Microsoft sparked a strong appetite for hungry Xbox gamers at its E3 preview in Los Angeles on Sunday, including new information about a next-generation game console called "Project Scarlett."
The new Xbox is expected to arrive on time for the 2020 holiday season and features a custom AMD processor based on the latest Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA technology, Xbox chief Phil Spencer told the E3 audience.
Together with the processor - which makes the new console four times more powerful than the Xbox One X - Scarlett says Microsoft has high-bandwidth GDDR6 memory and a next-generation solid-state drive for faster I / O.
Scarlett’s next-generation SSD will perform 40 times better than current drives, the company said.
Other features include hardware-accelerated radiation tracking, variable refresh rate, 8K capability, 120 frames per second frequency, and a very low-latency input.
The Scarlett project offers a new level of loyalty, precision and precision never seen before in console games, Microsoft said.
“The Scarlett project looks attractive in terms of hardware,” said Mark N. Vena, senior analyst at technology analysts and consulting firm Moor Insights & Strategy in Austin, Texas.
“Unlike Google Stadium, Microsoft doesn’t support Big Iron,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Impressive graphics
“It’s not uncommon for companies to frame the latest generation of long-lasting product as the biggest leap ever made, but based on what Microsoft has shown about graphics in games like Simulator, they’re very impressive,” said Ross Rubin. chief analyst at New York’s consumer technology consulting firm Reticle Research.
“In some cases, it’s hard to separate them from real-life photography and video,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Scarlett shows that Microsoft is more focused on gaming now than it was when it originally launched the Xbox. Scarlett is "a complete translation from Xbox One," Rubin said.
Xbox One “highlighted TV and [turned] into an Xbox device that lets you control your TV entertainment experience,” he noted.
“During the current generation lifecycle, Microsoft has fully demonstrated that it learned from the near-devastating pre-launch leap of the Xbox One - pushing the console as a media event - by continuing to prioritize and center gaming on consoles,” said Michael Inouye, chief auditor at technology consulting firm ABI Research. , In New York.
“In the industry, cloud gaming is largely seen as the ultimate target, but the release of new consoles from Sony and Microsoft is strong evidence that the transition will take time,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Both consoles have more similarities than differences, Inouye added. "Both consoles use custom AMD hardware based on AMD's Navi and Zen 2 architecture. In addition, both consoles are moving to SSDs and reportedly use GDDR6 RAM. While there may be differences in performance, the consoles are undoubtedly far away. More similar to not. "
Powerful new systems
“These systems are a massive step forward in gaming,” said Lewis Ward, director of research at IDC, a market research firm in Framingham, Massachusetts.
“They will be potential new systems when they arrive next holiday season,” he told TechNewsWorld.
The new consoles will offer players more embedding at a higher resolution and powerful GPUs with a radio drive that has a great visual impact on games, Lewis added.
"Tracking makes the game's lighting look more natural. It creates a better sense of realism and the environment because it approaches the way the real world handles light," he explained.
“Raytracing is an incredibly resource-intensive and computationally complex process, so only top-end GPUs can do it,” Lewis pointed out.
Despite the hardware similarities, Microsoft may have a small edge when Scarlett hits the shelves.
“Microsoft’s visibility on E3 and the announcement that Halo Infinite will be the starting title has taken a strong stand, especially among the U.S. public,” wrote Piers Harding-Rolls, director of headquarters at IHS Markit, a research, analysis and consulting firm. In London, study notes of the incident.
No-Show Sony
Sony’s decision to bypass E3 this year allowed Microsoft to boast of upcoming third-party games for its hardware as well as consider a healthy harvest of the exclusive rights created by its studios.
“The large collection of games presented has been well reflected in the Xbox brand and has enabled it to create momentum in the second half of 2019 and by 2020 to launch the next generation console,” Harding-Rolls wrote.
“It’s a big feather in Microsoft’s cap that they’ve built thousands of titles,” said Moorin Vena. "The library of Xbox titles is huge compared to something like Google's Stadium."
Microsoft’s E3 presentation revealed that the building blocks for its Xbox expansion were in place for their careers, Harding-Rolls said.
These blocks include services such as Xbox Live, Xbox Game Pass, and Project xCloud, which is supported by its Azure cloud business.
“These are important because they are the building blocks of Microsoft’s strategy to radically expand its Xbox audience,” Harding-Rolls wrote. "Microsoft's xCloud project has gained more prominence since the announcement of Google Stadium and its early announcement of E3 Google Stadium. The service was given less detail than might have been expected and questioned the idea that it would launch in 2019."
The future in the cloud
During the E3 presentation, Microsoft confirmed that when the xCloud project previews in October, it will support console streaming, allowing Xbox One owners to stream content to other devices.
Using console streaming, gamers have access to the Xbox One game library and Xbox Game Pass titles on the go, streamed directly from their Xbox One console to their mobile device.
“This is in line with Sony’s Remote Play solution, which has recently been extended to iOS devices,” Harding-Rolls explained. "Microsoft's console streaming is expected to support Android devices."
As far as long viewing goes into gaming, ABI’s Inouye-predicted usage patterns will remain the same for at least the next three or five years.
"Consoles and gaming computers have been running parallel to cloud gaming for some time. Many households do not have enough information services to support cloud services, especially high-end ones," he said.
"If we look beyond the time horizon, the future definitely looks like it lives in the cloud," Inouye added, "but it's still possible that we'll see some sort of console launch after this next range of solutions."
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