Xbox Series X: everything we know about Microsoft’s next console

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles will be available for preorder around the world on September 22nd — and depending on where you live, that’s happening very soon. If you’re reading this in New Zealand, you’ll be able to place an order in just under two hours, with the wait being just a bit longer for those in Australia. By the time those on the US East Coast wake up, gamers in the UK and Europe will have already put money down on a new console. Those preorders start at 8AM BST (3AM ET) and 9AM, respectively.

Since we originally wrote this post, Microsoft expanded the list to include those details for many other countries as well.

Microsoft is officially launching its xCloud gaming service today on Android phones and tablets, allowing you to play more than 150 genuine Xbox games on devices that could never run those games themselves — because they’ll be streaming from remote servers much like a YouTube video.

But to do that, you’ll need to pay for an Xbox Game Pass subscription. And not just any Game Pass will do — you’ll need the highest-tier, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which costs $14.99, £10.99 or €12.99 a month (though you can pay $1 for a one-month trial).

Microsoft has thoroughly convinced me: I don’t need to buy an Xbox Series X. The games don’t look “next-gen” enough. There aren’t enough titles I actually want to play. Yesterday, the company announced its flagship game, Halo Infinite, won’t even arrive until 2021. Besides, almost all of Microsoft’s key games are also coming to Windows PCs, and some may even come to the PS5 as well. And while I have a sneaking suspicion that Microsoft is breaking a big promise by not bringing some Xbox Series X games to the Xbox One, another possibility is many of the biggest reasons to buy a new Xbox won’t be available until long after its November launch.

But intriguingly, I don’t think Microsoft will mind me skipping the Xbox this gen. The company will be too busy laughing all the way to the bank. 

Did Microsoft convince you that you wouldn’t need next-gen hardware to play Xbox Series X games? Think again: fully half of the next-gen games that Microsoft showcased at its Xbox Series X showcase today, including Forza, probably aren’t coming to Xbox One.

Which suggests either some of those games aren’t actually coming out for a long time — or Microsoft has already broken a big promise it made just last week.

Microsoft showed off a lot of games coming to the Xbox Series X, including exclusives and brand-new titles, at its July showcase event. We now have a much better idea of what’s in store for Microsoft’s upcoming console.

If you weren’t able to watch the event live, we’ve collected some of the biggest trailers from the show right here, and you can catch a replay of the whole event on YouTube.

The excellent Tetris Effect, a mesmerizing audio-visual spin on the classic puzzle game, is getting a full multiplayer expansion this fall called Tetris Effect: Connected, which is releasing as a timed exclusive on PC (on the Microsoft Store) and Xbox platforms. The original game was a PlayStation 4 exclusive released in fall 2018 before it came to PC the following year via the Epic Game Store and Oculus’ VR platform back in May.

The expansion, developed by the same Japanese development duo of Monstars and Resonair with additional help from Stage Games, was announced today as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X next-gen game showcase. Publisher Enhance says to think of it as “the 2.0 version of Tetris Effect.” It will be made available as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service and as a standalone purchase, and it will support Smart Delivery for a free upgrade to the Xbox Series X version. The game is launching sometime this holiday season to coincide with the next-gen console’s release.

Microsoft is revealing the full specs for its Xbox Series X console today, and it includes support for removable storage and much faster load times for games. The software giant will be using a custom AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores clocked at 3.8GHz each, a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 12 teraflops and 52 compute units clocked at 1.825GHz each. This is all based on a 7nm process and includes 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with a 1TB custom NVME SSD storage drive.

Microsoft is using two mainboards on this Xbox Series X compact design, and the entire unit is cooled through air being pulled in from the bottom and pushed out at the top via a 130mm fan.

Microsoft is currently planning to launch two next-generation Xbox consoles for holiday 2020. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is planning a second, cheaper and less powerful Xbox console, codenamed “Lockhart.” While Microsoft has revealed its Xbox Project Scarlett high-end plans, the company did not mention its two-console strategy at E3 earlier this year. Windows Central originally reported Lockhart’s existence nearly a year ago, and Kotaku now reports it’s part of Microsoft’s next-gen plans.

Microsoft is essentially launching two next-gen consoles that will serve as successors to the Xbox One S and Xbox One X. Lockhart will debut without a disc drive, much like the Xbox One All-Digital Edition, and Microsoft is tweaking the console’s hardware so it’s less powerful than the main Project Scarlett console, codenamed “Anaconda.”

Microsoft revealed its next-generation Xbox Project Scarlett console on stage at E3 earlier this month, but many had been expecting two consoles to be unveiled. Rumors previously suggested that Microsoft was working on a pair of new devices: one codenamed Anaconda that would be high-end, and another codenamed Lockhart that would be the more affordable option. Thurrott.com reports that Microsoft is now focused solely on a high-end Xbox console, under the broader Project Scarlett effort.

While Xbox chief Phil Spencer did reveal the company was “deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles,” at E3 last year, plans have clearly changed as only Project Scarlett was mentioned as a single console this year. Thurrott previously reported that Scarlett would ship with both a high-end console, and a “cloud console” with limited amounts of local compute “for specific tasks like controller input, image processing, and importantly, collision detection.” Windows Central also previously claimed that a cheaper Xbox One S-style console, codenamed Lockhart, would appear in holiday 2020 (the original article has since been replaced with an updated version).

Cloud gaming is the undeniably industry-altering shadow looming over this year’s E3 video game conference. Paired with the rise of subscription services, the idea of running games from remote servers could not only change how they’re are played, distributed and sold, but even how games are developed, thanks to the promise of running software off the equivalent of multiple consoles strung together.

