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New Xbox 2? Scorpio Release Date More Than Just An Upgrade, It’s A True Next-Gen Console

By David Cornell
Published on: 08:26 PST, Jul 22, 2016

The Xbox 2, or the Scorpio as it’s being nicknamed, is the console we should have seen in 2013. When the Xbox One launched, it was a general disappointment as a next generation console. Much like the PlayStation 4, it felt more like a performance boost for the consoles we already had and not as much like a real upgrade.

As some who have seen the console wars come and go will notice, we are just now starting to see what the current generation consoles are capable of. It happens with every generation. Launch games barely push what the console can do, and as developers discover how to get more out of it, the games look more impressive. Look at the visual difference between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and AC: Syndicate. Three years of experience make a big difference.

Now we are looking forward to new consoles, officially called mere upgrades to the ones we have, but capable of supporting 4K visuals. On the PS4 Neo, it generally means you’ll be able to stream Netflix at its highest setting and make current titles work a little better. Lower loading times and less frame rate drops will be the promised result. The Xbox 2, however, is the recipient of Microsoft doing everything they can to outperform the competition for once. They’re doing more than just making 4K visuals possible if the planned compatibility with the Oculus Rift is any indication.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that only works with the most high-end gaming PCs, making it a very demanding peripheral. If the Xbox 2 will be compatible with it, we can expect some truly awesome game visuals on Ultra HD TVs. Don’t confuse this with the upcoming Xbox One S being released later this year, as the smaller console will basically do everything the PlayStation Neo does on its launch date.

Anticipation for both consoles appears to be affecting sales of the current generation ones, as they appear to be dipping. According to console market research firm NPD, June saw a decline in people buying the Xbox One and PS4. This was about the same time that the PlayStation Neo and Xbox Scorpio were announced as upgrades to the current consoles.

This could mean a boom in sales when the Xbox 2 and PS4 Neo launch next year, taking advantage of probably millions of IRS refunds. It also marks the first actual revolution in consoles since the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 didn’t really do anything revolutionary the way new generation consoles usually do. The PS3 was a massive leap over the PS2, and the PS4 seemed like Sony wasn’t even trying to make a real improvement. The Xbox One felt too much like the Xbox 360 with a slightly new engine. With virtual reality headsets and 4K video support on the horizon, it appears that revolution is finally here.

The Xbox 2 will have a graphics card capable of 6TFLOPs (trillion floating point operations per second), only point five TFLOPS below the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, today’s high-end PC gaming graphics standard. If gaming PCs don’t grow astronomically faster by the end of 2017, the Scorpio will close in on the PC “master race.”

Will the PS4 Neo be able to compete? It’s too early to tell, as Sony hasn’t released details on what will be powering it. If it doesn’t aim for PC level performance, the Xbox 2 could easily win this round.

[Image via Barone Firenze/Shutterstock.com]

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