Yesterday Digital Foundry, pixel counters extraordinaire, revealed that they managed to dig up an old white paper—after what must have been exhausting work—from the Xbox division that spoke about Microsoft’s upcoming Project Scorpio release. The document was dated just after the E3 2016 reveal, therefore we know that it was pretty much indicative of their early work and focus, which has since changed given comments made by Xbox executives like Albert Penello. In the document, they spoke about a number of items which we will discuss here to begin with.
When Microsoft revealed their upcoming console, gamers were eagerly anticipating an upgrade from the Sony camp named the Neo. According to many, the console would push 1080p 60 FPS on all games, and since it didn’t feature a UHD 4K drive from leaked documents, it seemed Sony wasn’t too keen on the whole 4K narrative until they changed their minds at the last minute. Multiple outlets reported the 1080p requirement. That was the information Microsoft had when they initially started promoting the Xbox Scorpio to developers in the white paper. The PlayStation Neo was supposed to be the 1080p 60 FPS console so Microsoft could make their device a proper 4K machine. However, instead of focusing on that, Sony decided they wanted to market the Neo as a 4K machine.
So it seemed quite obvious that when Microsoft shipped their upgrade to the world, which would release one year after the PlayStation 4 Pro, that they would shift their focus away from fake 4K to native 4K as spoken about in interviews since. Albert Penello has stated again and again that Xbox Scorpio’s new focus is native 4K unlike PlayStation 4 Pro which even uses checkerboard rendering for first-party games. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Aaron Greenberg said numerous times that their focus for the console was to deliver a true 4K experience, and sometimes even threw in a few jabs against Sony for their rather antiquated solutions to the problem. That talk didn’t exist until after Sony confirmed that the majority of PlayStation 4 Pro games, even first-party titles, wouldn’t run at native 4K.
However, does this mean that all games will run at native 4K on the Xbox Scorpio? Well no. Fortunately Microsoft—and rightfully so—isn’t forcing developers to shift their focus on delivering native 4K games. I don’t want to upgrade to a 4K TV so I want a 1080p enhanced mode for my existing set. Each game will focus on what it needs to achieve, such as bigger worlds, more engaging gameplay, and better graphics. Spencer already stated that after playing on early builds of the Xbox Scorpio, he could feel and see a clear difference. This is in stark contrast to hilarious attempts by gamers to actually justify the upgrade from the PlayStation 4 Slim to the Pro by looking really hard for any apparent differences in the visuals on YouTube, so hard in fact that they need expert pixel counters to figure out what they are. Phil knows he has to show a clear visual difference between games for the Xbox Scorpio to sell or else people won’t buy it like the Pro.
Shannon Loftis, one of the executives over at Xbox, also spoke about how all first-party games that released on Project Scorpio would be in native 4K, reinforcing their commitment to delivering a truly next-generation system for demanding gamers. This is in stark contrast to Sony admitting that many of their first-party games would’t be native 4K. We have seen during this latest generation how first-party developers lead the way in delivering truly next-generation experiences, with Forza Motorsport showing that the Xbox One was actually capable of 1080p 60 FPS gaming at launch contrary to the false narrative set by the media. Third-party developers usually go for low-hanging fruit and often under-deliver on their initial promises like we’ve seen with so many titles this generation.
The document, which the Xbox division wasn’t even given the time of day to deny as being speculation, didn’t speak much to the specifications of the system. The main take away was that the system does feature 8 cores, 12 GB of memory and a 6 TFLOPS GPU. Microsoft revealed as much during their E3 conference and the white paper says the same. One major difference will be the lack of ESRAM, which isn’t surprising since it was the ESRAM that took up so much space on the original Xbox One die, space that could have been used to cram more CUs into the system.
Many people reading the white paper are calling Microsoft liars because it talks about third-party developers using checkerboarding if they don’t want a native 4K presentation. Does this mean that Microsoft deceived us about their focus on 4K gaming on the Scorpio? Absolutely not. Project Scorpio, regardless of what the final specifications will be, will push native 4K on all first-party games just as Microsoft promised, and it remains up to developers to push native 4K wherever they see fit on third-party games. They’ve been given the tools but they can also choose to keep the resolution at 1080p and invest in just completely insane lighting and effects. They can also choose to increase the resolution by a little bit and invest the rest in more enemies on screen for the Xbox Scorpio version. The possibilities are endless but no one is forcing them to push native 4K, that’s the point. It’s only right for a company like Microsoft to educate developers about their system and the multitude of ways developers can use that extra power. With that said, first-party games will be native 4K unlike the PlayStation 4 Pro.
You also have to remember that the white paper came out before we had concrete details about the PlayStation 4 Pro and the thinking has shifted since then. While beforehand Microsoft was just touting 6 TFLOPS power, now they’re touting native 4K. They’re taking a page out of Sony’s playbook by capitalizing on their competition’s misfortunes. The backlash Sony faced when they said first-party games wouldn’t be native 4K was huge. The mentions of “sparse rendering” is mainly an artifact of their focus before the PlayStation 4 Pro launch and pseudo-4K backlash. However, it remains a feature for developers to use if they see fit.
The Xbox Scorpio remains the most powerful console ever, and when it launches it will bring native 4K gaming to the masses because all first-party games will support that, unlike the struggling PlayStation 4 Pro with its checkerboard rendering. Holiday 2017 will bring in a new era for console gamers and it’s definitely going to be an exciting time for Xbox customers and fans.
Dreyer was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 139 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @dreyer_smit.