Project Scorpio is shaping up to be the most powerful game console ever created, but that apparently won’t mean that it’ll sport the same form-factor of the VCR-like original Xbox One. New images of Scorpio development kits show a console that is remarkably tiny given its horsepower.
Gamasutra was able to take pictures of the Scorpio development kit during a recent trip to Microsoft, and the console appears to be of very similar size to the Xbox One S released last year. Though the system is still subject to change, its white top, black bottom — which sports large fans on the side — and even the location of the power button are almost identical to the S. The development kits’ design could certainly vary from that of the retail Project Scorpio, however.
The development kits are able to transfer full builds of games “six to seven times faster” than what was previously possible on the Xbox One, according to The Coalition technical director Mike Rayner. A 45-minute transfer process can now be done in “a couple of minutes,” and the high-speed transfer cable that expedites this process will also work with original Xbox One and S development kits.
Like with the original Xbox One, a retail-edition Project Scorpio will also be capable of being converted into a development kit, but it will not be as powerful as the dedicated kits that Gamasutra was shown — those are limited to first-party studios and those partnered through one of Microsoft’s third-party programs. The kit comes with double the RAM of the retail unit — 24 GB of DDR5 — as well as a 1 TB solid state drive.
Project Scorpio is expected to launch this holiday season, and will deliver 4K games at 60 frames per second and improved performance on 1080p displays.
