Last night during the Video Game Awards, Microsoft unveiled their newest console- the Xbox Series X. The announcement came during the top of the show and was a complete surprise. It started with a voice-over of a man’s voice going on about dreams and doing whatever you want. Then, it showed some Forza and FIFA action before concluding with one of if not the most iconic Microsoft characters of all time, Master Chief. That’s when the crowd knew what was happening, and the Xbox Series X was shown off for the first time.
The Xbox Series X (formerly known as Project Scarlett) features a very PC tower-like design with a tall rectangular shape and a vent at the top. The console will apparently be twice as powerful as the Xbox One X (currently one of the best ways to play video games). The GPU/CPU is handled by AMD, and the console will have ray-tracing capabilities, which will offer better and more realistic lighting and shadows in video games. Microsoft is also said to be prepping the new console for when 8K becomes more of a household resolution with a 120hz refresh rate.
The Xbox Series X will also be a vast improvement over previous consoles regarding the CPU. During the Xbox reveal last night, Phil Spencer talked a bit about the CPU, saying: “On the CPU side, which is something we really wanted to push relative to previous generations, we have four times the compute power on the CPU in Project Scarlett.” Whether this was compared to the Xbox One’s CPU or the Xbox One X’s CPU, we don’t know, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
Microsoft is also looking to improve the Input/Output, or I/O, in its next console, which Spencer also discussed last night, “How do we move both memory and bits around? So we have a 40-times improvement in the I/O speed, [increased] bandwidth for us moving things around on the console [compared to] the past generation. And we’ve upgraded to GDDR6 memory inside of the box to ensure that the memory itself is able to keep up with the CPU, GPU, and the bandwidth requirements.”
With the Xbox Series X’s new storage tech, it will finally start to breach the barrier between console and PC in terms of gaming. Microsoft has also invested in NVMe solid-state drives. This should enable developers to do a lot more with games, as well as virtually eliminate load times.
As for specs on the new console, that was about all that was divulged during the relatively short reveal last night, but already the Series X is shaping up to be a beast of a console. Following the spec-talk, a trailer for Ninja Theory’s Hellblade 2 was shown, which was made completely in-engine showing off the graphical capabilities of the Xbox Series X.
The controller wasn’t revealed too much, but it’s apparent from the presentation that Microsoft didn’t stray too much from the Xbox One controller design (which is a good thing). The new controllers do feature a couple of slight improvements, though. According to Microsoft, “the size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people.” It’s slightly smaller than the Xbox One controller. The Xbox Series X controller will include a dedicated Share button (a la the PS4 controller). The new controller also features a redesigned d-pad, more in line with the Elite line of Xbox One controllers. The Xbox Series X’s controller will be compatible with PC and Xbox One as well.
“Our goal has always been to build the most powerful console we can, and I think we’re there. We like leading in power and performance and I feel like we’re going to be there again.” Spencer said wrapping up the presentation.
The Xbox Series X is still set for a Holiday 2020 launch and will go head to head with Sony’s PlayStation 5. Which one will you be picking up?
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