Since the first news about Xbox Scarlett broke out in E3 2018, there have been a lot of speculation about Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console which will rival Sony’s PlayStation 5.
Rumors aside, Microsoft has released further details about Xbox Scarlett at the Microsoft’s E3 2019 conference, and the first surprise is that it doesn’t have an official name yet – Scarlett is just a codename!
Project Scarlett will feature two consoles; Lockhart and Anaconda with the latter being a full power console while the former is a budget option. The company, however, showcased the Anaconda only. At the launch, the title for Xbox Anaconda seems a done deal now that Microsoft also announced that it would be releasing the Halo Infinite. Remember, the original Halo was released together with the original Xbox back in 2001.
Halo Infinite doesn’t seem to be the only game under development by the company and its subsidiaries. “We have thousands of games in development across Xbox One and Windows PC,” the Xbox’s boss said. According to the presentation, Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft’s Gears 5 are among the titles in the pipeline.
Also in attendance at the event was AMD’s CEO Lisa Su who in a Twitter post congratulated Microsoft for Project Scarlett. “So honored and proud to create the future of gaming with Project Scarlett together with your incredible team,” read the post.
Xbox Scarlett will be powered by a custom AMD GPU and an eight-core processor capable of 8k res at 120fps. It is also confirmed that Microsoft will ditch HDD for a new 1TB SSD with 1GB/s speed that will also double up as virtual RAM.
This will drastically improve loading times by up to 40 times compared to the current consoles. The console will also feature Ray-Tracing Technology. Already Sony confirmed that it will be designing PS5 with SSD and will actually have backwards compatibility. Overall, Microsoft says that Project Scarlett will be four times faster than the current Xbox One X.
Unfortunately, Microsoft remained lip tied regarding the official release date, and prices as well as other specifications. But be sure the console will be available in the fall of 2020. There was no physical console at the conference though the trailer gives a detailed view of the next-gen console.
Other highlights during Xbox’s Scarlett’s presentation include a new game streaming service called Project xCloud service that will rival the newly announced Google Stadia.
