Xbox Scorpio Dev Kit Shown Off Ahead Of E3 2017

Microsoft's new console, Project Scorpio, is coming out this year and it aims to be one of the biggest storylines at E3 next week. The console that Microsoft will sell is different from the system's software development kit, which is given to developers to use to make their games.

Today, Microsoft released a video in which Xbox engineer Kevin Gammill talks about the devkit, which is more powerful and doesn't have exactly the same form factor as the retail kit (which hasn't even been shown off yet). It has 24 GB of GDDR5 RAM, which is 12 gigs more than the retail unit. It also has an additional 1 TB hard drive. Also of note, the system has a front-panel display that can display frame rate and can even have light games like Snake programmed on it.

In other Scorpio news, Microsoft announced recently that the console will launch in China this year. It's notable since Xbox One wasn't released in China until after it came out in the US and other major regions.

More details on Scorpio will presumably be discussed at E3 next month, during Microsoft's briefing on the afternoon of June 11. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

All Xbox One games work on Scorpio, though the Scorpio editions can look and perform better, in some cases, if developers want to do that. It is a similar situation with PS4 and PS4 Pro.