Xbox Scarlett: 5 Burning Questions Microsoft Must Answer
Microsoft's comeback will be with... an all-streaming console?!
At E3 2018, a mere two months ago, Phil Spencer concluded Microsoft's impressive showcase by nonchalantly adding that his team was hard at work on the next generation of Xbox systems, codenamed Scarlett.
While this wasn't shocking news in and of itself - companies like Sony and Microsoft tinker at new consoles as soon as the previous ones launch - Spencer being so open and honest on stage was surprising from an industry so often unnecessarily tight-lipped.
What was truly interesting about his statement however, was the word "consoles". Plural. This raised a few eyebrows, but most industry pundits chalked it up to multiple SKUs, like when the PS3 launched with two of the same systems having differing storage capacity.
A recent report from Thurrot has stated that Microsoft is indeed working on more than one system, but they are far from mere storage SKUs.
According to the report, Microsoft is working on two different consoles.
The first is said to be a traditional Xbox console, while the second is a more interesting, cloud-based streaming system. The alleged streaming console will be built around a service akin to PlayStation Now.
Suffice to say, the news was controversial amongst gamers, and raised more questions than answers. Will gamers be receptive to such a system? Will it even be usable by the majority of consumers? Only time will tell.
5. How Will Subscriptions Work?
A fairly basic question that should be easily answered come Xbox's first reveal; how will subscriptions work?
Will Xbox Gold and Xbox Game Pass work seamlessly with Scarlett? Will you be able to download the games or just stream them?
These are a few of the most fundamental questions surrounding Scarlett Cloud.
As of now, the only way to play games purchased through Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass, is to download them to your system. It seems as though that won't be an option with Xbox's Cloud system, so will we simply be able to stream the games via the console library?
That seems the most likely option, and a fairly straightforward one.