Giant Bomb Interview with Phil Spencer – Xbox One Scorpio Information
The Xbox One Scropio was announced at this years E3 and they want it to be a high-end platform for Xbox One gamers, but many were confused on what it means for current Xbox One owners. Microsoft head Phil Spencer cleared some things up during an interview with Giant Bomb.
- No Scorpio exclusives
- Devs can do 4K, dont have to do 4K, can use power in different ways
- Previous games may see improvement such as dynamic resolution games staying 1080p
- Games will look different on 1080p screen, full benefit and image fidelity can only be reaped with a 4KTV for 4K games but it’s still a viable purchase for 1080p owners
- Announcement made for the purpose of transparency, consumers can make an educated purchase if they want to buy the lower range but cheaper Xbox One S or the premium and more powerful Scorpio, developers can work out how they want to adapt the hardware
- Xbox One S will not play games better than the Xbox One
- Developers must support the Xbox One as well
- All existing Xbox One accessories will carry over
- Upgraded consoles not adapting a smartphone style approach, maybe every 4-5 years and based on whats deemed as a new inflection point of technology (for instance, 4K and VR)
- 360 backwards compatibility was the starting point of taking a users investment in a system and retaining it, will be the norm from now on
Source: Giant Bomb Interview
They also commented on developers using the power to push for 1080p with better visuals outside of just hitting native 4K support during the interview.
Brad Shoemaker: “That was actually something that I was curious about that when you talk about 4K being the emphasis of that thing, will there be any mandate coming out of Microsoft toward developers saying like ‘You should really focus on 4K here’ or is it like carte blanche for them to pursue that extra power?”
Jeff Gerstmann: “If they just want to have a 1K (1080p) frame buffer, and then, you know, upres to 4K, to take advantage of and use that power in different ways…”
Phil Spencer: “Yeah, we will absolutely be open to that. I mean we’re going to talk more specifics of Project Scorpio, so we’ll get into more of the details, but I think creative freedom in how you want to use the power of the box is something that I always support. I mean, I came from first party as you know, so putting the right tools in the hands of the creators, the best creators, is our job as the platform. One thing though that we should make sure everyone understands, every game that comes out in the Xbox One family will run on the original Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Scorpio, so we had some questions if there are going to be Scorpio exclusive games. No, the line of games you get to play is the same, regardless of [one you own].”