A lot of speculation is being made on the upcoming Xbox Scorpio, expected to be officially unveiled at E3 2017. After the huge Digital Foundry spec announcement, we’re left wondering if this will truly be Microsoft’s foray into the next generation of consoles. Microsoft’s official statement is that it’s a “mid-generation update”, stating that the console will be able to play Xbox One and Xbox 360 games.
Take The Controller has several ideas as to what this release could mean for Microsoft and the Xbox brand:
- Xbox could technically outperform Playstation for upwards of 2 years
Sony has made no announcements on a follow-up to last Fall’s Playstation 4 Pro. While it’s sensible to assume a follow-up console is in the works, it appears that Sony is nowhere near as far along in development as Microsoft is with the Scorpio. We could potentially see Sony do a reveal/teaser similar to Microsoft’s Scorpio teaser at last year’s E3, but anything beyond that would be a genuine surprise.
- Recently canceled Xbox One games could be Scorpio launch titles
Many people were surprised when Microsoft announced the cancellation of Platinum Games’ Scalebound in January of this year. Platinum Games appears to have abandoned their relationship with Microsoft, but could this simply be a case of purposeful misdirection with intentions of blowing everyone’s minds at E3? The long-awaited Phantom Dust port for the Xbox One has also been shelved indefinitely, with Microsoft’s Phil Spencer recently teasing progress on the game. Could this be another game released for Scorpio’s launch?
- Xbox Scorpio could be Microsoft’s last-ditch effort at saving the Xbox brand
With Sony clearly winning this generation’s console war from day one, it’s long been rumored that Microsoft could abandon console gaming platform altogether to focus on other avenues. While the announcement of the Xbox Scorpio momentarily puts that speculation to rest, the timing of its release and the nature of its hardware are reminiscent of a company laying all of its chips on the table in an effort that could win the hand, getting a jumpstart on Sony into the next-generation, mid-generation, whatever you want to call it, with interest from developers and consumers, or lose it badly with consumers refusing to buy a console that’s not clearly defined as next-gen or consumers unready to take the plunge on an “upgrade” so quickly after the Xbox One’s release.
The entirety of this article is speculation, but it will be interesting to see if any of this is proven correct by the time the Scorpio is released later this year.
Until then, remember to Take The Controller and play!
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