HomeGamingCould Project Scorpio Be A $700 Console?

Could Project Scorpio Be A $700 Console?

Project Scorpio is shaping up to be the most expensive video game console we’ve seen in over 20 years.

How expensive? That’s a fascinating question that only got more interesting this week when it was leaked that Project Scorpio may be capable of native 4K streaming and gameplay recording right out of the box. That’s an impressive feat.

As we speculated at the time of that leak, that impressive feat might require a piece of technology which typically retails somewhere in the $300-$400 range. While It’s highly unlikely the full retail price of such a capture card is going to be tacked on to the price of Project Scorpio, it is yet another aspect of the system which suggests Scorpio’s price might be dauntingly high.

For instance, consider the fact that Microsoft has confirmed that Scorpio’s graphics card will possess 6 teraflops of power. While Microsoft isn’t confirming the specific make of that card, a retail graphics card of equivalent power is going to run you around $350. Of course, given Scorpio’s theoretical 4K and VR processing potential, the console’s graphics card could actually be closer to the $400 range.

But ok, let’s say $350. What about Scorpio’s processor? Here, Microsoft has confirmed that AMD will be supplying the console’s processor. Given that AMD just unveiled their Ryzen line – and name dropped Scorpio during their CES 2017 showing – it seems like a sure bet that Scorpio is going to feature a high-end Ryzen processor. Such a processor is going to cost you between $349.99 and $499.99 based on how crazy you want to get.

Given that we don’t know much more about Scorpio’s hardware, it’s hard to continue speculating with certainty regarding the console’s theoretical price on a piece-by-piece basis. Still, some PC building experts are speculating that if you want to build a computer that will surpass the abilities of Scorpio, you should probably expect to drop around $2000.

Does that mean that Project Scorpio will cost $2000? Absolutely not. Not only are there discounts from mass manufacturing to consider, but there’s also the fact that building a PC and building a console are two very different prospects.

However, it’s safe to say that Project Scorpio is going to cost more than the $399 PS4 Pro simply because it will be more powerful than Sony’s device. Using that information, also take into consideration that you can build a PC with specs similar to PS4 Pro for around $700.

If the PC equivalent of a PS4 Pro costs about $700 and it’s believed that Scorpio’s PC equivalent retails for somewhere in the $1500 to $2000 range, then you start to get the impression that Scorpio could very well be a $699 system.

Would Microsoft really release such an expensive device? Possibly. Remember that we don’t know every piece of hardware in Scorpio and we don’t know any special features the console may boast. Also, consider that Microsoft has said that Scorpio will be a “premium product” and that this is the company that dared to release a $150 controller aimed at the same “pro” market that Scorpio is intended for.

All that being said, it feels like $699 is the absolute max price for Scorpio while $599 is likely a more realistic price tag.

Matthew Byrd
Matthew Byrdhttps://hd-report.com
Matthew Byrd covers the gaming industry including indies, consoles, PCs, iOS and Android apps, as well as topics related to entertainment and technology. He also writes for IndieGameSource and DenOfGeek, and has his own blog at PixelCritique.com.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Fun Facts:

    6TF isn’t enough for native 4K @ 60fps when we’re talking about AAA games with complex graphics.

    Spencer reiterated many times the Scorpio is a premium console that will have a premium price. Sort of like the XBone Elite controller and the expensive price tag. It’ll be for the privileged few. You can’t afford it? Well there’s an XBone S for the peasants.

    $599US is the minimum but I would not be surprised if this hits $699US!

  2. XBOX SCORPIO IS USING ZEN PERIOD….. SR5 RYZEN CPU @ 2.8ghz 8 cores 8 threads
    AMD VEGA CUSTOM GPU @ 977 MHZ 6.2 teraflops, 12gb GDDR5x RAM 320gb per second bandwidth, WILL RUN ALL GAMES AT PC ULTRA QUALITY EQUIVALENT NATIVE 4K 60fps period……… Listen I have absolute 100% inside factual information from a very close acquaintance of mine who has been working with an official Xbox Scorpio dev kit which his development team received from Microsoft back in November 2016. The developer is from a major 1st party studio and the information he has provided me is 100% accurate.

    The developer confirmed that the 343 industries developer who a few weeks ago publicly stated how the Xbox Scorpio was far more beefier than originally expected was absolutely correct as the console wasn’t downgraded at all but rather the exact opposite. The Xbox Scorpio is using a brand new completely custom console only specific architecture that’s using an all new rendering method which allows for an ultra efficient almost ZERO LATENCY communication between the system CPU & GPU which allows for a nearly 60% higher graphical rendering performance when compared to what’s currently available on Pc graphics cards and or current game consoles.

