Xbox Scorpio Has Not Made Xbox One S Obsolete: Spencer

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The Xbox Scorpio, which is more powerful and better, was announced shortly after the Xbox One S announcement, thus making the latter sort of obsolete. A lot of people would argue that the Xbox One S had everything against it since it was announced. However, despite all odds, the Xbox One S has been quite a success.

Xbox Scorpio does not make Xbox One S obsolete

The Xbox Scorpio is a revision to a console that has not managed to sell very well so far. Many would also argue that customers were left with no incentive to invest in Xbox hardware since there are no true Xbox exclusives left thanks to Microsoft’s Xbox Anywhere initiative, which was announced at E3 as well.

As it is, none of those arguments stopped the Xbox One S from being a hit. The Xbox One S’ success is evident from the fact that it appeared for high prices on auction sites like eBay. For many people, this comes as a shock, but it was pretty good news for Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division.

“Great response, thanks 2 everyone. Some thought Scorpio would overshadow S , it hasn’t. Sharing our plans openly has worked so far,” tweeted Spencer.

On Twitter, Spencer thanked everyone who had made it a success. He views this as a vindication of Microsoft’s decision to be open about its plans for upcoming hardware and allowing customers to make an informed choice. Spencer has a reason to be happy because his strategies and gambit are finally appearing to pay off. He can point out the success of the Xbox One S to prove to naysayers and detractors. He can prove now that he knows what he is doing.

“Breakfast with our #TEAMXBOX hardware team on a great day. Congrats team. #XboxOneS pic.twitter.com/vKVWHvNFxs,” tweeted Spencer.

Also in a tweet, Spencer displayed the new Xbox One S signed by all the Xbox team engineers. The selling point of the Xbox One S launch edition is its white color and design. It surely looks brilliant. Spencer took some time to say “congrats” to the team. The team worked hard to have the console ready by the time of the E3 2016 presentation. Project Scorpio, a hardware upgrade upon the current gen Xbox One, was introduced in the same presentation.

Microsoft aims to have its consoles work on all TVs

In addition, Spencer took this opportunity to answer some other questions in regards to the UWP platform and Xbox. For example, Spencer noted that servers for Xbox 360 games will continue to stay up for years, especially since backwards compatibility on Xbox One continues to keep the Xbox 360 relevant even when the Xbox 360 has been discontinued.

Also he noted that he would like to see iTunes music play on Xbox One; however, that is contingent on Apple to get it to work. Microsoft was working on keeping Xbox Scorpio and Xbox One S compatible with all TV brands, said Spencer. This is important because as of now, it does not have any universal standards for formats.

“I think Apple would have to want to make this work but I’d like to see it,” tweeted Spencer in response to a question asking about “iTunes music on Xbox, either via USB (ala Xbox360) or Airplay.”

Additionally, Spencer noted that opening up the UWP platform to developers has worked well and contributes to the Xbox community.

1TB, 500 GB version soon

The Xbox One S is available with a 2TB HDD from earlier this week. The SKUs equipped with 500 GB and 1TB hard drives are not yet available but will be released in the last week of August for customers who want to spend less than $399 on this new model.

In comparison with the regular Xbox One, this console is expected to introduce some technological advancements allowing games with unlocked frame rates to run about 7% to 8% faster. In addition, the Xbox One S has an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive which supports HDR. Despite featuring an integrated power supply, the Ultra HD Blu-ray drive is 40% smaller.

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