Microsoft: Xbox Scorpio Isn’t Worth it if You Don’t Own a 4K TV

During E3 this year, Microsoft teased Project Scorpio which features a whopping 6 TFLOPS of computing power and is designed for 4K gaming. This huge boost even surpasses PlayStation’s upcoming Neo console and looks like a very promising upgrade for Xbox One owners. Shockingly, the console will launch in holiday 2017 which means it’s been considered for some time. Saying that, I’m not entirely convinced the console will be able to play games at a native 4K resolution given its specification. Although, optimisation might make this a distinct possibility. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer recently discussed why gamers should choose the Xbox S over the Scorpio with Eurogamer. He asked the interviewer: “What TV do you have?”

The interviewer responded:

“A standard 1080p TV,”

Then Spencer explained that the Scorpio isn’t a good idea for those without a 4K TV. He added:

“Then you should buy this box, because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you,”

“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.”

“On a console to console experience, when we designed Scorpio and we said 4K console, we looked at games that are running at, let’s say 1080p 60 on an Xbox One, and said we want that same game to be able to run at 4K 60 on a Scorpio,”

“We looked at the design of the games we had on Xbox One today and said, if we increase the resolution and maintain the framerate we have, could we hit that?”

This is an interesting statement and it looks like Microsoft is trying to have two models which coexist; one for 1080P gaming while the other compliments a 4K television. Personally, I cannot wait to see what the Scorpio is capable of and would love to know more technical details about the hardware.