Polygon: Xbox Scorpio will be a ~6 TFLOP system (v PS4K's 4.14), unveil soon, Fall 17

Microsoft turned Surface into a billion dollar a quarter business without the Windows Store and even dropped the Surface RT that had access only to the Windows Store. They also grew Azure significantly since they opened it up to work with just about everything. They grew Office 365 since making it accessible on all OS.

They very well could be working on ways to make the gaming/TV console more open, but still easy to use, in order to lure in more Windows platform users. I'm not counting out the possibility they make it a small-form Windows 10 PC, with optional settings to make it Windows Store only or access only certain sites so that parents can control what their kids access.

As for revenue, nothing is stopping them from making Games with Gold like EA/Origin Access but with MS first-party games to keep growing Live subscriptions and Windows Store usage. Then they still have new first-party game sales and DLC transactions, as well as a cut of the digital third-party sales through their own store plus royalties of off of disc sales. Then there are accessory sales. All of that is before sales of non-game stuff in the Windows Store that would no doubt increase as more casuals adopted it.

They could eventually compete with Steam on digital discounts once the Windows Store reaches critical mass in games, apps, movies/TV, etc. What's stopping them from doing timed releases and digital store exclusives to lure more gamers to using the Windows Store? There would no doubt be some folks who adopt both.

It seems silly to me to not try to leverage one of the strongest reasons gamers choose Windows.

what's wrong with me? this sounds plausible
 
you think a remaster of a 10 year old game will get people racing to a new console?

I realize this is entirely anecdotal but I have loads of friends that bought Xbone's off the promise of being able to play 1080p 60fps Halo 3.

Well we all know how that worked out :/ MCC was an utter disaster.

We still still want nothing more than to play Halo 3 on reliable servers with a stable population.
 
Microsoft turned Surface into a billion dollar a quarter business without the Windows Store and even dropped the Surface RT that had access only to the Windows Store. They also grew Azure significantly since they opened it up to work with just about everything. They grew Office 365 since making it accessible on all OS.

All of which are logical extensions and money making endevours. MS is NOT going to make a console that can host steam and sell games they will not get a cut of. That make zero business sense.

They very well could be working on ways to make the gaming/TV console more open, but still easy to use, in order to lure in more Windows platform users. I'm not counting out the possibility they make it a small-form Windows 10 PC, with optional settings to make it Windows Store only or access only certain sites so that parents can control what their kids access.

It won't be a PC, they already make PC's for that purpose. You're saying two things that contradict each other. That they will make it open and a walled garden at the same time. That makes no business sense. What would be the benefit to MS as a whole?

Sure they are making it more open to an extent with Universal windows apps, but they won't take xbox further then that. They might bring more xbox software to PC, but it makes little sense to make a console into a small form factor PC.
 
I realize this is entirely anecdotal but I have loads of friends that bought Xbone's off the promise of being able to play 1080p 60fps Halo 3.

Well we all know how that worked out :/ MCC was an utter disaster.

We still still want nothing more than to play Halo 3 on reliable servers with a stable population.

Damn right it's anecdotal. Tons of people aren't going to flock to a new console to play Halo 3 dude. Halo 3 gameplay is dated as hell.
 
Unless they do a full remaster for launch, it'll help :)


That's what I'm saying... I mean look at the hype CoD MW remastered is getting...older people want their classic childhood gameplay back and the younger kids may have never played them and want to give it a try.

A remastered Halo 3 would sell great!
 
Unless they do a full remaster for launch, it'll help :)
Halo 5 is a solid product. It's the best Halo since Halo 3 and if that game didn't grab loads of people to buy an X1.....

The Halo franchise needs a serious rework.

That's what I'm saying... I mean look at the hype CoD MW remastered is getting...older people want their classic childhood gameplay back and the younger kids may have never played them and want to give it a try.

A remastered Halo 3 would sell great!
No, it wouldn't. People play those games for about a week or two tops and then never come back. It's just like backwards compat. People bitch about wanting it but then barely use it once they get it.
 
That's what I'm saying... I mean look at the hype CoD MW remastered is getting...older people want their classic childhood gameplay back and the younger kids may have never played them and want to give it a try.

A remastered Halo 3 would sell great!

it would sell fine but it wouldn't sell new consoles. same for MW
 
it would sell fine but it wouldn't sell new consoles. same for MW

Again, I say this anecdotally, but this would sell consoles, at least among my group of friends... I realize that we are not the mass market, but I'm sure that there are plenty of like minded people that would invest in a new console for this.
 
