Microsoft E3: New Xbox, More Backwards Compatibility, and 42 New Games Dylan Duarte June 13, 2017 News Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference has come and gone and in its wake we have information on a new Xbox console and 42 new games. 42. That’s the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. It’s also a buttload of games. Xbox Project Scorpio First, though, let’s talk about the console. Rumor had it that the Xbox Project Scorpio was going to be called just that: Scorpio. Unfortunately, Microsoft went with the decidedly less cool Xbox One X. The specifications that leaked a while back have turned out to be true. Microsoft’s latest will boast eight custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, 40 customized compute units at 1172 MHz, 12GB GDDR5 memory, 326 GB/s memory bandwidth, a 1 TB 2.5-inch hard drive, and a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive. If that all sounds like gibberish to you, just know that Microsoft didn’t hesitate to tell us it’s the most powerful console on the market, and they’re not wrong. Sadly, that power comes at a price. The Xbox One X will retail for $499 when it’s released on November 7th. Backwards Compatibility Now this is good stuff. While I’m sitting here like a chump, waiting for Sony to let me play my PS3 games on my PS4, Microsoft is diving even deeper into the backwards compatibility waters. Soon you’ll be able to play original Xbox games on your Xbox One (and Xbox One X). As with playing Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, this doesn’t mean that every game is playable, but rather a curated selection of Microsoft’s choosing. And yes, the games will look better than they originally did almost two decades ago. 42 Games Now before that number gets you too excited, know that a good chunk of these games are small indie titles with no set release date. Over half the titles are Xbox (and Windows) exclusives like Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, and the new pirate ship battle sim Sea of Thieves. Microsoft also showed off an ancient Egypt-set Assassins’s Creed, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, a new open world sequel to the Metro series called Metro Exodus, and Minecraft in 4k, with cross-console play that let’s Xbox users play with gamers on the Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, and VR. Oh, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War has a very sassy orc named Bruz the Chopper. Share This With The World!
