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Giant Bomb Phil Spencer Interview: Clarifications Regarding Scorpio and Xbox One S

SOR5

Member
Update:

Here's the full quote asserting that there are no Scorpio exclusives, but developers can make a 1080p game and use all the power on that if they want, as long as their game still runs on the original Xbox One.

Giant Bomb said:
Brad Shoemaker: "That was actually something that I was curious about that when you talk about 4K being the emphasis of that thing, will there be any mandate coming out of Microsoft toward developers saying like 'You should really focus on 4K here' or is it like carte blanche for them to pursue that extra power?"

Jeff Gerstmann: "If they just want to have a 1K (1080p) frame buffer, and then, you know, upres to 4K, to take advantage of and use that power in different ways..."

Phil Spencer: "Yeah, we will absolutely be open to that. I mean we're going to talk more specifics of Project Scorpio, so we'll get into more of the details, but I think creative freedom in how you want to use the power of the box is something that I always support. I mean, I came from first party as you know, so putting the right tools in the hands of the creators, the best creators, is our job as the platform. One thing though that we should make sure everyone understands, every game that comes out in the Xbox One family will run on the original Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Scorpio, so we had some questions if there are going to be Scorpio exclusive games. No, the line of games you get to play is the same, regardless of [one you own]."
---

  • No Scorpio exclusives
  • Devs can do 4K, dont have to do 4K, can use power in different ways
  • Previous games may see improvement such as dynamic resolution games staying 1080p
  • Games will look different on 1080p screen, full benefit and image fidelity can only be reaped with a 4KTV for 4K games but it's still a viable purchase for 1080p owners
  • Announcement made for the purpose of transparency, consumers can make an educated purchase if they want to buy the lower range but cheaper Xbox One S or the premium and more powerful Scorpio, developers can work out how they want to adapt the hardware
  • Xbox One S will not play games better than the Xbox One
  • Developers must support the Xbox One as well
  • All existing Xbox One accessories will carry over
  • Upgraded consoles not adapting a smartphone style approach, maybe every 4-5 years and based on whats deemed as a new inflection point of technology (for instance, 4K and VR)
  • 360 backwards compatibility was the starting point of taking a users investment in a system and retaining it, will be the norm from now on
Discuss to your hearts content, and apologies for yet another Spencer GAF thread, this is probably the most clear and precise interview right now.

Link to specific segment here
Entire interview available here, good watch and plenty more topics covered
 

VinFTW

Member
I highly recommend everybody watch this. Not only is this one of the best pieces of content Giantbomb has done, but Jeff is a natural interviewer that's helped with a of fantastic job from Phil Spencer to clear up ANY AND ALL confusion with what we know so far of the Scorpio.
 

Devildoll

Member
Wish they would have asked him if the S was 14 nm or not.

Edit: Great talk nontheless, Phil Spencer being informative and down to earth as usual, really like the influence he seems to have on the Xbox division.
 
This is really a must watch if you're into discussing Xbox strategy, covers a lot of stuff. Kudos to Giant Bomb and Phil Spencer for a fantastic interview!

In an E3 of Phil Spencer interviews, this is the ultimate Phil Spencer interview ;D
 

kmfdmpig

Member
He's done well overall since taking over, but the last few days have been disastrous for him. Either he doesn't understand the technology, which seems impossible or he's really poor at communicating and understanding that miscommunication this early when talking about upcoming products can cause significant harm. Scorpio is something I'm interested in, but it's hard to imagine the first few days of its reveal being handled any worse. This is Pied Piper level of fuckery.
 

Paz

Member
How have literally zero journalists followed up on the exclusives question by asking him about VR, because 'no exclusives' is 99.9% not going to be true.
 

SOR5

Member
How have literally zero journalists followed up on the exclusives question by asking him about VR, because 'no exclusives' is 99.9% not going to be true.

I answered this one and I think it might be a clever PR dodge, if a VR multiplat comes to Scorpio, is it a Scorpio exclusive?

;)
 

Freeman

Banned
So no VR after all?

Or will the Xbox One and Xbox One S have VR games as well?

The fact that you have to go around looking for a precise interview shows he ain't doing a good job communicating anything.
 
It's literally a carbon copy of the Neo strategy, only with some extra focus on 4K due to the hardware differences.

Not that hard to understand.

edit - except that VR is most likely exclusive to scorpio
 
How have literally zero journalists followed up on the exclusives question by asking him about VR, because 'no exclusives' is 99.9% not going to be true.

Maybe its possible that the games will still released on X1/X1S but just not have VR functionality?
 
How have literally zero journalists followed up on the exclusives question by asking him about VR, because 'no exclusives' is 99.9% not going to be true.
I think it's just safe and easy to assume that VR is going to be a Scorpio-only thing. Not really any reason to ask about what seems to be quite obvious.

And beyond that... There's very little to discuss about VR this far out anyway. We don't even know who they will partner with, or what headsets will work on the Scorpio, etc.
 

blakep267

Member
How have literally zero journalists followed up on the exclusives question by asking him about VR, because 'no exclusives' is 99.9% not going to be true.
Actually I'm pretty sure he said no first party exclusives in the interview. Meaning of a third party wants to they can, but Halo 6 will still launch on all the Xbox ones, but they probably will have dynamic resolution and other upgrades for the Scorpio
 

RetroDLC

Foundations of Burden
So 4K games can be downsampled to 1080p? That's good, some of the previous statements made it sound like 1080p output was hardware blocked.
 