I still think/believe that the reason Scorpio is projected to be a 6tf system is that it will also be a PC and be capable of playing PC games, using Steam etc. It will have a PC App that launches full blown W10 and allow you to use it as a PC with all functions a PC has. In Non-PC mode it will run like a current console, albeit a lot better because of the improved specs.

That idea is as old as the original X-Box concept itself, dating all the way back to 1998, 1999.

The convergence of Xbox being a full-blown PC unofficially resurfaced again, a year before the Xbox 360 was revealed. http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/26/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/

Yet it's never fully come to fruition.
 
I hope they put at minimum a 2tb SSHD in the Scorpio. I love the SSHD in my Xbox One Elite Console, it makes a noticeable difference.
 
Xbox Scorpio 2TB Halo 3 Anniversary, Gears of War 4, Sea of Thieves bundle - $399.

Boom.

You know Etta, I love a lot of your posts, but whatever you are smoking or drinking, you need to lay off of it a bit. That reads like someone that is completely wasted/drunk or perhaps slightly insane. ::)) Said with love though!
 
You know Etta, I love a lot of your posts, but whatever you are smoking or drinking, you need to lay off of it a bit. That reads like someone that is completely wasted/drunk or perhaps slightly insane. ::)) Said with love though!
Well I mean assuming Scorpio base is already $399, Halo 3 wouldn't be full priced, probably $30, Gears of War 4 and Sea of Thieves are both 1 year old at that point AND Microsoft games, so cheap to include.
 
...and it won't. people need to realize this.

I agree.

Also, here are the earliest NextGen magazine articles on X-Box in 1999, leading up to its announcement at GDC 2000.

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To complete this set of articles:


Note: ^ that real-time version of the Two To Tango demo is running on NV15 (GeForce2 GTS) not NV25. which probably only existed on paper at that point as a set of specs (same with GigaPixel's GP-4 GPU which MS ultimately rejected in favor of Nvidia's tech which was proven and leading edge) would eventually be GeForce4 Ti in early 2002.
The actual final Xbox GPU (NV2A) was a hybrid of GF3 (NV20) and GF4Ti (NV25) and basically in-between in performance.

 
All of which are logical extensions and money making endevours. MS is NOT going to make a console that can host steam and sell games they will not get a cut of. That make zero business sense.



It won't be a PC, they already make PC's for that purpose. You're saying two things that contradict each other. That they will make it open and a walled garden at the same time. That makes no business sense. What would be the benefit to MS as a whole?

I listed several ways they make money despite allowing competing digital stores, the gist of which amounts to offering more compelling digital goods and discounts that get users to choose the Windows Store. They need the users first though and there's not much in there to draw in users.

With critical mass in users MS can get devs and publishers thinking Windows (DX12, UWP, Windows Store, etc) first, including both PC and Xbox, maybe shifting momentum back in Microsoft's court in terms of being a target platform, being more popular with gamers, etc.

I wouldn't underestimate how much a Xbox Live sub could do for them to offset the cost of users choosing other stores from time to time. If, for example, they had 100 million folks buy the next Xbox and only like 30% of them signed up for a $60 Gold sub (no MP restriction, think EA/Origin Access) that's at least $1.8 billion a year. It's still a multi-billion dollar console business just based on Live subs IF they can get the number of device users to grow significantly.

Now think of that larger install base and add in new first-party game sales, third-party game digital sales from users who choose Windows Store, royalties on disc sales, accessory sales and royalties from licenses on third-party accessory sales, and app and movie/TV sales. There's still a lot of money on the table.

Getting number of users to grow significantly and showing devs there is a lot of momentum in the platform is first. MS needs a hook and I don't think the same familiar tune they've been playing for the past 3 years is going to make a lick of difference with a more powerful console. They need to be highly disruptive. They need to do something pro-consumer that people don't expect, with the affect of having people think owning a Windows 10 PC or Xbox is a no brainer. Once they have those users then it should be a snowball effect in terms of more Live subs, games, apps, etc.
 
I agree.

Also, here are the earliest NextGen magazine articles on X-Box in 1999, leading up to its announcement at GDC 2000.

...

Absolutely hilarious in retrospect. What did we get? 3.5 years of gems like Brute Force, Wreckless, and Blinx the Time Sweeper.
 
PC gaming, dying since 1999.

Absolutely hilarious in retrospect. What did we get? 3.5 years of gems like Brute Force, Wreckless, and Blinx the Time Sweeper.

My point for posting those articles was to show what the industry speculation was regarding the possible / likely XBox hardware, and what the official specs were at GDC 2000.
Not about "PC gaming is doomed". Wasn't trying to be funny.
 
