Sameed Khan·

Xbox Series X – Microsoft Unveils Its Next-Gen Console

Microsoft finally took the wraps off its next-gen console today, taking to the stage at The Game Awards 2019 to unveil the Xbox Series X, previously known as Project Scarlett. The announcement didn’t reveal much beyond the final moniker and form of the console, though it was followed by a look at an exclusive game being developed by Ninja Theory, the critically lauded makers of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice who were acquired by Xbox Games Studios in 2018.

The new game, called Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, is likely to act as a showcase of the new console’s abilities, with its trailer showing breathtaking in-engine footage “built to take full advantage of Xbox Series X.”

In an interview with GameSpot, Xbox head Phil Spencer offered up additional details about both the console, confirming that its tower-like form factor can indeed be laid on its side. Spencer didn’t reveal any specifics about the console’s internals but he did say that it has “over eight times the GPU power of the Xbox One, and two times what an Xbox One X is.”

He added that the console has “four times the compute power on the CPU,” and to keep up with the upgraded processing, “40-times improvement in the I/O speed,” with GDDR6 RAM to boot. To clamp down on long load times, the system will employ NVMe SSDs. Despite the significant power bump, the console will have the same noise footprint as the Xbox One X, claims Microsoft.

The new controller looks to be nearly identical to the one that comes with the current gen console barring the shape of the Dpad and the share button in the middle.

As for the impressive Hellblade II trailer, Microsoft attributes a part of its appeal to hardware-driven ray tracing, though they didn’t provide any further details. You can watch the trailer below.

Xbox Series X is penned in for a Holiday 2020 release, around the same time as the PlayStation 5.

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