We’ve arrived at that point in the hardware cycle when its time to start looking at what comes next. Xbox have used their E3 press briefing to do exactly that, unveiling the first glimpses of what they’re currently calling Project Scarlett, the ultra powerful next generation Xbox console.
Scarlett is a beefy machine. Now packing a solid state drive to help lower load times, along with Zen 2 processors and GDDR6 Navi graphics from AMD, Scarlett is reportedly capable of supporting resolutions up to 8K and frame rates of up to 120 frames per second. The teaser video includes chatter about variable refresh rates and next-gen ray tracing. This is the sort of chatter that gets PC Master Race system builders excited but what does it mean to the layperson? Bottom line, it puts Scarlett at around four times the grunt of the Xbox One X.
For those who are thinking to themselves “Project Scarlett is a weird name for a video game console,” that’s because it isn’t the console’s actual name. It’s the internal codename for the console at Microsoft. At Microsoft, this practice is entirely commonplace — before the marketing team settled on a name, the Xbox 360 was referred to as Xenon. The Xbox One was Durango. The Xbox One X was codenamed Scorpio.
Remember that? Remember about this time in 2017 when we were all wondering what Project Scorpio was gonna look like?
So when will you be able to get your hands on your very own Project Scarlett system? Christmas 2020. In just under a year and a half, the next generation of consoles will begin. What will it begin with?
Halo Infinite. After the disastrous launch of the Xbox One and the uphill battle it’s had to fight every day since, Microsoft want you to know that this is a back-to-our-roots product, and what could illustrate that better than launching it with a Halo title just like the OG Xbox.
We look forward to hearing more about Project Scarlett in the coming months.
