, Sea of Thieves, Battlefield 1, Tekken 7 and The Division Underground.