New details have leaked about the possibility of not one, but two next generation Xbox consoles. The new information has come to light from well known and respected leaker, Thurrott. The following information is not confirmed and remains a rumor until further confirmation.
The details revealed that Microsoft will have two skews for their next wave of consoles. The first of the two, rumored to be codenamed, “Scarlett,” will be a cloud based streaming platform. The second option will give buyers a more traditional console in the same vein as the what you can currently buy with the Xbox One X, but more powerful.
Scarlett will be the cheaper of the two options as it will not have the ability to play physical games and have lower specs. Microsoft is heavily banking on internet speeds being able to support seamless streaming in the near future, something the industry has seemed increasingly excited for in the last year. Scarlett is rumored to have enough power under the hood to reduce input lag, making it a similar console experience to the regular Xbox platforms.
The second console looks to once again be a powerful upgrade for hardcore gamers. We saw Microsoft try something similar with the Xbox One X, so fans should expect another sizable upgrade in specs with the next generation console.
This news comes as no surprise as Microsoft has turned towards subscription services as a way to build good will with fans. The stellar Xbox Game Pass currently allows players access to over 100 games to download to their Xbox One. It is important to note that this service focuses on downloading games rather than the streaming service we may see with the Scarlett.
Players should expect something along the lines of Playstation Now, a service launched early in the PS4’s lifecycle to very little success. Latency seemed to be the biggest complaint, but it seems that Microsoft may have found a solution to this problem if they are willing to bank on a console dedicated to a cloud based service.
Players shouldn’t expect these consoles until 2020 at the very earliest, but news should sprinkle out over the next year as we get closer to the next generation of consoles.
