Microsoft Announces Project Scorpio Console

Today at Microsoft’s E3 2016 press conference, the company confirmed the existence of a new console. Named Project Scorpio, the announcement confirms rumors we’ve been reading for the past few months. Set to release in 2017, the new system will feature 8 cores, 320Gb memory bandwidth, and six teraflops of performance that will allow for true fully uncompressed 4K gaming. This suggests it will not simply be upscaled 2160p.

Microsoft also unveiled that Project Scorpio would be backwards compatible with both the Xbox One and Xbox One S, and you’ll be able to use the same peripherals and controllers with the console as well.

The 4K news is surprising, since the resolution is extremely graphically demanding on hardware and is four times as sharp as 1080p. For reference, leading $400 PC graphics cards still struggle with 2160p. To dissuade disbelief, however, one developer in the promo video stated, “They’re really going for it.”

In addition to the 4K announcement, Microsoft also stated that the console would also be capable of targeting 60fps performance as well and that it would deliver a “no-compromise” experience.

Microsoft also alluded to the fact that Project Scorpio would be used to power VR games as well, which makes sense because VR is so graphically demanding due to the fact that it requires a high resolution and fast, consistent frame rate. Bethesda's Todd Howard was in the promo video, and alluded to the idea that the VR version of Fallout 4 would be coming to the console. Considering the VR version of the game is currently only announced to support the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, this could potentially mean we'd see HTC Vive support for Project Scorpio.

No price was announced for Project Scorpio, but you can stay tuned to GameSpot for more E3 coverage as news develops.