Xbox Scarlett: The Next Generation System Won’t Be “Out Of Position” On Power Or Price

Microsoft and Sony are both getting ready to release their next systems in 2020, the Xbox Scarlett and the PlayStation 5. So far both companies are broadly explaining their visions for the next-gen of hardware, preparing us for what these systems can do. For Microsoft, that means committing to not repeating the numerous mistakes of the Xbox One launch.

“I would say a learning from the Xbox One generation is we will not be out of position on power or price,” Xbox head Phil Spencer told The Verge. “If you remember the beginning of this generation we were a hundred dollars more expensive and, yes, we were less powerful. And we started Project Scarlett with this leadership team in place with a goal of having market success.”

Spencer went on to say that the company had discussions about whether to do another console generation “years ago,” and added that he personally thinks there will be more generations after that. Because of that calculus, he said, “We’re all-in on Project Scarlett and I want to compete, and I want to compete in the right ways which is why we’re focused on cross-play and backward compatibility.”

Microsoft has provided some information on the specifications of its next console and the Scarlett certainly shaping up to be on equal footing with its competitors. We’ve created a comparison between the Scarlett and PS5 to breakdown what we know about each piece of hardware thus far and how they compare to each other.