Numerous tech analysts claim that Microsoft’s Project Scorpio may lead Xbox to outsell PS4 this year.
Coming from Gamesindustry.biz, the highly reputable NPD Group commented on the subject. “I remain bullish on the Scorpio in the US market, particularly in the launch year,” said Mat Piscatella from NPD. “I think Scorpio has the potential to push Xbox One sales ahead of the PS4 in the US in 2017. Adoption among the core gaming audio could be significant and, while this is a niche audience to target, it’s the niche which is necessary to put the Scorpio on the path for longer term mass market adoption.”
No matter how amazing the tech specs are, if the attractive content doesn’t show up, the mass market won’t adopt. In addition, if we happen to have another E3 2006 style ‘five hundred and ninety nine US dollars’ moment the outlook gets murkier,” he said referring to the PS3’s original price reveal.
IDC analyst Lewis Ward claimed to be a bit more sceptical on Scorpio’s success but claimed that Microsoft had a chance in providing quality AR and VR experiences to gamers at a lower price. Coming from the same article Ward claimed, “Success lies in layering in great new AR/VR experiences while maintaining more or less perfect backwards compatibility with all other aspects of the Xbox entertainment universe.”
However, while power and price are both important factors in buying a console, every device needs the software to succeed. Hopefully, Scorpio will be the console to bring people back onto Xbox’s side. Xbox corporate VP Mike Ybarra claimed in an interview with Digital Foundry that Scorpio is their attempt at “win the mind-share of those developers back”.
Not only are the gaming press positive about Microsoft’s upcoming machine, but the analysts are too. It’ll be an exciting experience to see just how Microsoft takes Scorpio in the future and see whether the analysts prove correct in Scorpio’s promise.
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.