Project Scorpio more powerful than people thought, 4K re-confirmed

Brad Stephenson

There had been some rumors circulating online earlier this week that suggested that Microsoft’s upcoming new iteration of their Xbox One video game console, currently codenamed Project Scorpio, wouldn’t be able to play true 4K resolution gaming. Thankfully, this rumor proved to be false as Xbox’s own Phil Spencer just shut it down a few hours ago during a brief exchange on Twitter. His response when asked if Scorpio would support native 4K gaming? “Yes.”

While, Microsoft is expected to reveal the full final specs of Project Scorpio, along with its official name, at this year’s E3 in June, some game developers have begun to openly discuss their impressions of the console in public. The most-recent game dev to do so is Ori and the Blind Forest dev, Thomas Mahler, who said in a post on the NeoGAF forums that, “Scorpio isn’t just a half-assed upgrade (which the PS4 Pro kinda is…), but a full blown next-gen machine that’s just backwards-compatible to your current library” and that, “from this point on, similar to PCs, you’ll not lose your library when you buy a next-gen system.”

Officially, Project Scorpio, is currently considered by Microsoft to be within the same console generation as the Xbox One despite it being significantly more powerful than the original Xbox One and the ever so slightly more powerful Xbox One S model. Project Scorpio will support all Xbox One apps, games, and accessories and will likely use an identical operating system as current consoles. Where Project Scorpio will differ from the Xbox One and Xbox One S will be in its 4K capability and its support for virtual and augmented reality experiences, something existing consoles aren’t powerful enough to manage.

How powerful do you expect Project Scorpio to be once released? Share your theories with the community in the comments below.