Microsoft announced its next generation gaming console, code-named Project Scorpio, last June at E3 2016. The new premium console will feature full 4K and HDR video support, high-end VR capabilities, 8 XPU cores and 6 teraflops of graphics performance, and support for the full Xbox One family of games. Microsoft has said it’s slated for a holiday 2017 release, and the company has already started pushing the marketing, touting 2017 as the year of Project Scorpio.
But gamers are a curious lot, and the meager details we have on the new console simply aren’t enough. We should be hearing a lot more about Project Scorpio by E3 2017, as Microsoft fights to regain control from Sony and its PlayStation franchise for bragging rights as the top gaming platform, but that’s not until June 13-15th.
So “holiday 2017” is a vague term for a product release, but as one Reddit commenter recently pointed out, what if we’ve been sitting on the release date this whole time? Scorpio, the sign of the zodiac in astrology, occurs as the sun “transits the constellation of Scorpius from approximately October 23 to November 25.”
So as well as being a kind of a cool code name, one that some wish would stick as a final name for the new Xbox console, could Microsoft have been tipping its hand the whole time? Is Monday October 23rd, the first day of Scorpio in 2017, or soon after, indeed the intended release date for Project Scorpio?
It’s certainly not far-fetched, as a release needs to come soon enough to capture holiday sales, but far enough along in the year to get the new console finished, and a late October release is right in that sweet spot.
Anyway we’ll just have to wait and find out, but for now, keep checking your horoscope if you’re waiting for a sign that Project Scorpio is upon us!