The two frontrunners in the race are Google and Microsoft, two of the tech industry’s most powerful companies and two of the largest players in the existing cloud computing market. Both have the infrastructure, the expertise, and the resources to get cloud gaming off the ground, and we’re seeing that right now as Microsoft’s xCloud and Google Stadia transition from fledgling prototypes into full-blown products. Both platforms were here at E3, and I got to try them both — theoretically letting me give you insight into the cloud gaming future.

The head of Xbox just unveiled a new console, but Phil Spencer isn’t too worried about selling you one. “I don’t need to sell any specific version of the console in order for us to reach our business goals,” he told me in an interview yesterday, the day after Microsoft held its annual E3 keynote.

There’s plenty going on with Xbox and gaming at Microsoft. In addition to a big lineup of games, at E3, Microsoft officially unveiled Project Scarlett, its next-generation console that launches next year, and provided a bit of detail on its xCloud streaming service, which will debut in October. Just ahead of the show, the company also brought its Game Pass subscription to PC, furthering its foray into services.

Microsoft is gradually revealing more details about its next-generation Xbox, codenamed Project Scarlett. While we already know some limited specs for Project Scarlett, the next Xbox console will also support existing Xbox One games, controllers, and accessories. “We thought out our design for Project Scarlett, we definitely wanted to make sure that we were compatible across all the generations,” explained Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, during Microsoft’s Inside Xbox E3 event. “Not just with the games, but the accessories. It’s really us respecting the purchases gamers have made on our platform.”

Speaking to Windows Central, Jason Ronald, partner director of the Xbox platform, confirmed this means all existing accessories, and new ones like the Xbox Elite 2 controller that will debut later this year. While Project Scarlett is the next-generation Xbox, it’s clearly rooted in the platform advancements that Microsoft made with the Xbox One, and it will even include an optical disc drive.

Microsoft is winding down new additions to its Xbox backward compatibility catalog. After adding more than 600 Xbox and Xbox 360 games to the list, the team is now focusing on Microsoft’s next-generation Project Scarlett console.

“We have now shifted our focus to help make the games you love playing on Xbox One compatible with future Xbox hardware,” says Jason Ronald, partner director of the Xbox platform. “After this week, we have no plans to add additional Original Xbox or Xbox 360 titles to the catalog on Xbox One.”

In case you took the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition as a hint that Microsoft might omit an optical drive from its next-generation console due in 2020, fear not: Project Scarlett will indeed have one and support physical media. Confirmation comes on two fronts: GameIndustry.biz interviewed Xbox boss Phil Spencer, and Eurogamer got the same word from Matt Booty, the head of Microsoft Game Studios.

“We know, because we see it, that more and more players are buying digital. We think the experience in certain instances, specifically if I am away from my console and everything is on my hard-drive with the entitlements are all there, there are some scenarios that are easy,” Spencer said.

Microsoft is revealing the first details about its next-generation Xbox hardware today. Rumors suggested Microsoft would launch two new Xbox consoles in 2020, with one designed to be the equivalent of the current Xbox One X and the other, the Xbox One S. We’re now starting to get more information on the next high-end Xbox console, codenamed “Project Scarlett.”

Microsoft is including a custom-designed CPU based on AMD’s Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA architecture, and it’s promising this new console will be four times more powerful than the Xbox One X. Microsoft is also using fast GDDR6 RAM, that it claims will “usher in resolution and framerates we’ve never seen before.”

Microsoft is continuing its reptile-themed codenames for its Xbox consoles. The original Xbox One was codenamed Durango and the Xbox One X devkit used the Chuckwalla codename ahead of the arachnid-themed Project Scorpio. Now it appears the next-generation Xbox, expected to arrive in 2020, is codenamed Anaconda. Windows Central first reported new codenames for Xbox over the weekend, and it reveals Microsoft is preparing to ship two new consoles as part of its overall “Scarlett” next-generation Xbox plans.

Codename Anaconda will be the equivalent of the current Xbox One X, with improved hardware and processors / graphics from AMD. Anaconda may also include SSD storage to reduce game load times. Microsoft is also reportedly preparing a second console, codenamed Lockhart, that will act as the more affordable Xbox (think Xbox One S). Naturally, both of these consoles will fully support existing backward compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 games, and of course Xbox One titles.

Microsoft is currently developing its next-generation Xbox, with recent reports suggesting the console will launch in 2020. While the hardware will undoubtedly surpass the capabilities of the current Xbox One X console, Microsoft is also focusing on game streaming for the future of Xbox titles. Thurrott.com reports that Microsoft is also working on a second Xbox console that will be limited to streaming games.

The streaming-only console will reportedly include a low amount of local compute for handling tasks like controller input, image processing, and collision detection. These tasks are essential to reducing latency in game streaming, and Microsoft is said to be planning to slice up processing between the game running locally and in the cloud in order to reduce input lag and other image processing delays.

Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch its next-generation Xbox console in 2020. While Xbox chief Phil Spencer acknowledged this week that the software giant is “deep into architecturing the next Xbox consoles,” Brad Sams at Thurrott.com reports that the next-gen Xbox will arrive in 2020. Microsoft is reportedly working on a “family of devices” under the Scarlett codename, which would also align closely to Spencer’s mention of Xbox “consoles” and not a single console.

It’s not clear what the set of devices could be, but it’s possible Microsoft is reconsidering streaming devices given its focus on a new game streaming service. Sams previously reported that Microsoft would launch “Xbox TV” devices at E3 2016, but the Chromecast-like devices never appeared. Microsoft canceled the devices, codenamed Project Hobart, and they were originally supposed to be $99 streaming sticks to access Xbox One games from a second TV in a house.