Microsoft Reveals New Xbox One X Console

New console the most powerful – and most expensive – in the world.

Microsoft has unveiled its latest games console, imaginatively titled, the Xbox One X, ahead of this year’s E3 2017 event. 

Previously known under the name “Project Scorpio,” news of the Xbox One X was first confirmed at last year’s E3 by Microsoft. The big news for hardcore gamers is the fact that it is considerably more powerful than the PlayStation Pro 4, and will run new and old Xbox games in 4k at a brisk 60 frames per second.

Microsoft’s new Xbox model is named Xbox One X and will ship on November 7, with a $499/£449 price tag.

Better stats than PS4 Pro

Announcing the news, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer also proudly declared that the Xbox One X is the smallest console the company will have ever produced. He also gave the assembled press what seemed like a never ending list of boundary breaking console system specs for the new console. And they are quite impressive. The Xbox One X has 12 gigabytes of dedicated RAM, compared to Sony’s PS4 eight gigabytes, by way of example, and a fairly whopping six whole teraflops of graphics processing power compared to Sony’s 4.12. (That .12 must make all the difference.)

And the VR, tell me about the VR capability!

I would, but there was very little mentioned about the Xbox One x and Virtual Reality. And that was perhaps the biggest surprise of the entire Microsoft announcement. This is especially true considering the amount of attention Microsoft has given to its “mixed reality” headsets which are also due to launch later this year. The headsets, built by partners like Acer, HP and Dell will retail for less than other VR headsets out there such as the Oculus and HTC. The MS version will also be capable of running on much lower-end PCs.

Alpha gameplay footage from Assassins Creed Origins

Project Scorpio has been touted by Microsoft as being a VR powerhouse for gamers, so there is no doubt that virtual reality announcements are coming soon. It’s not clear how ling gamers will have to wait to find out. The hype for Xbox VR is coming, just not yet it seems.

Backwards compatible

The Xbox One X will also be backwards compatible with all existing Xbox One games, which is nice. Also shown off at the pre E3 event was the fact that at launch, there will be a total of 42 games available for purchase and download, 22 of which will exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles.

You can watch the entire Xbox One X announcement here, via YouTube.