Tag: new xbox

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Microsoft’s next Xbox is Xbox Series X, coming holiday 2020

Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is officially called Xbox Series X. Microsoft revealed the name and console design on stage at the Game Awards today. The console itself looks far more like a PC than we’ve seen from previous Xbox consoles, and Microsoft’s trailer provides a brief glimpse at the new design.

The console itself is designed to be used in both vertical and horizontal orientations, and Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, promises that it will “deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way.”

Microsoft used the Xbox Series X to showcase Hellblade 2, a new game from Ninja Theory that is being developed for its next Xbox console. While Microsoft has revealed the design here, the company isn’t revealing exact specs beyond what has been discussed previously.

The Xbox Series X will include a custom-designed CPU based on AMD’s Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA architecture. Microsoft is also using an NVMe SSD on Xbox Series X, which promises to boost load times. Xbox Series X will also support 8K gaming, frame rates of up to 120 fps in games, ray tracing, and variable refresh rate support.

Microsoft isn’t talking GPU performance specifics just yet, but Spencer has dropped some hints in an interview with GameSpot, and the graphics you see in the Hellblade 2 trailer were supposedly captured in a game engine, running on the console, in real-time. “We wanted to have a dramatic upgrade from the Xbox One base console,” says Spencer. “So when we do the math, we’re over eight times the GPU power of the Xbox One, and two times what an Xbox One X is.” The Xbox One X is 6 teraflops of GPU performance, so the Xbox Series X could be capable of 12 teraflops.

GameSpot also saysthe console is roughly as wide as Xbox One controller and roughly three times as tall.

Speaking of controllers, Microsoft also revealed a new Xbox Wireless Controller today. “Its size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people, and it also features a new Share button to make capturing screenshots and game clips simple,” explains Spencer. It’s slightly smaller, but will retain the rumble triggers according to GameSpot. The updated controller will work with existing Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 PCs, and will ship with every Xbox Series X.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console will also include Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) that will “make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever.” Spencer says the Series X is “designed for a future in the cloud,” and it will combine hardware and software to “make it as easy as possible to bring great games to both console and elsewhere.”

Microsoft hasn’t addressed reports of the company’s plans for two next-gen consoles, but the Xbox “Series” X naming does suggest there won’t be just a single console. We understand Microsoft is planning two new consoles for Series X, with a second lower priced and less powerful console planned alongside the more powerful main console.

Microsoft has been working on Xbox Series X under the name Project Scarlett previously, and today’s naming follows confirmation from Sony that it’s choosing PlayStation 5 for the name of its next console. Microsoft is also claiming Xbox Series X will be the “fastest” and “most powerful,” in what could be a reference to having a more powerful console than Sony’s PlayStation 5.

We’ll have to wait and see which console comes out on top, though. Sony has not yet revealed the design of its PlayStation 5, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from surprising everyone with this naming and hardware reveal.

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The 12 biggest announcements from The Game Awards 2019

It’s that time of year again: The Game Awards, gaming’s most flashy awards celebration, which also doubles as an E3-style keynote packed with announcements. The 2019 edition was no exception. This year saw a massive revealed of the next Xbox — the Xbox Series X — along with the very first PlayStation 5 title. On top of that, we had news and trailers for big games like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cyberpunk 2077, League of Legends, and more.

Here are the biggest announcements from the show.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS XBOX SERIES X

Things kicked off with a bang. Xbox boss Phil Spencer took the stage early in the show to reveal the next Xbox, previously known as Project Scarlett. It’s called Xbox Series X, and it’s launching next holiday season. It has a brand-new controller, and yes, you can use it horizontally.

HELLBLADE IS GETTING A SEQUEL FOR THE NEW XBOX

In addition to a new console, Microsoft also revealed one of its first first-party games for the Xbox Series X. It’s a sequel to the haunting Hellblade from Ninja Theory, and the sequel looks just as dark and uncomfortable as the original. The new trailer is captured in-engine, powered by the Series X, according to Microsoft.

