Microsoft Announces Xbox One S And Teases VR-Capable Console (Codenamed 'Project Scorpio')

Scorpio! Not just the best Simpsons character anymore.

Microsoft may have raised eyebrows with its $US26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn, but they blew those same eyebrows off with the announcement of not one but two more Xbox consoles at E3 today.

In a video, Microsoft staff explained the supreme power of their upcoming Xboxes, the latter of which was developed under the title ‘Project Scorpio’.

It’s like this…

… but less doomsday-ish.

Basically, the ‘Project Scorpio’ console will be a 4K gaming device with VR capability. Microsoft says it “will be the most powerful console ever built” when it ships. (Though, that won’t be until late 2017.)

The company stresses that all Xbox One models will be able to play the same games – those games will simply run at maximum resolution on Scorpio.

In the meantime, gamers will make do with the 4K capable Xbox One S, a more compact update on the current Xbox One (it’s about 40 per cent smaller, includes an integrated power supply and up to 2TB of hard drive space).

According to Kotaku, the Xbox One S will sell for $AUD549.95, when it lands in August. The original Xbox One, as a result, is seeing a price drop as of today.

Perhaps one of the more tantalising announcements from E3 is that game developer Bethesda has been working on VR demos of Doom and Fallout 4, with Microsoft’s ‘Project Scorpio’ launch video saying Fallout 4 will be available to play on their 2017 console. For now though, they can only be trialed on the HTC Vive.

The question is, will Sony beat Microsoft to the punch and have Fallout 4 available for their own VR device launching in October?

Photo: Facebook / Xbox.