Xbox Project Scorpio: Will You Pay A Premium Price For A Premium Product?


The Xbox Project Scorpio might be the Lamborghini of consoles, and with that comes a hefty price tag.

With the PlayStation 4 Pro and Nintendo Switch creating quite a buzz, Microsoft has to step up its game. The Xbox Project Scorpio, which Microsoft calls “the most powerful console ever,” will be the luxury and premium unit in the Xbox family.

But the Xbox Project Scorpio will surely with a high price. Talking to Levelup, Xbox big boss Phil Spencer reveals that the most powerful console of the generation, of course, will be pricier than the Xbox One S.

Phil Spencer talks about the Project Scorpio [Image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

“Scorpio will be a premium console; It will cost more than [the Xbox One] S obviously. That’s how we’re building it. We haven’t announced price points for Scorpio yet, but I want to make sure that the investments we’re putting into the product of Scorpio meets the demands of the higher end customer, and that will be a higher price.”

The 2 TB Xbox One S and the 1 TB PlayStation 4 Pro both play at a $400 price tag. At a price point above $400, right off the bat we already know that it’s not going to compete with the PlayStation 4 Pro. And an iTechPost report tackles a prediction that the Xbox Project Scorpio will carry an $800 price tag.

Scorpio will be way more expensive than the Xbox One S [Image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

Is $800 too much for a console? The report suggests that the Xbox Project Scorpio does not want to play against the PS4 Pro or the Nintendo Switch. It’s will peg itself against modern high-end PCs. It’s like a console for people who do not have the patience to the build a high-end gaming PC, nor the means to go as far as thousands for a true gaming beast since modern gaming PCs can reportedly go as high as $2,000. It’s also a more compact choice, too, since you won’t need an overly complicated setup other than the console and a huge 4K UHD television.

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s head of Xbox games marketing, confirms at the Xbox FanFest event in Mexico City this month, via PlayStation Lifestyle.

“This will really bring the most powerful console you’ve ever seen. It will bring these really true 4K, really incredible visual games that we’ve never seen before on the console.

“People who have spent thousands of dollars on a high-end PC are getting that experience. How do we bring that to scale in a console in your living room? That’s a big part of what Project Scorpio is about.”

If you’re wondering if it’s worth the extra bucks, the Xbox Project Scorpio promises to bring true 4K gaming, high-fidelity VR, 6 teraflops of power, 320 GB/s memory bandwidth, and eight CPU cores. Understanding the graphical processing power of the Xbox Project Scorpio is a sum of all its parts, which Spencer explains to Stevivor as something like a car.

“It’s like a car — you wouldn’t describe how fast it goes using only one characteristic. But I guess it’s like a teraflop is like horsepower — you’d probably have in your head what 100 horsepower could do, or 200.

“But it’s much more than that — there’s other things that dictate how fast the car goes. A transmission. Its weight. It’s the same with Scorpio; it’s not just the number of teraflops that makes it powerful.”

With a huge price tag, the question is, will you need the Xbox Project Scorpio to move forward? It seems it’s not really that kind of update that pulls gamers grudgingly from a console they are just starting to get comfortable with. Much like the PS4 Pro, the Xbox Project Scorpio is an optional, albeit extremely premium choice for those who want and can afford to amp up their gaming.

The Project Scorpio announcement at the E3 [Image by Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images]

Value Walk reiterates that according to Spencer, the Xbox Project Scorpio is not a replacement of the Xbox One S. It will, instead, exist alongside its less powerful Xbox siblings and its Windows 10 PC cousin to create a family of gaming devices that will suit different needs and preferences.

If things continue moving as planned, Xbox Project Scorpio is expected to release around Christmas 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9WCZU2pac

[Featured Image by chrisjohnsson/Shutterstock.com]

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