BRAVELY DEFAULT II IS COMING NEXT YEAR

One of the best Final Fantasy-style RPGs is getting a sequel. Square Enix announced Bravely Default II, a sequel to the much-loved Nintendo 3DS game, which will be coming to the Nintendo Switch next year.

PLAYSTATION 5 HAS ITS FIRST GAME

Not to be outdone, the PlayStation 5 was also mentioned at the event thanks to Godfall, a new game from Gearbox that will be launching on Sony’s next console. It’s a “third-person fantasy looter-slasher focused on melee combat” set in a brand-new fantasy universe.

THE STUDIO BEHIND PUBG ANNOUNCES… SOMETHING

Prologue, the next release from the team behind PUBG, is a big mystery. We know it exists, but that’s about it. “Our studio was founded with the goal of exploring, experimenting, and creating new technologies and gameplay experiences,” said Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene in a press release. “With Prologue, we are taking our first steps toward building new technologies and interactions that will help develop my ideas into reality.”

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS GOES INDIE

Riot unveiled the first games to be published under its new Riot Forge label. The goal is to partner with indie studios for new experiences set inside of the League of Legends universe, and the first titles are called Ruined King and Convergence.

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA GETS A TRAILER AND RELEASE WINDOW

Upcoming PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima got a nice, in-depth trailer, with four minutes detailing its lush, feudal Japan-inspired world. Even better, we now have an idea of when it’ll be available: the game is launching next summer.

A BETTER LOOK AT CLOUD IN FFVII REMAKE

Ahead of the game’s March launch, Square Enix revealed yet another trailer for the much-anticipated remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PS4. The new clip isn’t especially long, but it provides a nice, focused look on surly hero Cloud Strife.

THE SOUNDS OF CYBERPUNK

One of the most anticipated games of 2020 is Cyberpunk 2077, and at The Game Awards we learned more about a very important part of the experience: the music. Developer CD Projekt Red revealed the artists that will be contributing to the soundtrack, and it includes the likes of Grimes and Run the Jewels.

A FIRST LOOK AT GEARS TACTICS

It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Gears Tactics, the strategy spinoff for the brutal shooter series. It looks remarkably faithful to the franchise despite the shift in genre. Gears Tactics will be out on April 28th on PC.

THE WOLF AMONG US IS BACK

After the tragic closure of Telltale Games, a number of titles were indefinitely shelved. But now that the studio is back — in a new form, and under new management — it looks like some of those cancelled projects are being revived. That includes The Wolf Among Us 2, a sequel that explores the fairy tale universe of the Fables comic series.

FAST & FURIOUS GETS A HEIST GAME

The latest Fast & Furious game isn’t a racer. Crossroads is more of a team-based action game built around heists, and it brings back some of the main cast from the films. It launches on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in May 2020

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The Xbox Series X is basically a PC

For a long time now, Microsoft has been going out of its way to downplay the “box” part of “Xbox.” Whether it’s pledging to bring all of its first-party titles to PC, releasing some of them to platforms like Steam and the Nintendo Switch, launching its Game Pass service for Windows, or pushing xCloud streaming, the message has been clear: you don’t have to buy an Xbox to play Xbox games.

“The business isn’t how many consoles you sell,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer told The Verge earlier this year.

But obviously, Microsoft still plans to make Xboxes. The question, then, is this: why would anyone buy one? What is the relevance of dedicated Xbox hardware when Microsoft wants the Xbox platform to be everywhere?

With last night’s surprise reveal of the Xbox Series X, Microsoft answered that question in emphatic fashion. It is a console that looks unlike anything that has ever been released. Except, well, a gaming PC. And that’s very encouraging.

Gadgets get described as “monolithic” all the time, but I can’t think of a better application of the word than the Series X. It’s a vertically oriented, virtually featureless black slab. While it shares design language with the Xbox One X, that only serves to highlight the difference between the two. The One X was designed to be as small as possible, but the Series X screams power.

