Microsoft announces release window for Project Scarlett

Microsoft has officially opened up E3 with a shot across the bow — their new console is on its way.   We got a tease last year at E3, but now we’ve got a quick video talking (in albeit vague terms) about some of the hardware that’s going to fuel the new console when it arrives in “Holiday 2020”.   8K graphics, up to 120 fps, SSD, DDR6 SDRAM, “40x better performance than the Xbox One X”, dedicated RTX (ray tracing) lighting systems accelerating hardware, all powered by a Zen 2 CPU from AMD. They are also calling it “The biggest generational leap in Microsoft’s console history” which is a bold claim indeed.

More mysteriously, there was a tease during the presentation that suggested you’ll be able to play any game from the four previous generations of Xbox consoles, which I suggest might mean a tight Stadia-like streaming system coming from Microsoft’s powerful (and far more mature) Azure platform.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s most stalwart hero, Master Chief, will be on hand to launch the new console in Halo Infinite.  Why not enjoy a taste of that?