This morning was the big reveal of Project Scorpio and the floodgates of information have opened about the next Xbox console from Microsoft. Along with the specifications and improvements on its predecessors, the device is being touted as the ‘premium’ gaming console.
But why exactly did Microsoft feel the need to make Project Scorpio in the first place? Its announcement took place not long after the release of Xbox One S, so was the switch over to 4k and virtual reality worth a whole new console on top of that? The answer comes from the Digital Foundry.
Project Scorpio is a way to “win developers back” according to the recent article from Eurogamer. Mike Ybarra, head of Xbox, explained:
“The team looked back at developers and the developer relationship we have,” Ybarra said. “With Xbox 360 we had the absolute best platform for developers, [with Xbox One] we sort of lost that in a two-year time-frame, so we said how do we win the mind-share of those developers back?
“We want the best games running on our box and there are tools, devkits and some arrows like that to win the developers back. So that was a big priority for us as we approached this product.”
It’s no secret Xbox One has been struggling in competition with the PlayStation4. Microsoft wants to turn this around with higher quality games created by high-quality developers. “We have to win the hearts and minds of developers,” Ybarra told the editor. “We have to have the right toolset that lets them bring out their games across the whole family of products and let them create the absolute best versions of those games.”
The refreshed Xbox One console has new technologies (such as 4k resolution and VR) allowing better gaming, better development, and all around the best experience. Inspired by breaking the trend of long generations of consoles with untapped potential, the Xbox team is bringing back the risk of keeping their console more to date with models that adopt these updates that customers want.
There’s still a lot more to learn about Project Scorpio, but we’d love to know your opinion. Does Microsoft have the potential to revitalize the developer interest in Xbox One with Project Scorpio?