No one is going to make a Scorpio only titles but MS.
Even if 3rd parties drop X1 there not going drop PS4 so Scorpio would be hold back by that .
Scorpio will get better effects AA\AF, res and frame rate etc etc just like NEO .

I'm saying devs will possibly be less likely to limit a scorpio title based on what can be achieved on an xbox one as compared to the neo which, supposedly, releases much sooner.

Initially I'm thinking many games made for Neo will have to be somewhat possible on PS4, but by the time Scorpio releases, we could end up seeing more of a shift towards Neo, Scorpio and PC only. I understand that's still quite early in the cycle, so, for many, xbox one and ps4 will still make sense, but I can definitely imagine an atmosphere where the later released scorpio is held back even less by Xbox One or PS4, and is instead sharing most of its releases with Neo and PC.
 
Absolutely hilarious in retrospect. What did we get? 3.5 years of gems like Brute Force, Wreckless, and Blinx the Time Sweeper.

Halo, Forza Motorsport, Mech Assault, Mech Assault 2, Project Gotham Racing, Project Gotham Racing 2, Conker Live and Reloaded, Jet Set Radio Future, Fable, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crimson Skies, Midtown Madness 3, Kung Fu Chaos, Rallisport Challenge 1 & 2, Shenmue II, Jade Empire, Star Wars KOTOR... oh and Halo 2.

But if you want just want to ignore those... I guess that's fine.
 
Halo, Forza Motorsport, Mech Assault, Project Gotham Racing, Conker Live and Reloaded, Jet Set Radio Future, Fable, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crimson Skies, Jade Empire, Star Wars KOTOR... oh and Halo 2.

But if you want just want to ignore those... I guess that's fine.

.
 
Halo, Forza Motorsport, Mech Assault, Mech Assault 2, Project Gotham Racing, Project Gotham Racing 2, Conker Live and Reloaded, Jet Set Radio Future, Fable, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crimson Skies, Midtown Madness 3, Kung Fu Chaos, Rallisport Challenge 1 & 2, Shenmue II, Jade Empire, Star Wars KOTOR... oh and Halo 2.

But if you want just want to ignore those... I guess that's fine.

Yeah, but those weren't big games Ford! lol. Love how some people can dismiss all those titles.

On topic....

Going to predict that it will be Turn 10 and Forza 7 that will lead the charge for what the Scorpio can do.
 
Halo, Forza Motorsport, Mech Assault, Mech Assault 2, Project Gotham Racing, Project Gotham Racing 2, Conker Live and Reloaded, Jet Set Radio Future, Fable, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crimson Skies, Midtown Madness 3, Kung Fu Chaos, Rallisport Challenge 1 & 2, Shenmue II, Jade Empire, Star Wars KOTOR... oh and Halo 2.

But if you want just want to ignore those... I guess that's fine.

And Ninja Gaiden!
 
I read the other day that Telltale said Windows Store has a bigger reach than Steam now and they are excited to bring their games to it. I think they said something like Windows Store has audience of 300 million and Steam only 125 million.

Here: http://mspoweruser.com/telltale-games-says-the-windows-store-offers-wider-reach-for-casual-and-first-time-gamers-than-steam-will-port-full-catalogue-there/

The audience is listening to Windows store but not buying there. Why would they? So far, Steam is still the superior because open platform for PC games. Almost every PC player already has a huge library there and they can't migrate that to XBOX. I am well aware that MS will never allow that, but man, if they did, this would be an insta-buy.
 
The audience is listening to Windows store but not buying there. Why would they? So far, Steam is still the superior because open platform for PC games. Almost every PC player already has a huge library there and they can't migrate that to XBOX. I am well aware that MS will never allow that, but man, if they did, this would be an insta-buy.
Except in Telltales case where kids buy their games on their parents' phones/tablets/computers, those kids don't have already established Steam libraries nor do they care about it.
 
My point for posting those articles was to show what the industry speculation was regarding the possible / likely XBox hardware, and what the official specs were at GDC 2000.
Not about "PC gaming is doomed". Wasn't trying to be funny.

Erm, I know...Just pointing out that part was funny.
 
Except in Telltales case where kids buy their games on their parents' phones/tablets/computers, those kids don't have already established Steam libraries nor do they care about it.

So, you want to place your hopes on those kids and their huge monthly budget for games on XBOX? I have those (kids and budget :P), and they play games on Nintendo DS, iPad or Kindle Fire, and the oldest one on PS3. They don't even know what a Windows store is (and I won't tell them ;)). Long story short, pretty sure MS doesn't focus on kids these days.


