After more than a year of skillfully building anticipation for Project Scorpio, the moment of truth has arrived. Microsoft has delivered on their promise to develop the most powerful console ever, and yet... there seems to be a rather odd silence that has followed.
The raw power of the Xbox One X is quite clearly spelled out in it's specs. A system that runs in native 4K, at 60 frames per second? How much would have to spend to build a PC with similar performance?
Dream on folks. This thing is beyond the reach of mere mortals.
And for comparisons to the PS4? At this point, that's an apples vs. oranges discussion.
I suspect that Microsoft has started to figure out that they need to play to their strengths, and forge a new path, rather than try to play catch up with Sony. And, with Nintendo having a very strong showing at E3, this console war has been kicked into overdrive.
The Xbox brand has always had one big draw going for it throughout it's various iterations. Xbox was THE place to go for PC games when you didn't want a PC. That vision became a little bit more clouded when the Xbox 360's popularity began to wane. Even more so when ideas like the Phantom, and the SteamBox began to surface.
Remember this thing?
Throughout the years, Microsoft has had the opportunity to sit back and quietly survey the lay of the land, and see what has worked, and what hasn't. The humiliation of the original Xbox One launch was a brutally humbling experience for the company, but one that seemed necessary, and fruitful.
In recent years, Microsoft has shown an extraordinary amount of goodwill towards it's fan-base on a number of fronts, whether it's Games with Gold, backwards compatibility, or designing a console that would not make any compromises in power.
While Sony has taken every opportunity to tout the power of the PS4 Pro, the sad truth is that very few games have been designed to make full use of that power. This lends the impression that the PS Pro has been little more than an expensive marketing ploy.
But what of PSVR?
Okay, yes, PSVR has proven itself a compelling platform. But it is also a platform that requires TWO very expensive investments. Regardless of how much players may love Sony products, PSVR is not priced in such a way as to drive mass market appeal.
Xbox One X on the other hand, is one fairly decent expenditure that guarantees unrivaled power. And I also suspect that Microsoft will do a much better job showcasing the difference in power on the upgraded console.
For starters, it's easy to forget that at it's core, Xbox One really IS a windows PC. That may yield all sorts of advantages in scalability when designing games for the console, or when porting games over from the PC environment.
Even before the E3 reveal, I kept asking myself the same question that probably plagued a lot of would-be Xbox fans: "What game/s would justify the purchase of Project Scorpio?"
Was there anything on the Xbox platform that had me truly excited? Was there even one game that I felt I had to experience? No. And sadly, most of the best games on Xbox One were multi-console titles that played better or looked better on PS4. Where was my incentive to upgrade?
Than I began to think of just one game. One game that has loomed in the clouds of development for so very long, but holds the promise of being an experience that is in every sense of the word, EPIC.
I speak of Star Citizen.
As to when this monumental game will be finished and released is anyone's guess. It is a PC game that will demand A LOT of power. And I already know that I don't want to invest the kind of money it would take to build a rig that will run it.
This means I have one of three choices.
1) Wait until I am willing to build a powerful enough PC to run the game.
2) Try to forget about the game and any excitement I may have felt over it.
Lordy, I REALLY need to play this game. (sigh)
3) Build a sub-par PC and play the game with mediocre settings, and pathetically dream about what it would look like maxed out.
Actually, there is option 4, though it may be a long shot.
4) Wait for an announcement that Star Citizen will be coming to Xbox One X, and spend far less than I would on a high-end PC.
How much of a stretch is it to imagine that option 4 might happen?
Star Citizen is being designed to run on PC's. PC's which will undoubtedly run what OS? An OS that is already part of what console?
Yeah. Hello happiness.
If Microsoft manage to nail Star Citizen as an Xbox/Windows exclusive, the pay off could be tremendous.
Even if Star Citizen never makes it over to Xbox One X, there are simply so many fantastic PC games that could easily be migrated to Xbox One X, and not sacrifice one drop of fidelity.
Time will tell what Microsoft's larger strategy is, but if the Xbox One X becomes a true alternative to a high-end PC, I am very excited about that. How about you?