With its chunky prismatic frame, the Series X feels like it won’t be constrained in any physical dimension. It’s reminiscent of compact gaming PCs like the Corsair One. That has its drawbacks — even in horizontal orientation, it definitely won’t fit in my TV cabinet. But the advantage is that Microsoft now has a lot more thermal headroom to play with than ever before.

Size doesn’t guarantee performance, of course. Microsoft started out this generation with the largest, least powerful console, and now has the smallest, most powerful machine around. From what we’ve heard about the Series X, though, it’s shaping up to be a potent machine even by gaming PC standards. That wasn’t the case with the Xbox One and PS4, both of which were built around low-power AMD CPUs. But Microsoft says that the Series X will target 4K/60fps performance with Zen 2 and RDNA architecture from AMD, leveraging hardware-accelerated ray tracing, GDDR6 memory, and NVMe solid-state storage.TERAFLOPS DON’T MEAN EVERYTHING

Spencer tells GameSpot that the Series X will offer around four times more CPU performance than the Xbox One and twice as much GPU power as the Xbox One X. That should put the Series X at around 12 teraflops of graphical performance, which is up there with some of the fastest PC GPUs available today. The Series X is a bulky box, but I don’t expect there to be much wasted space inside.

Teraflops don’t mean everything, though, and it’s clear that the CPU and SSD will be the more transformative leaps for the platform. The name “Series X” all but confirms the existence of more next-generation hardware from Microsoft, one example of which The Verge has reported on extensively. A model codenamed “Lockhart” is expected to target lower resolutions with around 4 teraflops of graphical power, which is actually less than the Xbox One X.

Most of the One X’s GPU budget went toward pushing 4K resolution, however, while it only offered a minor CPU upgrade. If Lockhart’s CPU and other hardware features are similar to the Series X, it could run the same cutting-edge games at lower resolutions, whereas the Xbox One X’s CPU wouldn’t be able to keep up with the next-gen software. On the other hand, developers are likely to produce separate Xbox One/PS4 and Series X/PS5 versions of games for the foreseeable future. Halo Infinite is confirmed to be one such example.

In any case, it’s clear what Microsoft has done with the Series X: it’s built a simple, easy-to-use gaming PC for the living room. The current Xbox One UI is not what I would describe as intuitive, but it beats dealing with Windows with a mouse and keyboard from the couch, and now the Series X should be able to compete on pure power as well.

Unless you have the highest of high-end gaming PCs, I would expect the Series X to offer the best experience with most Xbox games at launch. That’s not the case with the Xbox One X, which can’t compete with gaming PCs on performance right now. PC gamers have had it easy over the past few years — the Xbox One and PS4 had such weak CPUs that, a couple of examples notwithstanding, it’s generally been very easy to run console games at much higher graphical settings and frame rates on fairly modest hardware. PC performance will obviously get better over time, but next-gen consoles are going to raise that bar considerably next year.“OUR GOAL HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO BUILD THE MOST POWERFUL CONSOLE WE CAN.”

That’s not to say the Series X will be an automatic purchase for many. From what Sony’s saying, the PS5 has been designed around similar principles, and the company’s first-party software advantage is significant. The PS4’s huge success also means that a lot of people will be unwilling to part with the digital libraries they’ve built up over the past seven years.

But if there’s a way to fight that head start, it’s probably Microsoft’s Xbox-everywhere strategy, where a subscription gets you instant access to a huge gaming ecosystem that can be played across various screens. With the Series X, Microsoft is simply aiming to power the best Xbox experience possible on one screen in particular. And Spencer is bullish on the competition. “Our goal has always been to build the most powerful console we can, and I think we’re there,” he tells GameSpot. “We like leading in power and performance and I feel like we’re going to be there again.”

The biggest questions around Microsoft’s new console are now price and the PS5. After seeing the Series X, I’m no longer wondering why anyone would buy an Xbox.

Source: The Verge