    The new architecture essentially allows for the Xbox Scorpio to take 6 teraflops worth of GPU compute power and render that 6 teraflops at 60% higher than the exact same Pc graphics card in a Pc which means that the Xbox Scorpio 6 teraflops of GPU COMPUTE POWER IS EQUIVALENT TO a 9.6 teraflop Pc graphics card. The new custom architecture was developed in collaboration between Microsoft & AMD designed specifically for Xbox Scorpio and the new communication method IS 100% fully patented from Microsoft specifically for the Xbox Scorpio. The way in which Microsoft was able to develop and patent this new custom architecture was because Microsoft funded nearly 40% of the research n development costs associated with ZEN/VEGA in exchange for not jus the ability to develop and patent this brand new custom console only architecture communication method specifically for Xbox Scorpio only but in addition Microsoft also in return was able to secure an extremely cost efficient price on the new Xbox Scorpio chipsets from AMD WHICH ARE ABSOLUTELY 100% ZEN/VEGA based chipsets. The CPU inside the Xbox Scorpio is an 8 CORE RYZEN SUMMIT RIDGE R5 CPU @ 2.8ghz, and the graphics chip inside Xbox Scorpio is a custom designed AMD VEGA GPU 6.2 teraflop GPU @ 970mhz.

    The Xbox Scorpio is also using 12gb of gddr5x memory with 320gb per second memory bandwidth. Those specs are the exact specs and exact hardware that’s currently used inside the Xbox Scorpio dev kits as they are all using early engineering samples of both the RYZEN CPU & VEGA GPU. I was also informed that currently right now developers have numerous games that are currently up and running on the Xbox Scorpio dev kits. The games that I was told so far which are being tested n benchmarked that are currently running NATIVE 4K 60fps on Xbox Scorpio dev kits are as follows……. DOOM 4K 60fps (Pc ultra equivalent)BATTLEFIELD 4K 60fps (Pc ultra equivalent) HALO 5 (4K 60fps Xbox One equivalent) WITCHER 3 (4K 60fps Pc ultra equivalent) FALLOUT 4 (4K 60fps Pc ultra equivalent) Those games are all currently running at NATIVE 4K on the Xbox Scorpio dev kits, and while they’re definitely more games being tested n benchmarked internally by different development teams I was told that the ones I listed above are the only games that my sources own personal development team has seen 1st hand running NATIVE 4K 60fps.

    I was informed that the reason 343 industries developer came out and publicly expressed the fact that Xbox Scorpio was far beefier than originally expected isn’t because the hardware itself is beefier or upgraded but BECAUSE DEVELOPERS HAS ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA THAT MICROSOFT & AMD had developed a brand new custom architecture that’s console specific for XBOX SCORPIO which is why so far apparently the system is running NATIVE 4K 60fps at the Pc ultra setting equivalent without even putting the hardware under full load where essentially Xbox Scorpio dev kits are rendering these games at NATIVE 4K 60fps with a lot of wiggle room as the hardware isn’t being pushed anywhere near its full capabilities as the new architecture is the biggest jump in graphical rendering power efficiency since the Xbox 360 launched with a custom and Radeon GPU which had the first ever unified memory architecture that wasn’t available on Pc graphics cards at the time which is why when Xbox 360 launched there wasn’t a Pc graphics card on the market that could compete with Xbox 360 for nearly 18 months until Pc graphics cards started to adopt the new unified graphics architecture at which point that’s when Pc caught back up and surpassed consoles. I was told that this time around Pc graphics cards won’t be able to adopt this new architecture AS MICROSOFT HAS FULLY PATENTED THIS NEW ARCHITECTURE AS XBOX SCORPIO CONSOLE SPECIFIC which means neither Pc nor PlayStation will be able to use and or develop graphics chipsets using this new architecture as it’s fully custom and designed specifically for Xbox Scorpio.

    The last thing I wanna share is that at least in the case of my specific source I was told that internally when testing and benchmarking the Xbox Scorpio dev kits the graphical rendering performance is on par with the NVIDIA TITAN X PASCAL in terms of 4K rendering power and that’s using an early engineering sample of the RYZEN/VEGA chipset which I was told the final chipset used in Xbox Scorpio will be roughly 15% more power efficient than what’s being used in the dev kit as AMD are still tweaking and optimizing the specific APU being used for Xbox Scorpio.

