Xbox Two – What We Know So Far

Peter Donnell / 5 years ago

Xbox Two

Updated on 4/07/2019

The new console has been a pretty closely guarded secret in the Microsoft camp. Unlike the PS5 which has more than a few leaks in its bucket. We do know it’s coming, of course we do, Microsoft’s VP of Gaming Phil Spencer even said so at E3 2018.

“Not only that, but we are dedicated to perfecting your experience everywhere you want to play, [whether] it’s on your Xbox, your PC or your phone, and of course our hardware team, the same team that delivered unprecedented performance with Xbox One X is deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles where we will once again deliver on our commitment to set the benchmark for console gaming.”

E3 2019 Announcement

It’s now officially revealed that the console will be getting a Holiday 2020 release, although no fixed date was given, some hardware features were revealed. “Four times” the performance of the Xbox One X, the console will indeed be powered by a custom AMD processor. It will feature the latest AMD Zen CPU architecture, as well as their Radeon RDNA GPU cores. Of course, this will no doubt all be the latest 7nm hardware from AMD.

An Xbox Family of Consoles

This rumour is unconfirmed as of our last update.

The current rumour is that we’ll actually be getting a pair of consoles, with Xbox Scarlett, the Xbox Two’s development name, and Xbox Scarlett Cloud. One being the fire-breathing flagship gaming console, the other being a much more affordable streaming box, likely focusing on cloud gaming and multimedia functions most of all, sort of like the Nvidia Shield TV does.

Low-Cost Alternative

Following the formal announcement of Project Scarlett, Microsoft doesn’t appear to be considering the release of a low-cost alternative model. This is somewhat surprising given the recent Xbox One S release which is substantially less expensive than their top-tier Xbox One X model.

It is, however, speculated that Microsoft may be working on a low-cost ‘Steaming’ box that will retail for less than £100. You can learn more about that via the link here!

Backwards Compatability

This is the current hot topic. Personally, I think it would be suicide for them not to be. Look at the Xbox One X, it’s basically the same console only faster, and we’ve known the console market has begun to ape the PC and mobile markets. Same platform, but new and improved with each iteration. This is the next logical step. It should basically be the Xbox One XX. This may even mean games are forwards and backwards compatible with the current and next gen. Much in the same way PC users can install the optional 4K texture packs on more powerful systems.

Phil Spencer has even said “I’m very proud of our track record of compatibility and us respecting the purchase of games you’ve made with us and bringing that to the current generation.” adding “It is our core on who we are” while speaking with Eurogamer.

The Games

As below, we expected Halo to feature heavily for the launch, while not neglecting the existing product range. This seems to hold true with the reveal of the new Halo at E3 2019. Check out the updated trailer below.

Not a lot is known right now. We already know that Halo Infinite is launching on the current crop of Xbox’s. However, that hasn’t ruled out the forward support for the new consoles either. It’s not uncommon for games to launch on two generations as we cross over.

The Xbox One will still see support from developers for a few years yet, I’m sure of that. 4K gaming is obviously going to get a boost, which likely brings with it HDR, Dolby Atmos and other innovations that are already on the current Xbox One devices. I would expect Ray Tracing to be dominant too.

The Xbox Hardware

It currently looks like the PS5 will benefit from a 7nm Zen AMD Ryzen 8 Core CPU and their next generation of Navi. However, it wouldn’t be too much to guess the Xbox Two will use a fairly similar configuration too. AMD have powered consoles for ages, and that’s not going to stop. The fine details like clock speeds and VRAM are all unknown at this time though.

Release Date and Price

As we said below, a 2020 release date was expected. However, that’s now looking like a later release than we hoped for. Microsoft said “Holiday 2020” so I guess we have time to save up our pennies. There’s no word on price, but I would be stunned if it was higher than the Xbox One X release price of $499.

Right now, we’re expecting an early 2020 release. However, Microsoft said they’re going big at E3 2019, and we fully expect to learn a lot about Xbox Two there. Could we see a Christmas 2019 release? It would certainly put the knife in Sony’s back if Microsoft got to market first. Of course, the same is also true if Sony beat them to the punch.

As for prices, we just don’t know. A safe bet would be $499/£499 for the big console and about $200/£200 or less for the streaming console. However, with the Ultimate Xbox Game Pass Package, we could even see a contract system put in place via the Microsoft store again, much like they did with the Xbox One.