We finally know the truth behind ‘Project Scorpio’ now called the Xbox One X. The most powerful console on the market, able to run native 4K, but is it worth it?
The Xbox One X was revealed during the Xbox E3 2017 briefing a couple of minutes ago and took the internet by storm. A lot of Xbox gamers have been speculating about the new device for months, but now, we finally know the truth about it. Yes, it’s extremely powerful with its 6 teraflops GPU running at 1.172 GHz, 12 GB gddr5 RAM and 326 GB/s bandwidth. Besides that, it also looks incredibly good thanks to its smaller size and Xbox One S-like design. The console is created for the gamers and the design and power only prove this. The trailer of the console is just amazing and is certainly worth watching:
If this doesn’t look good, nothing does, right? But what would a console be without its games? Nothing, that’s right! Now during the Xbox conference, we got a lot of great new games like Forza Motorsport 7, Anthem, Crackdown 3 and a lot more. The show certainly got us covered when it came to games but the real question here is, will you get an Xbox One X for it? Let’s see what the console actually has to offer.
Xbox One X = premium model
The most important aspect of the console you’ll need to keep in mind is that this isn’t a new Xbox console, it’s just the newest member of the Xbox One family. This means that you won’t be able to play exclusive Xbox One X games on the console which is both a shame and a blessing. It’s a blessing for the loyal Xbox One fans who doesn’t want to buy the X version but it’s certainly a shame to never really use the true potential of the console. I’m a bit worried developers won’t put a lot of effort in creating true native 4K games with the Xbox One X in mind, instead, I’m afraid they create regular Xbox One games to boost them in a special X version later on. Something similar is happening on the PlayStation 4 Pro and New Nintendo 3DS XL, both premium models with a lot of extra power but no exclusives (minus Xenoblade on the New Nintendo 3DS). A lot of games will be enhanced on Xbox One X but I’m really doubting if this justifies the higher price.
The thing here is that games do look incredibly good in native 4K but you’ll need to get a 4K television in order to truly enjoy the extra benefits of the console. With a price of 499 for the console itself, it might not actually be the cheap solution we were hoping for. We live in a time where a regular Xbox One or Xbox One S model costs as good as half of the price of an Xbox One X console. Of course, a premium model is always more expensive but I’m guessing this is a little too much.
The price is the problem here
For me, personally, the price is a deal breaker. I could live with 399 but 499 seems a bit high. I would be happy to spend my money if the console had more benefits but aside from enhancing your older games and running new games at the impressive native 4K resolution, it doesn’t really have that much to offer, which is rather disappointing, to be honest.
In my humble opinion, this might be the best Xbox One console to get if you haven’t bought another Xbox One family member. If you did, I just can’t think of a good reason to justify spending this amount of money on the same (improved) console again. To be honest, I’m not that big of a fan of these premium models we’re seeing these days, they divide the market and create unnecessary complex situations for the developers.
My early conclusion
Of course, it’s easy to talk about a console when I haven’t seen it in action. I’m sure I’ll be convinced the moment I got the system in my own hands since the native 4K gameplay really looks good. I like the console itself. It’s extremely powerful, small and very slick. It’s a console I would proudly have underneath my television. What I don’t like is the high price and lack of really interesting games to go with the console. Give me a native 4K Halo 6 and I’ll get the console at launch, for now, I think I’ll just wait for that high price to drop to get this monster inside my living room.
