Users looking for a good console probably will have this question in mind: Xbox Project Scorpio or PS4? It’s not going to be easy for them to decide on one. Microsoft announced Xbox Scorpio last year at E3, and since then, there have been comparisons made between the Scorpio and PS4, with many claiming that both consoles are pretty much equal in the exclusive stakes. However, one NPD analyst thinks that the Xbox Scorpio could outrun Sony’s PS4 this holiday season.
Project Scorpio to push sales up for Microsoft
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said, “I remain bullish on the Scorpio in the US market, particularly in the launch year.”
Piscatella believes the console has the potential to push Xbox One sales ahead of the PS4 this year in the U.S.
“Adoption among the core gaming audience could be significant. And, while this is a niche audience to target, it’s the niche which is necessary to put the Scorpio on the path for longer term mass market adoption,” Piscatella added.
In terms of specs, Project Scorpio has a 1TB hard drive, 4K UHD Blu-ray optical drive, 12 GB GDDR5 memory, memory bandwidth of 326GB/s, 8 custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3GHz CPU, and 40 customized compute units at 1172MHz GPU. The CPU of the Scorpio is reportedly 30% faster than that of the original Xbox One and the GPU is said to be 4.6 times more powerful than that of the last console. A ForzaTech demo found the console to be more powerful than the PS4 Pro.
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter said Scorpio is fundamentally more powerful, so it should be able to do almost all the things that the PS4 Pro can perform. Microsoft recently teamed up with Digital Foundry to tout the amazing tech powering the Xbox Scorpio.
PS4 ahead when it comes to exclusive game titles
Gaming news site Polygon, however, notes that the Project Scorpio has good hardware, but it lacks exclusive titles like the ones on Sony’s console. Microsoft’s console remains stuck in the same place the Xbox One was stuck before: without many great games.
So it will be hard for the Xbox Scorpio to fight the PS4, which has many exclusive game titles like Bloodborne, Persona 5, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nioh and Yakuza 0, and NieR: Automata. Microsoft, however, is hoping to use compatibility with users’ Xbox libraries and a performance improvement for all Xbox One games to attract gamers.
Microsoft has not revealed the release date or price of the console yet, but the company is expected to reveal everything at E3 in June. According to reports, Project Scorpio is running ahead of schedule and may release within six months, meaning the console could come by October. Talking about the price, Eurogamer said recently that the Scorpio “ain’t going to be cheap” and could cost $499, the launch price of the original Xbox One.
