The recently revealed Xbox Project Scarlett has stirred up a lot of hype. This year’s E3 has been a storm of positive feedback and excitement for console and PC gamers, but Microsoft has come out of the gate swinging by announcing their newest console. A console that not only features a custom AMD processor suite, high-bandwidth GDDR6 memory and an SSD hard drive, as the specs have revealed, but also one that boasts backwards compatibility with potentially the entire Xbox library of games.
Now we finally have more details about one very important aspect. That is, how Scarlett will distribute its games. It turns out that the teams behind Xbox want to offer choice first and foremost, so the company is not abandoning physical discs for games anytime soon.
During an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Phil Spencer explained that physical disc gaming is still very much a part of the future that the company has planned.
“I WANT TO BE VERY DESCRIPTIVE, BECAUSE I AM NOT TRYING TO CONFUSE ANYBODY ABOUT WHAT THE OPTIONS ARE. I WANT TO GIVE PEOPLE CHOICE, AND RIGHT NOW PHYSICAL IS A CHOICE THAT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE LOVE.”
It would seem that Microsoft has really made a turn-around after the lessons of the disastrous Xbox One reveal, and even though they continue to offer all-digital options for gamers that can make use of them, the ability to have physical games for the millions upon millions who don’t have reliable access to fast internet connections is great news. Although if we’re being a bit more cynical, it says a lot about the state of the industry that this is something that needs to be celebrated, but that’s beyond the scope of this particular post.
As games and platforms continue to push the digital storefront model going into the future, and as cloud computing bursts back onto the scene with Google Stadia, the competition for the attention of gamers is going to get fierce. And with Scarlett, it looks like Microsoft will be putting their best foot forward. With both an impressive library of classic digital games from across the lifetime of the Xbox brand, and explosive launch titles like Halo Infinite, the focus is now on the other names in the console scene to fire back.
Project Scarlett launches holiday 2020.
