Wow, there it is. Project Scorpio is real and Microsoft will release the ultimate Xbox hardware Holiday 2017. Part of me thinks Microsoft is following Sony's playbook, just like when Sony announced the PS2 to kill sales of Dreamcast. The other part of me thinks Microsoft is -blam!-ing nuts. Why would a consumer waste their money on an Xbox One S (which [i]starts at [/i]$300) when they can wait for the mac daddy of all gaming consoles? Also, why tell Sony the complete specs of your next console when Sony is also working on their next gen console? In furtherance of the insanity, Microsoft is telling consumers to wait until Holiday 2017 to invest in VR, because that's when VR is coming to Xbox. This announcement looks like a big middle finger to early adopters, hold-outs, and developers.
The Project Scorpio news is especially ill-timed when Microsoft had so much to gain from it's $300 Xbox One S and improved connectivity and pay-once announcements. After all, the $300 PS3 Slim saved the PS3 from obscurity (and the PS3 went on to sell about the same number of units as the Xbox 360). The pay-once leverages Microsoft's PC dominance, even though most PCs can't run modern games. The looking-for-group and other friends features were another goodwill move, eviscerated by the now 1.5 year wait for Project Scorpio to make the current Xbox obsolete.
I think Microsoft looked at their 33% marketshare in current gen consoles and decided they could burn some bridges by starting the next generation a few years early. What happens when you play your Xbox One S at 1080p and you get sniped by someone with Project Scorpio playing at 4K. They can see you just fine but to you, they look like a single pixel. Then there is the issue of having Project Scorpio owners playing at much higher framerate. This is what will happens when you mix console generations. (And this is the problem Sony will have with the PS4 Neo).
Maybe I'm wrong and Project Scorpio will be awesome. Hence the vote.
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This is Sony's and Microsoft's plan to combat the fact that the hardware in their current gen consoles is very underpowered compared to whats available on the PC market (I also want to think they don't want Nintendo to gain any edge by offering a new console mid-generation). They announced it because they want to get people excited and didn't want Sony to have time to tear them apart like they did 3 years ago. I'm guessing they wanted to beat Sony to the punch in the minds of consumers. This time they didn't mention anything about price or restrictions to avoid the negative feedback the Xbox One got when it was announced.