Project Scorpio Will Have A Launch Line-Up Of Games, But They’ll Work On Xbox One Too

Although Project Scorpio won’t mark the start of a brand new console generation in the traditional sense, it will have its own launch line-up of games, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has told Eurogamer. When the device launches in 2017, all games released as launch titles will work concurrently on Scorpio and all existing members of the Xbox One family, including the newly-announced One S.

For you and I, we usually think about generations in terms of what games will it play? This thing will play Ryse: Son of Rome, a launch game for your Xbox One. And we’ll have launch Scorpio games as well that are playable on an Xbox One, Xbox One S and Scorpio and look great on all three of them.

As he proudly stated on stage during Microsoft’s keynote E3 presentation, Spencer reiterates in the interview that “no-one gets left behind,” regardless of which console you opt to buy (or not buy). The Scorpio will be significantly more powerful than the Xbox One, but all games released will work universally on the company’s current hardware.

When you’re buying a console game from us, you know that console game will run on your original Xbox. No-one gets left behind. We said that on stage. Your Xbox One S and Scorpio. That’s an important design point for us. They’re all part of the same family. And we want to make sure just like when you’re buying your music today, you don’t worry about upgrading to a new phone that somehow won’t play your old songs or your new songs. We think about your Xbox One collection of games that will move with you between those different consoles.

Somebody today will have an Xbox One, and when Scorpio comes out they will buy Scorpio and they will put Xbox One in a different room, and we’re obviously going to make sure that as they move between rooms that they’ve got access to the same games.

A mid-generation hardware update is something that’s never been tried before, so we can really do nothing but guess how successful Project Scorpio will be on release. Microsoft isn’t the only one attempting such a move though: Sony’s appears to be pursuing a similar avenue with the PlayStation Neo.