RoKKeR

Member
So yeah, listened to this whole interview today and it is really, really good. Is there a link to the full thing out there?

No Scorpio exclusive is the biggest let down. 6tf gone wasted.

#leaveXboxOneBehind

Either way, someone is getting the short end of the stick. It's the same situation with the PS4/Neo, and for better or for worse is the direction the console market seems to be heading towards. Either you lose the forward/backward compatibility and "shared family" stuff that they are talking about, or you lose the ability to design games specifically around these new, powerful machines.

Going to be an awkward transition, that's for sure.
 

GavinGT

Banned
I know he said they haven't announced anything regarding VR, but I wish he would explain the seemingly contradictory notions of:

1) Scorpio is designed to accommodate VR
2) There will be no Scorpio exclusives

How do you rectify these two points? The base model Xbox One isn't going to be able to run those VR games.
 

OneUh8

Member
The bit about the Xbox One S not playing games better is good. There were all kinds of things floating around making people think that it would.
 
Xbox One S will not play games better than the Xbox One
Can't watch video here, so I'll ask:

Did he elaborate on the HDR functionality for games on Xbox One S?

Announcement made for the purpose of transparency, users can make an educated purchase if they want to buy the lower range but cheaper Xbox One S or the premium and more powerful Scorpio
That's cool I guess.
 

loki0wn

Member
What strikes me is how dev friendly this approach is. They're not forcing any devs to take up the mantle for selling the Scorpio, that onus is on Microsoft (different compared to Neo's forced implementation), but also allowing the devs define what the new box/hardware means to them.

Want to do 1080/60? Great! Don't? Great! You do you, dev.
 
3 years from now:
We want to make sure XB Scorpio owners get most out of their purchase and that the vision of developers isn't restricted. Here is a list of games that are only possible on Scorpio and simply would not exist on the XB1s anyway.

Also guess what. They can say whatever they want, e3 talk is not a legal contract and they know most people won't care or even remember what was said some years back.
Their weird illogical stance (VR especially) just hints at them keeping the door open for anything.
 
What strikes me is how dev friendly this approach is. They're not forcing any devs to take up the mantle for selling the Scorpio, that onus is on Microsoft (different compared to Neo's forced implementation), but also allowing the devs define what the new box/hardware means to them.

Want to do 1080/60? Great! Don't? Great! You do you, dev.
Yep. They just want gamers to play games in their ecosystem, from the OG to the One S to the Scorpio to PC.
 
Games will benefit from HDR if your TV supports HDR.

But it's not that simple.

Will the Xbox One S emulate HDR for games where it's not coded in, similar to how it will upscale to 4K?

Or will it only provide HDR when it's coded into the game itself (via patch or if it's a new release)?
 

RoKKeR

Member
Previous games may see improvement such as dynamic resolution games staying 1080p
This was one of the coolest things I heard in the interview... hopefully more upcoming games target dynamic resolution/framerate in order to take advantage of this sort of retroactive performance boost. (the example used in the video was Halo 5, which sounds like it will output 1080p/60 when given access to more power)
 

blakep267

Member
3 years from now:
We want to make sure XB Scorpio owners get most out of their purchase and that the vision of developers isn't restricted. Here is a list of games that are only possible on Scorpio and simply would not exist on the XB1s anyway.

Also guess what. They can say whatever they want, e3 talk is not a legal contract and they know most people won't care or even remember what was said some years back.
Their weird illogical stance (VR especially) just hints at them keeping the door open for anything.
He said first party games. If EA decides to only put Battlefield 7 on the ps5 and scorpio then he can't stop that
 

theWB27

Member
I know he said they haven't announced anything regarding VR, but I wish he would explain the seemingly contradictory notions of:

1) Scorpio is designed to accommodate VR
2) There will be no Scorpio exclusives

How do you rectify these two points? The base model Xbox One isn't going to be able to run those VR games.

So why explain something you already know the answer too?

If they get the same games other vr devices get then they arent exclusive either.
 
But it's not that simple.

Will the Xbox One S emulate HDR for games where it's not coded in, similar to how it will upscale to 4K?

Or will it only provide HDR when it's coded into the game itself (via patch or if it's a new release)?
Hmmmm. Those are good questions.
 

Zedox

Member
I think of Scorpio as a 4K and VR box. Yes, you won't be able to play VR games on it just as you wouldn't get 4K on an Xbox One (S). As long as they say that, then I think they are fine. It's more about the capabilities of the box than an exclusive. But I do see the rationale that it is exclusive because the other boxes can't handle it so they can't play it. So yea, I think the reason that they aren't talking about it is because they don't know how to handle the messaging and from the interview they haven't laid out plans on how to accomplish such things.
 

vg260

Member
Despite apparently letting devs do what they want with the extra power, I still think the whole idea they're pushing of Scorpio is for 4K gaming is misguided, given they would otherwise still running the same visual quality as the Xbox one, just at higher res.

Hopefully as they talk to devs, more of them will want to use that power to make the games run better with better effects than than a simple up-res. The Neo may force their hand a bit, because it sounds like Sony is wanting it to have more to improve on than just a higher resolution.

I do kinda get as being out there first, they have to lean on the 4K thing so as not to discourage Xbox One sales until Scorpio. So, this PR mess is not really surprising. It just makes it hard to take them at face value right now.
 
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