E3 2017: 6 Things We Learned About Xbox One X

Microsoft's upcoming console was previously codenamed Project Scorpio, and despite rumors that it might be called Xbox Scorpio or Xbox S, we learned from the company's E3 2017 press conference that the upcoming system has been officially named Xbox One X. What's slightly interesting about the name is that its acronym spells out XBOX.

While we already knew that it would feature an 8-core AMD SOC outfitted with an integrated GPU capable of delivering six teraflops of performance when we covered its tech specs, we also learned a bunch of new details about the system, which include its price, release date, design, and more.

As suggested from the rumored pricing leaks this morning, Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox One X will retail for $499. This puts it on par with the Xbox One's original retail price when it released in 2013. This also makes it cost roughly $100 more than the PS4 Pro's suggested retail price. It is worth mentioning that the Xbox One X will be noticeably more powerful than Sony's high-end console.

While $499 may be prohibitively expensive for some, it is inline with some predictions. Microsoft also offers the more affordable Xbox One S console geared for 1080p gaming. The cheaper system recently got a $50 price cut and retails for $250.

The console is set to release worldwide on November 7, 2017. This puts it a year behind Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, which released on November 10, 2016 for $399. While the PS4 Pro plays certain games at 4K, many of them are up-scaled using a rendering technique called checkerboard rendering. Microsoft asserts that the Xbox One X will be the "world's most powerful console" and can run games natively at true 4K.

The Xbox One X measures 30x24x6 centimeters, which Microsoft asserts makes it the smallest Xbox console to date. For reference, the original Xbox measures 34.3x26.3x8 centimeters.

While it may be the smallest Xbox console to date, it's noticeably heavier than the original Xbox One at 8.4 pounds. For reference, the original Xbox One weighs 7.8 pounds.

In terms of aesthetics, it looks a lot like a black Xbox One S. The fact that it's dramatically more powerful than the S while being a roughly the same size is a bit of a technical marvel, especially when you consider that the Xbox One S is roughly 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One.

In addition to allowing you to play games at 4K, Microsoft asserted at its press conference that the Xbox One X would bolster existing Xbox One games in a number of ways that include adding anisotropic filtering, supporting AMD FreeSync, faster load times, and enabling supersampling; the latter of which renders games above 1080p and then downsizes them to an HDTV. This makes them look sharper than traditional 1080p.

Microsoft revealed a bunch of new games that would support the Xbox One X. These games include Shadow of War, Forza Motorsport 7, Assassin's Creed: Origins, and dozens more. Click here for a more comprehensive list of Xbox One X-supported games.