Back in E3 2018, we got the confirmation from Microsoft that they were working on the next-gen Xbox console. At this year E3, they gave us more about that machine's capabilities, and also its provisional name together with a launch time window.
We expect to get much more information on the machine in the next 12 months, even so, many early adopters are making their plans right now. So what they can expect? Now, here are some known details and speculations about the Project Scarlett, how better it will do than the previous gen, and what games will be on it.
The release date of Project Scarlett
It is the holiday season of 2020. In case that this new console follows the similar cadence of the Xbox One, the company would reveal more information about it in the 2020 E3.
However, Microsoft is really painful about the original positioning of the Xbox One - as a TV set-top box together with Kinect and social features. But around 66% of people don't care about that. It was a significant set back for the Xbox One before the competition in 2013 with the PlayStation 4.
Will Project Scarlett be better than Xbox One X?
In the promotional video of Project Scarlett which we saw at E3 this year, there are lots of tech-speak. But the main points that many players will pay attention to is it will support 8k resolution, feature an SSD ( same as PS5) that will bring more speed to the load times, also have the maximum frame rate of 120 frames/s.
Another term that we have seen appeared lots is "ray tracing in real-time" and if you don't know what that is then checked out this video below,
All that means a big jump in processing power. But how much? In the presentation, Microsoft did say that it will have around 4 times more power than the Xbox One X. But according to Variety, that claim is only about the power of the central processor, not the graphical capabilities of Scarlett.
Will it do cloud?
The most discussing concept around these days for this unit is, of course, cloud gaming, cloud computing, and cloud streaming. But to us. That mostly about how they will deliver games to our consoles.
They will use the xCloud service of Microsoft to stream games; it is quite different from the subscription of Game Pass in fact. xCloud is something more like the recent Google' Stadia project, though people say that Microsoft will probably tie xCloud and Game Pass together. The company has announced the "buffet" Ultimate Xbox Game Pass service that includes Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold, and the new PC Game Pass. It comes with the price tag of 14.99 dollars per month.
Will it be compatible backward with current gen games?
The answer is YES. Although the company is a little bit noncommittal to the backward compatibility's scope, however, at this year E3, they announced the last Xbox 360 games to be compatible with Xbox One, and from now they will focus on making games of Xbox One compatible with Scarlett.
However, we don't know what will happen with the other Xbox generations games - which we can still play on Xbox One via the Game Pass.
Phil Spencer ( of Xbox team) said that Microsoft wants to make it compatible with all generations, including peripherals and accessories, not only games. However, in the following statement from Xbox representatives, they only said that they focus on satisfying the broadest range of players as possible.
How much will Scarlett cost?
Apparently, we are not even near the stage to discuss pricing yet. It is hard also to infer the cost of the material base on the limited information that we have so far. At the center of Project Scarlett, we have a custom made chip - with CPU based on the 3rd generation Ryzen and architecture Zen 2 of AMD. It also features a GPU base on the new technology -Navi, of the company.
People say that Project Scarlett will come in two SKUs, a lower-end system called Lockhart and a higher-end one named Anaconda. Lockhart will be like the Xbox One S, while Anaconda will be the equivalent of Xbox One X. Those came with the price tags of 349 U.S dollars and 499 U.S dollars, respectively, back in 2017.
It is likely that with this new Scarlett console, Microsoft will increase the price of the machine. However, it still depends on how Sony will position its PS5. They will also have to consider the add-on price of xCloud/Game Pass/Xbox Live that will add weight to the minds of the consumers. One thing is sure of is that Microsoft will not want to repeat the mistake of 2013 when its console is 100 dollars more than PS4 due to those add-ons that nobody wants.
The games at the launch of Project Scarlett?
At the keynote event of Microsoft at this year E3, Spencer said that Halo Infinite would among the launch games for the new console. So we have at least one series confirmed. Coincidentally, this will be the first Halo launch with a new console since the 1st Xbox way back in 2001. Rumors said that Forza Motorsport 8 would come out at E3. But that didn't happen. That means the driving flagship of Microsoft might be coming out with Project Scarlett. The last game in the franchise was Forza Motorsport 7, which came out back in 2017.
From there, it is a total guessing game. We have the Xbox One that is totally compatible backward with all Xbox hardware over the course of its 19 years history would have lots of this generation games remain relevant in 2020. For example, we have Bethesda Softworks who is making technology with the name of Orion to help deliver Doom Eternal to stream services like xCloud and Stadia.