It’s E3 this week so that means the video game industry is walking the catwalk with their most expensive clothing on. Show us all what the next 18 months are shaping up to be. Microsoft went earlier today and Sony is tonight.
Microsoft showed me a bunch of games I want to play and they talked about new hardware. I’m going to focus on the hardware as that’s the biggest news. A little context from the rumor mill first.
A few weeks ago, leaks about Sony’s Playstation 4 came out. Basically, it was getting a pinch on the bum to goose the specs. A kick in processor speed and a GPU bump being the main features. This to offer 4k support (read: 4k upscaling for games and 4k display capabilities for video streaming and blu-ray movies) and better performance for Playstation VR. The VR headset is due out in October and about a week ago someone was quoted as saying that the bump is greatly needed for VR performance that isn’t terrible (any dips in frame and refresh rates makes it bad). The name PS4k got tossed around until the codename, Neo, came out.
A little while after that, leaks out of MS said they were doing the same thing…but more. First, a redesigned Xbox One “Slim” which isn’t anything shocking. Smaller console, lower price, lower power consumption, and comes out this August.
Second, they were also working on more powerful hardware much like “Neo”. Xbox lead Phil Spencer went on record (around the time the Neo rumors started) that he didn’t believe in doing an incremental update. Effort into a Xbox One.5 would be a waste of time and effort.  He also ruminated that it was possible that the time for distinct console generations was coming to a close. PS4 is more powerful hardware than XO and no one lets them forget that…which was the header of the follow-up MS rumor. Along with the codename Scorpio, this bump was intended to leapfrog whatever Sony was planning. This hardware would be the most powerful console on the market when released.
Fast forward to now. A few days ago, Sony announced Neo was real, didn’t mention any specs and said they wouldn’t be discussing it at E3.
This morning (after the info leaked on Saturday or Sunday) MS showed us the Xbox One S right away. That smaller redesign was true. It’s white, it’s got a new-ish controller and supports 4k streaming (a rumor awhile ago said that Netflix had asked MS and Sony about getting support for 4k) and blu-ray. Also, some HDR tech to help with lighting in games and video. Starts at $300 for 500GB, then $350 for 1TB and $400 for 2TB of storage.
The show goes ahead we’re told about Xbox Anywhere where basically every MS published game will be on Windows 10 with crossbuy and crossplay. Then they show a video confirming Project Scorpio at the very end. No concrete details but some numbers are thrown around and essentially it’s a major jump in hardware meant to push 4k video games and VR. Â It’s coming Holiday 2017. MS is doubling down on Xbox as their gaming platform. Their PC games are Xbox games, you don’t have to have the Xbox box to play Xbox games anymore.
Valve messed around with their “Steam Machine” initiative to try and push Linux as a PC gaming platform. By the sounds of it, their idea has hit the dirt like a dead trout. So Microsoft has basically said, We Are PC Gaming. You want to game on the PC, get Windows 10 and spend as much money as you want on it.
You’ll see a lot of “Xbox is dead” talk now. It’s not Microsoft’s intention and that statement is from someone that isn’t paying attention. They’re taking Valve’s idea of tiered PC price points and making a real go of it. The Xbox One is the entry point for their games. $300 and you’re in. Eventually,they’ll sell through all the original One designs and the S will be the baseline. The PC platform is now whatever level of Xbox you want. Put as much money into it as you want. Want to play Gears 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and all sorts of other games in 4k when they release this year? You can.
Scorpio will be the console jump up when you’re ready for a big step up at a decent price. You won’t have to deal with a PC, just a plug and play box that will be ready to rock VR if you want as well (I’d be shocked if they made their own hardware, I’d expect Vive and Oculus Rift support, it makes so much more sense as you could do crossbuy and crossplay with those games and just move the headset around). VR will be much bigger and more mature next year so it’ll be great timing.
All the One accessories and games will work on whatever hardware you choose to use. The new controllers have BlueTooth support so you won’t have to get a One wireless dongle for your PC. The Xbox Live software solution for Windows 10 for both platforms to talk to each other has been up and running for almost a year already and the Killer Instinct release in March was a major proof of concept win (and Rocket League too). You buy these games once for either platform and you have it on both. The multiplayer player base expands significantly.
MS is aiming to get everyone on the same platform (ecosystem is probably a better word) regardless of hardware. The price of entry is low and if you want to chase the bleeding edge of performance you can do that (or get to specs somewhere in the middle) with Windows 10. They got their store with movies, TV shows and Music you can purchase/rent and you can watch your own media on Windows 10 and/or One. That’s the Apple angle with Apple TV (albeit more expensive).
It’s a daring move really. Completely changing the gaming console generation timeline that we’ve been following for about 40 years. There’s some stuff to work out, like will a jacked Win10 rig give a massive advantage to crossplay competitive games? FPSs with keyboard and mouse vs controller is the most obvious one too. Will Gears 4 Win10 gamers be forced to use controllers with no kb/m support to keep it fair?
You better believe those Playstation 4 Neo specs are changing as we speak.
