As of now, MS plans no more console updates after Scorpio
Despite new hardware rollouts last month and next holiday 2017, Microsoft has decided to give its fan base an update on the future of their console strategy. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer spoke with Game Informer to end the rumor of Project Scorpio bringing an end to the console generations.
He went to explain that Microsoft doesn’t plan to release upgraded systems every two years – giving some of their community a sigh of relief. With the Scorpio set to formally see an unveiling at e3 next year (or sooner, most likely), they have a few months to take notes from the Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro system, which rolls out next week to retailers.
Take a look below at Mr. Spencer on the Xbox One beyond holiday 2017.
At E3 2016 you used the phrase “gaming beyond generations” when you revealed Project Scorpio. Does this mean that in the future, console gamers will need to buy hardware more regularly if they want to play the best possible version of a game?
It’s hard to tell. Clearly in the case of Xbox One, Xbox One S and Scorpio, the answer would be, I don’t know if it’s more regularly, but you’re going to want Scorpio to run the game at the highest resolution or framerate – whatever the developers decide to do with that game.
As for the “more regularly” part, to be completely honest, I don’t know what the next console is past Scorpio. We’re thinking about it. We’re looking at consumer trends and what the right performance spec and price would be, and [asking ourselves], “Can we hit something that has a meaningful performance characteristic that a gamer would care about?”
I don’t have this desire to every two years have a new console on the shelf; that’s not part of the console business model, and it doesn’t actually help us. The best customer I have is somebody who buys the original Xbox and just buys all the games. That’s the best customer for us in terms of the pure financials of it. I don’t have a need to get you to go buy the newest console, or I don’t have the need to create an artificial loop of, “Here’s a new console every two years,” in order to get you to go buy.
The reason I hesitate to say yes to your question in terms of the future is, I don’t know what the next thing is past Scorpio right now… I’m not trying to turn consoles into the graphics card market where every so often Nvidia or AMD come out with a new card, and if I want a little bit more performance I’m going to go buy that new card. I think for consoles it’s different. I think you have to hit a spec that actually means something in an ecosystem of televisions and games.
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