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[Update: Phil Spencer says no 4K mandate, devs can make 1080p game with Scorpio]

Still running a 1080p TV? Then you should forget about buying Xbox Scorpio.
That’s the message from Xbox boss Phil Spencer. He was asked by Eurogamer about the thinking behind announcing the new Xbox One S only to an hour later reveal a brand new machine, Xbox Scorpio.
“You should buy [the Xbox One S], because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you,” Spencer said after asking the reviewer what TV he had – in this instance a 1080p set. “Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don't have a 4K TV, the benefit we've designed for, you're not going to see."
“Clearly, you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you. For us in the industry, it's easy to think that most power is always the thing that wins. If you look at last gen, what won? The Wii won. The Wii sold more than we did on Xbox 360 and the PS3, and it wasn't the most powerful console out there. Price is critically important. Wii was a good price and it had a great experience.
“Scorpio is for the person who's got a 4K television, who's really focused on 4K gaming. It's going to be a premium price over what we're selling this one for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that's what we designed it for.”
It was speculated yesterday that while it seems Xbox Scorpio will have a quite significant power advantage over PS4 Neo, that advantage will come at a cost – that literally being the cost, which could be some $100 more than Sony’s new machine.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/spen...ing-for-you-if-you-don-t-have-a-4k-tv/0168577

Update:

Phil has made the following statement, so you can try to put them together.

VideoGamer said:
Game developers will be able to use Project Scorpio's 6 teraflops of GPU power in any way they wish, and won't be forced to hit a native 4K resolution, head of Xbox Phil Spencer suggested in a video posted earlier this week.

Speaking in the video (below), Spencer explained that Scorpio is a "6 teraflop gaming machine, which will be a great gaming machine for true 4K gaming, giving you a native 4K frame buffer so you can see games in all their beauty.

"Or," he continued, "if developers want to use those 6 teraflops in other ways they're free to do that."


Spencer's comments suggest that developers may be able to use Scorpio's additional power to deliver more visually impressive games at a lower resolution, rather than be forced to render at native 4K.
Source: http://www.videogamer.com/news/deve...teraflops_however_they_wish_says_spencer.html

Update 2:

Clarified: https://youtu.be/eCFig7lGyEs?t=380

The main focus is 4K gaming, but if developers want to make 1080p games and have it upscale to 4K, they can. They reassert there will be no Scorpio exclusives.

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]."
 

Sojgat

Member
Ufbr5ej.gif
 

Feorax

Member
So, no improved frame rate at 1080p?

That's a real missed opportunity right there. Value of Scorpio just dropped a fair bit for me.
 

spekkeh

Banned
That's great actually. Kind of means we won't see a new gen already (at least not until Scorpio sales reach critical mass), just a high end set for people with a high end tv. Assuages my fears immensely.
 

GOOCHY

Member
The thing I don't understand about it is that the specs still aren't enough to run games with high detailed graphics at 60fps@4K. So, you're still not going to be getting what's being billed even if you have the television.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
So really nothing for me. There probably won't be enough 4K games to justify this if it doesn't help 1080 games.
 

kyser73

Member
'We have a product for those without an Internet connection a 4K TV, it's called an XboneS.'

Damn, beaten like an egg.
 

kiguel182

Member
This isn't for me then since I don't intend to buy a 4K v anytime soon.

As I said in the Neo topic I'm really interested in the next console to see what they do with this higher end models.
 
Wouldn't it downsample from 4K to 1080p by default? They claim the intent is to render at 4K

It'll help with image quality is nothing else.
 

Widge

Member
Is there even 4k adoption out there?

I'm on a 1080p TV and I'm getting an AMD 480 to bolster my PC. Absolutely no reason to push the £££ on something I'm not really going to be able to utilise.
 

cheezcake

Member
Why wouldn't it just downsample from 4k to 1080p for 1080p sets? That in itself is a pretty big visual advantage.
 
This just makes no sense to me.

How about they try for a stable, fast and incredibly good looking 1080p before they start messing around with 4k?

Also, if you're going this route anyway, different consoles within the same generation with games running on different hardware - why then wouldn't you make it so that the game adjusts to what kind of TV you have? High framerate for 1080p sets, high resolution for the 4k sets?
 

SuperSah

Banned
Will hard pass then.

4K sets are insanely expensive. With a decent TV and Scorpio, it will cost at least £800-£1000 to get set up, not including games or additional hardware for the TV like speakers which can raise the price even more.

At that point just build a far more powerful PC.
 
It's such a strange interview.

Paraphrasing, it looks like he's saying "The idea is to run the same game with the same effects and the same performance level as Xbox One, but at 4k".

Very odd... Give me a 1080p downsampled extra graphic effects version of the game please...
 
I don't believe this because it makes no sense.

The reason I can think of for making this statement is because Microsoft is trying to prevent the sales of the current Xbox One from falling into the gutter over the next 17 months. I guarantee this won't be the narrative in Fall 2017.
 

Soulflarz

Banned
So it will be more powerful than a GTX 1080 ?
Aka pure BS

I think people also forget this is right before 1170/80 launch (half a year) so theres no point in buying it if the premium is notably higher, especially if you have no 4k tv.

PCs arent pricey to build anymore.
 

Cromwell

Banned
Will hard pass then.

4K sets are insanely expensive. With a decent TV and Scorpio, it will cost at least £800-£1000 to get set up, not including games or additional hardware for the TV like speakers which can raise the price even more.

At that point just build a far more powerful PC.

4k TV's these days are barely above prices of 1080p sets, and by the time Scorpio is out 1080p will officially be old news.
 

d00d3n

Member
Doesn't the xbone have hardware scaling from whatever resolution a game is rendering at to your native display resolution? It seems like like Scorpio should should get you improved picture quality, better anti-aliasing and clearer textures at least (due to downsampling)?
 

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
I don't believe them..downsampling should be possible or a higher frame-rate at a lower resolution.

after the last few days I've got the feeling microsoft is trying everything to get back on track and is losing sight a little bit. I could be wrong tho.
 

Sojgat

Member
I don't believe this because it makes no sense.

The reason I can think of for making this statement is because Microsoft is trying to prevent the sales of the current Xbox One from falling into the gutter over the next 17 months. I guarantee this won't be the narrative in Fall 2017.

Yup.
 

zoukka

Member
Haha Spencer has zero knowledge of gaming tech.

He probably thinks all Scorpio games are forced into 4k resolution.
 
Well you dont want everyone who might buy an XBO to wait until the Scorpio comes out.

Seems like they want their cake and eat it too - Promise some super powerful console far in the future but also to convince the majority of people that its not something they will need anyway so keep gaming on your 1080p ready XBO.

As someone who lost interest with the XBOX brand and now doesnt ever plan to buy one of their consoles again (Baring some major changes in their strategy) i really am wondering what the hell is going on with messaging.

"Its connected/no one gets left behind" vs "it could have exclusive games"
'Its gonna change everything' vs 'Its only for people who have 4K tv's'

Just comes across as desperate to try and prevent and potential sales losses while also building hype. Will it work? Could do, or it could backfire and make even more people think 'why should i buy one?'
 
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