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Still running a 1080p TV? Then you should forget about buying Xbox Scorpio.
That’s the message from Xbox boss Phil Spencer. He was asked by Eurogamer about the thinking behind announcing the new Xbox One S only to an hour later reveal a brand new machine, Xbox Scorpio.
You should buy [the Xbox One S], because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you,” Spencer said after asking the reviewer what TV he had – in this instance a 1080p set. Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don’t have a 4K TV, the benefit we’ve designed for, you’re not going to see.
Clearly, you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you. For us in the industry, it’s easy to think that most power is always the thing that wins. If you look at last gen, what won? The Wii won. The Wii sold more than we did on Xbox 360 and the PS3, and it wasn’t the most powerful console out there. Price is critically important. Wii was a good price and it had a great experience.
Scorpio is for the person who’s got a 4K television, who’s really focused on 4K gaming. It’s going to be a premium price over what we’re selling this one for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that’s what we designed it for.”
It was speculated yesterday that while it seems Xbox Scorpio will have a quite significant power advantage over PS4 Neo, that advantage will come at a cost – that literally being the cost, which could be some $100 more than Sony’s new machine.