    I was also informed that in addition to the overall graphics rendering power Xbox Scorpio also has the absolute fastest GAMING CPU in the world right now as the RYZEN CPU IS THE 8 core 8 thread R5 version and it’s faster in both single core and multi threaded applications than the intel i7-6900k CPU and while Xbox Scorpio isn’t getting the RYZEN r7 CPU which has 8 cores 16 threads I was told it honestly won’t make any difference for Xbox Scorpio, however the 8 core 8 thread R5 version is significantly cheaper and vastly more power efficient than the highest end 8 core 16 thread R7 version and that’s why Microsoft has chosen to run with the RYZEN R5 version with 8 cores 8 threads ALTHOUGH I WAS TOLD XBOX SCORPIO GAMES WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE 8 extra virtual cores as those will be locked down and fully reserved specifically to run the system software and all background tasks etc……… (Edited info I was mistaken about how the cores would be used and or locked as I’ve confirmed with my source the R5 RYZEN 8 core 8 threads will have some sort of virtual cores even though it doesn’t make sense as it doesn’t have 16 threads however I was told it’s some custom version of the CHIP where it does contain 8 virtual cores being used somehow to run the operating system and background tasks although my source couldn’t confirm exactly how this works only that they are using a tweaked version of the SR5 RYZEN but somehow contains extra virtual cores so don’t hold me to the details as I’m not 100% clear on this yet as to how it works only that it’s definitely SR5 RYZEN 97 watts 8 core 8 thread 2.8ghz)

    I wanna finally end what I’ve said by saying the last bit of information which I was told was that with Xbox Scorpio and its new architecture which will enable the 6 teraflops of GPU COMPUTE POWER INSIDE XBOX SCORPIO to be the equivalent of a 9.6 teraflop Pc graphics card but also I was told that because of the nature of development for a closed loop console type environment with an ultra low level console API I was told that the optimization for this console will enable Xbox Scorpio to have a very serious initial advantage over even the most expensive ultra high end gaming computers and because of the patent on the new custom console specific Xbox Scorpio only architecture the developer community pretty much all agree that this initial advantage could hold strong for at least 18 to 24 months and so yea I’m sure ok get all sorts of flack and pissed off Pc master race haters talking shit about what I’ve said but TRUST ME GUYS WHAT IVE SAID IS ABSOLUTELY THE REAL DEAL AND APPARENTLY MICROSOFT WILL BE SHARING DETAILS REGARDING THE NEW RYZEN/VEGA APU and also the new custom patented Xbox Scorpio architecture sometime around and or at this years upcoming E3 convention (EDITED 2/17/17 If you guys look back I’ve been copying and pasting this exact information for nearly a month and how just as I’ve said MICROSOFT CAME OUT A FEW DAYS AGO SAYING THE SCORPIO WILL BE REVEALED AROUND E3 and so obviously that s

    PantherCrane1 week ago
    XBOX SCORPIO IS USING ZEN PERIOD….. SR5 RYZEN CPU @ 2.8ghz 8 cores 8 threads
    AMD VEGA CUSTOM GPU @ 977 MHZ 6.2 teraflops, 12gb GDDR5x RAM 320gb per second bandwidth, WILL RUN ALL GAMES AT PC ULTRA QUALITY EQUIVALENT NATIVE 4K 60fps period……… Listen I have absolute 100% inside factual information from a very close acquaintance of mine who has been working with an official Xbox Scorpio dev kit which his development team received from Microsoft back in November 2016. The developer is from a major 1st party studio and the information he has provided me is 100% accurate.

    The developer confirmed that the 343 industries developer who a few weeks ago publicly stated how the Xbox Scorpio was far more beefier than originally expected was absolutely correct as the console wasn’t downgraded at all but rather the exact opposite. The Xbox Scorpio is using a brand new completely custom console only specific architecture that’s using an all new rendering method which allows for an ultra efficient almost ZERO LATENCY communication between the system CPU & GPU which allows for a nearly 60% higher graphical rendering performance when compared to what’s currently available on Pc graphics cards and or current game consoles.

