Though Microsoft is far from the release of the Xbox Project Scorpio, it did reveal some info about the pricing of the new gaming console. Fans were concerned that Microsoft would price its new console significantly higher like the competing console PS4 Pro, but the software giant assured them it is not going to do that.
Xbox Project Scorpio: premium product at not-so-premium price
Sony has priced the PS4 Pro at £349, but the Xbox Project Scorpio will not be that expensive even though it will carry a premium price.
Xbox chief Phil Spencer told NZ Gamer, “So you can see the price of the S today. When we designed both of these, which we kind of designed it in parallel, we thought about the price performance of what we wanted to hit with the Scorpio, relative to what we were going to be able to do with the S.”
Spencer said the company will have a good price “continuum” so that people would not look at the consoles as disconnected because of the “price delta.” This will help gamers perceive it as a premium product “and not something, anything more than that,” said Spencer.
He added that while designing the console, they made sure not to leave people worried about whether its price is going to be unlike any console price they’ve ever seen. The critical part of the whole product was the opening price point for the Xbox One S and the different hard drive sizes, the executive said.
“When I think about it as a product line, you should expect the pricing to kind of be in line with that,” he said.
PS 4 Pro a deciding factor
Microsoft is touting the Xbox Project Scorpio as the most powerful console ever. The console boasts 6 teraflops of GPU which can deliver 4K gaming and support virtual reality. Its predecessor, the “robot white” Xbox One S, comes with a new design which is 40% slimmer than the original Xbox One. The console has an internal power supply and offers support for 4K Ultra HD for Blu-ray discs and content streamed through Netflix and Amazon Video.
Taking a dig at Sony’s PS4 Pro console, Microsoft told one website that the device was incapable of handling true 4K, and that the Xbox Project Scorpio aims even higher.
“I think there are a lot of caveats they’re giving customers right now around 4K,” Microsoft told Eurogamer previously.
The 500GB Xbox One S has a starting price of $299/£249. Spencer said the modern high tide for game system prices remains between $499 and $599, which spans the original price of the Xbox One with Kinect and the original price of the PlayStation 3. The PS 4 Pro will be in stores beginning in November and will cost $399/£349. For this reason, according to Gamesradar, Microsoft might be hesitant to go much higher than that for Scorpio in 2017, regardless of how powerful it is.
The company will make the Xbox Project Scorpio available in late 2017.
