Xbox Scorpio is “Full Blown Next-Gen Machine”

An Xbox developer has claimed that Microsoft’s Xbox upgrade, codenamed Project Scorpio, will be an entirely new console, rather than just a more powerful update of the Xbox One. Thomas Mahler, the creator of Ori and the Blind Forest, made the revelation on NeoGAF earlier this week. While Sony has gotten the drop on its rival with its PlayStation 4 revision, the PS4 Pro, already, Mahler brands the effort “half-assed” and reveals that the Xbox Scorpio will be a “next-gen machine.”

“All consoles now are x86 PCs and the architecture will remain the same, that’s why Sony was able to quickly iterate on the PS4 and make a beefier version of it,” Mahler wrote on NeoGAF. “Scorpio is a next-gen machine with the added benefit that all your old games will still be compatible. From this point on, similar to PCs, you’ll not lose your library when you buy a next-gen system. I guess since NeoGAF is confused [sic], Microsoft will need to do a little work to make it clear to everyone that Scorpio isn’t just a half-assed upgrade (which the PS4 Pro kinda is…), but a full blown next-gen machine that’s just backwards-compatible to your current library.”

Mahler’s statement, though, directly contradicts that of Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer. Spencer has promised that games released for the Scorpio will be playable on all existing Xbox One hardware, making the new console an upgrade rather than a new generation.

“Project Scorpio will be the next addition to the Xbox One family, and it is ultimately the next step in delivering our vision of gaming beyond generations,” Spencer said at E3 last year (via IGN). “When it ships next year we believe it’ll be the most powerful console ever built.” He later assured Xbox One owners that games and peripherals would all be cross-compatible, saying “no one gets left behind.”