Next-gen Xbox ‘Project Scarlett’ revealed: Xbox Series X

Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox Project Scarlett finally got revealed at The Game Awards, showcasing the name and the box itself. It looks more like a PC tower than an actual console, rammed with next-gen tech.

A blog post on the Microsoft Xbox site went into more detail about its design, which has been built to maximize airflow, with support for both vertical and horizontal orientations.

Xbox Series X will be our fastest, most powerful console ever and set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, allowing you to bring your gaming legacy, thousands of games from three generations and more forward with you. Its industrial design enables us to deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way, something that is critically important in delivering truly immersive gameplay. We also designed Xbox Series X to support both vertical and horizontal orientation. It’s bold and unique, very much like our fans around the world and the team of collaborators and innovators who built it.

From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with the possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next-generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware-accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.

Phil Spencer revealed the console on stage, also showcasing Hellblade 2, built from the ground up for the new system, using in-engine footage that truly looked closer to a pre-rendered scene.

Microsoft also showed off a new Xbox controller, with a revised d-pad that looks more similar to the discs used on the Xbox Elite controllers.

Microsoft adds that all of your games and accessories will work out of the box on the Xbox Series X, which incorporates full backward compatibility with the Xbox One and all of its backward compatible titles from the OG Xbox and Xbox 360 eras.

We’re unsure if there will be an Xbox Series “S” to go with the Xbox Series “X,” as previously rumored. Scarlett was originally separated into two SKUs dubbed Anaconda and Lockhart, with different power thresholds and price points. “Series” certainly indicates multiple potential devices, and Phil Spencer said the following in an interview with Gamespot when asked about the possibility of other versions of the Series X.

“Obviously, in the name ‘Series X’, it gives us freedom to do other things with that name so that we can create descriptors when we need to.”

The Series X, so far, suggests that there is only one console model going into next year, which will launch in the holiday season of 2020.