Xbox Scorpio is launching sometime this year and the list of active Scorpio developers is growing larger and larger by the day. We’ve collated everything we could find out about the upcoming Xbox Scorpio and its active developers for you below.
• Bethesda Softworks: From the original reveal trailer of the Scorpio, we were aware that Todd Howard’s team at Bethesda were working on something for Microsoft’s new machine. Seemingly only being a form of Fallout 4, such as a VR or 4K console version, Bethesda Softworks are definitely on board with Scorpio.
• Electronic Arts: EA have always been at the forefront of technology and whilst BioWare have claimed that at the time being they do not have access to Scorpio dev kits for the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda, there is no doubt that EA’s upcoming titles will be available on Scorpio when it releases. EA’s own Peter Moore has already revealed that the company has numerous development teams working on content to be either updated or catered towards the more powerful specs of the Scorpio.
• DICE: DICE’s Patrick Bach has discussed on numerous occasions the boosts which Project Scorpio will give to developers when it finally comes out. “We just scale”, a quote from Bach himself, proves DICE’s ability and wish to work on more powerful hardware sometime soon. Considering how much Battlefield 1 and Star Wars: Battlefront push the current generation hardware to their limits, it would be unbelievable that DICE wouldn’t take full advantage of the new console.
• Square Enix: Final Fantasy XV is a bit underwhelming in terms of graphical fidelity, however, the developers at SE Business Division 2 have expressed interest in Scorpio multiple times already. Final Fantasy XV’s director, Hajime Tabata, has stated that he would love to update XV for Scorpio, just as he did with the game for the PS4 Pro.
• Studio Wildcard: Ark: Survival Evolved is not a great performing game on any console; problems on PC exist to this very day. Dev and CEO Jeremy Stieglitz claims that Scorpio will not only be powerful enough for the game to look as good as its PC counterpart, but will also be capable of running the game in virtual reality—an impressive feat considering the PS4 Pro version can’t hold a steady level of performance on this poorly optimized game.
• Microsoft Studios: Shannon Loftis and others said that all of their games would support Xbox Scorpio. The games would also run at native 4K on the machine. Aside from the studios mentioned here, we might see updates to Minecraft and other games that make it run at 4K on the upcoming console.
• Turn 10 Studios: Microsoft’s first-party will undoubtedly be supporting the console throughout its hopefully long life cycle. Presumably developing Forza Motorsport 7 as a Scorpio launch title due to its holiday 2017 release date, Forza 7 should be a technological masterpiece when it releases on Scorpio with a 4K 60 FPS limit.
• The Coalition: After the release of Gears of War 4, The Coalition have quickly swapped their development focus on the next title in the series which they claim they will deviate more from the standard Gears formula they based Gears 4 off. Coalition head Rod Fergusson claimed that the team have been working on Scorpio already and that they are all ready to get the most out of Scorpio when it launches this holiday[/link]. Expect Gears 4 to be updated to 4K 30 FPS during single-player and 4K 60 FPS during multiplayer.
• 343 Industries: Without a shadow of a doubt 343 are working on games for Scorpio. Frank O’Connor has already come out and claimed that Scorpio is “beefier” than many of us expect it to be. Already heralding its impressive rendering capabilities, Halo’s Franchise Development Director is undoubtedly helping the team with Halo 6 for when it releases on Scorpio. Halo 5 might be updated for the console too given how it uses a scaling solution for visuals.
• Undead Labs: Announced with the reveal trailer of State of Decay 2 at E3 2016, Undead Labs confirmed that State of Decay 2 would have an upgraded version of the game for Scorpio, presumably upping the games rendering resolution and frame rate. The first game was notorious for its low performance on both 360 and Xbox One which should hopefully be resolved in this upcoming sequel.
• Ubisoft: Ubisoft have been on and off with their feelings about PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio but they have stated that they will be developing for the console anyway. Senior Producer on the upcoming Ghost Recon: Wildlands has already shown his excitement at how far they could push the graphics on the game for the Scorpio as well as how Ubisoft as a whole can further push the boundaries of graphical fidelity in the future.
• Reagent Games: Crackdown 3 is another Microsoft exclusive game that should be launching this year. The fully-destructible world of Crackdown 3 will be available on the Xbox One with confirmed added benefits when it comes to graphical quality. The game will render at a native 4K on the machine and may even be a launch title for the console due to its holiday 2017 release date.
• VooFoo Studios: I personally talked with VooFoo Studios back in September at EGX in Birmingham where they told me that the company would be indeed supporting Scorpio after its release, starting off with a native 4K upgrade for their previously released title, Mantis Burn Racing.
• Tarsier Studios: Developers of Little Nightmares, Tearaway Unfolded and Desert Diner, Tariser Studios have already started expressing interest Scorpio’s technology. “Hopefully we’ll get some really beautiful games running at a high framerate in 4K”, said Dave Mervik when talking about developing for the console. Whatever Tarsier’s next multiplatform project is, expect it to also turn up on the Scorpio.
If you can think of any other developers who have confirmed their involvement with Xbox Scorpio, tell us in the comments below and we’ll try to add them to our list. We think we got them all here but we’ll continue adding to it.
Lewis is a games journalist, freelance gaming and consumer-tech journalist. They contributed 344 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: has since served as Editor-in-Chief at StealthOptional and Gaming Editor at MSPoweruser, with bylines at Gfinity Esports and FRVR.