    The new architecture essentially allows for the Xbox Scorpio to take 6 teraflops worth of GPU compute power and render that 6 teraflops at 60% higher than the exact same Pc graphics card in a Pc which means that the Xbox Scorpio 6 teraflops of GPU COMPUTE POWER IS EQUIVALENT TO a 9.6 teraflop Pc graphics card. The new custom architecture was developed in collaboration between Microsoft & AMD designed specifically for Xbox Scorpio and the new communication method IS 100% fully patented from Microsoft specifically for the Xbox Scorpio. The way in which Microsoft was able to develop and patent this new custom architecture was because Microsoft funded nearly 40% of the research n development costs associated with ZEN/VEGA in exchange for not jus the ability to develop and patent this brand new custom console only architecture communication method specifically for Xbox Scorpio only but in addition Microsoft also in return was able to secure an extremely cost efficient price on the new Xbox Scorpio chipsets from AMD WHICH ARE ABSOLUTELY 100% ZEN/VEGA based chipsets. The CPU inside the Xbox Scorpio is an 8 CORE RYZEN SUMMIT RIDGE R5 CPU @ 2.8ghz, and the graphics chip inside Xbox Scorpio is a custom designed AMD VEGA GPU 6.2 teraflop GPU @ 970mhz.

    The Xbox Scorpio is also using 12gb of gddr5x memory with 320gb per second memory bandwidth. Those specs are the exact specs and exact hardware that’s currently used inside the Xbox Scorpio dev kits as they are all using early engineering samples of both the RYZEN CPU & VEGA GPU. I was also informed that currently right now developers have numerous games that are currently up and running on the Xbox Scorpio dev kits. The games that I was told so far which are being tested n benchmarked that are currently running NATIVE 4K 60fps on Xbox Scorpio dev kits are as follows……. DOOM 4K 60fps (Pc ultra equivalent)BATTLEFIELD 4K 60fps (Pc ultra equivalent) HALO 5 (4K 60fps Xbox One equivalent) WITCHER 3 (4K 60fps Pc ultra equivalent) FALLOUT 4 (4K 60fps Pc ultra equivalent) Those games are all currently running at NATIVE 4K on the Xbox Scorpio dev kits, and while they’re definitely more games being tested n benchmarked internally by different development teams I was told that the ones I listed above are the only games that my sources own personal development team has seen 1st hand running NATIVE 4K 60fps.

    I was informed that the reason 343 industries developer came out and publicly expressed the fact that Xbox Scorpio was far beefier than originally expected isn’t because the hardware itself is beefier or upgraded but BECAUSE DEVELOPERS HAS ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA THAT MICROSOFT & AMD had developed a brand new custom architecture that’s console specific for XBOX SCORPIO which is why so far apparently the system is running NATIVE 4K 60fps at the Pc ultra setting equivalent without even putting the hardware under full load where essentially Xbox Scorpio dev kits are rendering these games at NATIVE 4K 60fps with a lot of wiggle room as the hardware isn’t being pushed anywhere near its full capabilities as the new architecture is the biggest jump in graphical rendering power efficiency since the Xbox 360 launched with a custom and Radeon GPU which had the first ever unified memory architecture that wasn’t available on Pc graphics cards at the time which is why when Xbox 360 launched there wasn’t a Pc graphics card on the market that could compete with Xbox 360 for nearly 18 months until Pc graphics cards started to adopt the new unified graphics architecture at which point that’s when Pc caught back up and surpassed consoles. I was told that this time around Pc graphics cards won’t be able to adopt this new architecture AS MICROSOFT HAS FULLY PATENTED THIS NEW ARCHITECTURE AS XBOX SCORPIO CONSOLE SPECIFIC which means neither Pc nor PlayStation will be able to use and or develop graphics chipsets using this new architecture as it’s fully custom and designed specifically for Xbox Scorpio.

    The last thing I wanna share is that at least in the case of my specific source I was told that internally when testing and benchmarking the Xbox Scorpio dev kits the graphical rendering performance is on par with the NVIDIA TITAN X PASCAL in terms of 4K rendering power and that’s using an early engineering sample of the RYZEN/VEGA chipset which I was told the final chipset used in Xbox Scorpio will be roughly 15% more power efficient than what’s being used in the dev kit as AMD are still tweaking and optimizing the specific APU being used for Xbox Scorpio.