No one is going to make a Scorpio only titles but MS.
Even if 3rd parties drop X1 there not going drop PS4 so Scorpio would be hold back by that .
Scorpio will get better effects AA\AF, res and frame rate etc etc just like NEO .

Well, that's the really interesting part, isn't it? Will MS allow Scorpio exclusive non-VR games? Sony clearly forbids that, even special game modes for Neo. So, what's MS going to do? Follow the shared library idea or go a separate route with exclusives? Thing is, with the much bigger power gap and different memory solutions between both SKUs, XBOX One is clearly holding Scorpio far more back than PS4 is holding back PS4 Neo. I mean, what's the point in going forwars "big numbers" if your new console can't truly exploit it's power. And with that I mean not only the resolution of games, or AA, but the sheer scale of games which will be limited by the weakest link of the chain.
 
So, you want to place your hopes on those kids and their huge monthly budget for games on XBOX? I have those, and they play games on Nintendo DS, iPad or Kindle Fire, and the oldest one on PS3. They don't even know what a Windows store is (and I won't tell them ;)). Long story short, pretty sure MS doesn't focus on kids these days.
I'm not placing any hopes on anything. You're trying to put words in my mouth or downplay or spin or something.
The article is simple, Windows Store has a wider reach than Steam, and Telltale is happy about that.
Nothing more nothing less.
 
I'm not placing any hopes on anything. You're trying to put words in my mouth or downplay or spin or something.
The article is simple, Windows Store has a wider reach than Steam, and Telltale is happy about that.
Nothing more nothing less.

And I was just mocking you because the fact that the Windows-bundled Windows store has a wider reach than non-Windows-bundled Steam is just trivial.
 
Well, that's the really interesting part, isn't it? Will MS allow Scorpio exclusive non-VR games? Sony clearly forbids that, even special game modes for Neo. So, what's MS going to do? Follow the shared library idea or go a separate route with exclusives? Thing is, with the much bigger power gap and different memory solutions between both SKUs, XBOX One is clearly holding Scorpio far more back than PS4 is holding back PS4 Neo. I mean, what's the point in going forwars "big numbers" if your new console can't truly exploit it's power. And with that I mean not only the resolution of games, or AA, but the sheer scale of games which will be limited by the weakest link of the chain.

Tell me which games in your opinion are "truly" next gen to you this gen. Not from a graphical point of view but from gameplay and tell me why these games were not possible on last gen.
Especially this gen with all the remasters showed how more power is used.
 
Halo, Forza Motorsport, Mech Assault, Mech Assault 2, Project Gotham Racing, Project Gotham Racing 2, Conker Live and Reloaded, Jet Set Radio Future, Fable, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crimson Skies, Midtown Madness 3, Kung Fu Chaos, Rallisport Challenge 1 & 2, Shenmue II, Jade Empire, Star Wars KOTOR... oh and Halo 2.

But if you want just want to ignore those... I guess that's fine.

Never heard of a single one of those games. I did enjoy Quantum Redshift, though.
 
Tell me which games in your opinion are "truly" next gen to you this gen. Not from a graphical point of view but from gameplay and tell me why these games were not possible on last gen.
Especially this gen with all the remasters showed how more power is used.

Obviously, there isn't that huge gap we saw in earlier generations, but besides graphics, the number of simultaneous players in Multiplayer games comes to mind. Or more cars on a track in racing games.Or the number of NPCs. It's kinda obvious that you can do much more with a console which has 5 times more power than the old one.
 
Obviously, there isn't that huge gap we saw in earlier generations, but besides graphics, the number of simultaneous players in Multiplayer games comes to mind. Or more cars on a track in racing games.Or the number of NPCs. It's kinda obvious that you can do much more with a console which has 5 times more power than the old one.

But do we have more cars in racing games? Do we have more NPCs? I feel like from a gameplay perspective the vast majority of devs can do what they want to do right now already. Compare Arkham Asylum to Arkham Knight, Oblivion to Fallout 4, Or GTA 5 on last gen to any current gen game, I don't see much if any improvement in gameplay possibilities.

The jump from ps2/xbox to ps3/360 was vast, assassins creed would simply not have been possible on the previous gen for example. But so far this gen feels like last gen games with prettier graphics. Even the tech heavy hitters like quantum break or Uncharted 4 would be totally possible on last gen without sacrificing anything in terms of gameplay.

There are very few though that could do more gameplay wise on better hardware, No mans sky I imagine for example, but it's like a handful of games and these few might then be scorpio exclusives. No one will rage too much if we get 2 scorpio exclusives 2 years after the system is out (6 years after the xbox one came out)

So I really don't think there is a whole lot of holding back.
 
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