    I was also informed that in addition to the overall graphics rendering power Xbox Scorpio also has the absolute fastest GAMING CPU in the world right now as the RYZEN CPU IS THE 8 core 8 thread R5 version and it’s faster in both single core and multi threaded applications than the intel i7-6900k CPU and while Xbox Scorpio isn’t getting the RYZEN r7 CPU which has 8 cores 16 threads I was told it honestly won’t make any difference for Xbox Scorpio, however the 8 core 8 thread R5 version is significantly cheaper and vastly more power efficient than the highest end 8 core 16 thread R7 version and that’s why Microsoft has chosen to run with the RYZEN R5 version with 8 cores 8 threads ALTHOUGH I WAS TOLD XBOX SCORPIO GAMES WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE 8 extra virtual cores as those will be locked down and fully reserved specifically to run the system software and all background tasks etc……… (Edited info I was mistaken about how the cores would be used and or locked as I’ve confirmed with my source the R5 RYZEN 8 core 8 threads will have some sort of virtual cores even though it doesn’t make sense as it doesn’t have 16 threads however I was told it’s some custom version of the CHIP where it does contain 8 virtual cores being used somehow to run the operating system and background tasks although my source couldn’t confirm exactly how this works only that they are using a tweaked version of the SR5 RYZEN but somehow contains extra virtual cores so don’t hold me to the details as I’m not 100% clear on this yet as to how it works only that it’s definitely SR5 RYZEN 97 watts 8 core 8 thread 2.8ghz)

    I wanna finally end what I’ve said by saying the last bit of information which I was told was that with Xbox Scorpio and its new architecture which will enable the 6 teraflops of GPU COMPUTE POWER INSIDE XBOX SCORPIO to be the equivalent of a 9.6 teraflop Pc graphics card but also I was told that because of the nature of development for a closed loop console type environment with an ultra low level console API I was told that the optimization for this console will enable Xbox Scorpio to have a very serious initial advantage over even the most expensive ultra high end gaming computers and because of the patent on the new custom console specific Xbox Scorpio only architecture the developer community pretty much all agree that this initial advantage could hold strong for at least 18 to 24 months and so yea I’m sure ok get all sorts of flack and pissed off Pc master race haters talking shit about what I’ve said but TRUST ME GUYS WHAT IVE SAID IS ABSOLUTELY THE REAL DEAL AND APPARENTLY MICROSOFT WILL BE SHARING DETAILS REGARDING THE NEW RYZEN/VEGA APU and also the new custom patented Xbox Scorpio architecture sometime around and or at this years upcoming E3 convention (EDITED 2/17/17 If you guys look back I’ve been copying and pasting this exact information for nearly a month and how just as I’ve said MICROSOFT CAME OUT A FEW DAYS AGO SAYING THE SCORPIO WILL BE REVEALED AROUND E3 and so obviously that should confirm what I said right above this about them revealing SCORPIO EITHER SHORTLY BEFORE OR SHORTLY AFTER E3……..Fyi also guys THE LAUNCH PRICE WILL BE $599.00 dollars and believe me this kind of technology n power n capabilities are more than worth this price…..hould confirm what I said right above this about them revealing SCORPIO EITHER SHORTLY BEFORE OR SHORTLY AFTER E3……..Fyi also guys THE LAUNCH PRICE WILL BE $599.00 dollars and believe me this kind of technology n power n capabilities are more than worth this price…..

    • Dumb comment by a bitter fanboy troll….yawn. Between X1 and 360 bc there will be over 600 games available at launch… Again, dumber than dirt comment.

  3. I don’t see any thing even remotely pointing to a 700$ US price tag. I see it being about 499$ US, guessing by the specs given and mid rang hardware to get to that point. I know that Consoles normally sell at or below price so depending on what the full specs are. If Xbox give Project Scorpio allot of room to grow, then the price could go up, but I see anything over a 599$ US price tag having to be justified, not just to gamers but to stockholders and the MS corporate. Yes Project Scorpio is going to be top of the line but giving current markets a look, Xbox One S prices PS4 and Pro prices then looking at the hardware and the bind that the Xbox One put Xbox into the price needs to be low, not dollar wise but low for what they are offering.

    If Scorpio used 16gb gddr5x ram, new Ryzen and Vega chip set (high-mid end) then then a 10tb hybrid drive along with the 4K Blu-ray player, internal power ect ect I could go on and on with boards wiring, casing and odds and ends, but the point would be most everything would have to be next to top of the line with room to grow not just above the 6tf but the 320gb/s would have to have that ability to go up as well. Then possibly I could see a higher price tag, or maybe if they bundled the VR gear and the Xbox Scorpio, then maybe 700$ US but not as it sits now.

    Time will tell who is correct, but if your going to spread something like a really high price tag you need to justify it. I could talk about the other consoles and prices vs what they can do, but that is not needed just to debate cost of the Scorpio Console.

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