Microsoft's Phil Spencer played first Xbox Scarlett games this week

By Asher Madan
last updated

We need to know more!

What you need to know

  • Today, Xbox's Phil Spencer and Bungie's Pete Parsons streamed Destiny 2 together.
  • During the livestream, many gamers heard Spencer say he played the first Xbox Scarlett games this week.
  • Xbox Scarlett is Microsoft's upcoming console for Holiday 2020.
  • It's unclear if it's going to be more powerful than Sony's PlayStation 5 at this time.

Today, Xbox's Phil Spencer and Bungie's Pete Parsons played Destiny 2 together. During the livestream, many gamers noticed that Spencer discussed Xbox Scarlett, Microsoft's upcoming console. While he didn't reveal specifications, he did say that he finally played the first games on the machine this week.

Many viewers, including The Verge's Tom Warren, seemed to have noticed this. You can take a look at Warren's comment about the stream below.

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Microsoft hasn't revealed any of Xbox Scarlett's specifications yet, and it seems like the company's waiting for the PlayStation 5 (PS5) reveal. According to early reports and rumors, the PS5 is allegedly twice as powerful as the Xbox One X. According to Microsoft, Xbox Scarlett is four times as powerful as Xbox One X. However, only time will tell which device comes out on top.

On a side note, Destiny 2 is a popular first-person shooter from Bungie. While the first game wasn't well-received, the sequel fixes a lot of the problems that plagued the original. If you haven't played it yet, you should before the Shadowkeep expansion lands in October.

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Asher Madan
Asher Madan

Asher Madan handles gaming news for Windows Central. Before joining Windows Central in 2017, Asher worked for a number of different gaming outlets. He has a background in medical science and is passionate about all forms of entertainment, cooking, and antiquing.

13 Comments
  • "It's unclear if it's going to be more powerful than Sony's PlayStation 5 at this time."
    "According to early reports and rumors, the PS5 is allegedly twice as powerful as the Xbox One X. According to Microsoft, Xbox Scarlett is four times as powerful as Xbox One X. However, only time will tell which device comes out on top." On one hand you said it is "unclear" if Xbox scarlet will be more powerful, then you sated in the article what eraly rumors are, 4X is way larger than 2X to a reference point. My question to you is what other information do you have that makes it unclear? Care to make up your mind and or share more?
  • I'd say it's that they don't want to lend weight to rumours and given that neither system has been properly shown either could easily get a boost in power before they are shown so better not give a "yep, this one's more powerful" without actually having the facts to compare them. Also, it's impossible to actually quantify 2, or 4, or 100 times in terms of power. A doubling of a CPU's clock or cores doesn't immediately equate to a doubling of processing. It just simply isn't that straight forward. On the plus side, let's hope that the PS5 is unveiled at TGS so we can get some clear indication of where the new consoles sit.
  • I'd argue it's pretty easy to work out. Sony confirmed Ray Tracing on PS5 is software only. Not hardware accelerated. MS have now twice confirmed dedicated hardware for Ray Tracing. I think it's pretty clear Scarlett will have a power upper hand.
  • On the flip side we don't know what areas Sony may have prioritised in their hardware development. Considering both platforms generally target the same price point, it normally comes down to where a company choses to allocate resources.
  • Sony did not confirm that. I don't understand what fanboys get from making stuff up. They've only confirmed that the Navi GPU will support ray tracing. The only thing clear is both consoles will have very similar specs. My guess is the hardware differences will be negligible.
  • @Darkness
    Richard Loveridge is known for his constant lies. He has lied so many times in the past.
    No for the question: why is he doing this?
    I guess it's a fanboy thing. A way to promote the product of the company they worship. They try to convince people that something that may or not be true is a fact. They often try to make their opinion sound like a fact. Their hope is that by doing this they can convince people to buy the product even if he is being misled. These type of people don't care about consumers/gamers. Their priority is the company they worship.
  • Did you stop and think he might have interest in that? I know I do... I don't worship MS but I do have stocks from them, so yeah I'm gonna push them. But beside that I'm pretty sur MS will come up with a more powerful console than Sony... It's almost a no-brainer, it's their entire strategy... The real question is by how much... And I doubt it will be 2X more powerful than th PS5.... (it'll be less)
  • I'm talking about Richard Loveridge. I think the guy even admitted once earlier that he is a MS fanboy. But I honestly don't care about the reasons people push for MS.
    Whether you worship them or you have stocks from them it doesn't really matter for me. It's one of the same.
    Anyone willing to mislead and lie to consumers/gamers in order to promote and sell products are the same for me. When you try to say that your speculation is almost a "non-brainer" without giving any proper reason, I don't think I can take you seriously. And even more so when you say you are pushing for MS products...
  • I admitted I don't frequent sites like yourself to put stuff down because I'm trying to make my purchases and decisions feel better. As I said before I meant AMD confirmed at E3 Navi will have 0 hardware related Ray Tracing. Which Digital Foundry confirm. The only confirmation if any Ray Tracing from Sony was for Sound. Ray Tracing for sound is all they confirmed. When asked whether they have hardware ray Tracing they completely ignore the comment. Even though MS already confirmed it for themselves. The amount of time sGuest Alof has been caught lying and still tries to squirm around is crazy. He refutes being a PS fanboy. But then acts like it in every single article. And he nearly died when Sony announced they would follow MS and start putting Exclusives on PC. We nearly lost the poor guy. Wouldn't wish that on anyone. https://youtu.be/lP2QkBnRqko Go to 17 mins 30 if you want Ray tracing. And absolute confirmation that Navi will do no hardware ray Tracing at all. AMD categorically confirmed No raytracing at thardware level whatsoever for Navi. So unless Sony has a seperate die for hardware raytracing then they won't be doing hardware raytracing. Even in 2 years time on the next set of GPUs AMD bring out. They won't have full hardware ray Tracing. Only set specific Ray Tracing. Not all parts. This is fact confirmed by AMD. In there own AMD conference.
  • I don't know all the variables they may be looking at or considerations, but the really simples things for me would be: general 4k w/HDR, 60FPS with solid hardware ray tracing built-in for improvements beyond just resolution. The other thing I'd like to see, but I don't know how much of it is on the console vs. the developers (I assume the hardware has been the limiting factor, but I confess I don't really know), is games have a lot more background threads so that open world games can feel much more authentic. I want the world to change dynamically, and slowly over time. This could be stuff like accumulating snow, leaves or trash blowing around, people who actually go about their lives and can react to what's happening or move parts of the world around, at least when in view of the player. I suspect that means a lot more multitasking capability at the CPU level, and doesn't require much on the graphics side. But I also know that for developers, they're not going to add a core game mechanic for a cross-platform release, unless both platforms have the basic capability to support it. It seems pretty straightforward to provide nicer graphics on one system than another, but I doubt we'll see major core advances in gameplay unless/until the target platforms all support it. For that reason, I hope the PS5 and Xbox Scarlet are both amazing.
  • What part of rumor do you not understand? This is all unconfirmed leaked information.
  • Until we receive official specifications from Microsoft or Sony, we treat all of these leaks as rumors.
  • My only question has to do with the last paragraph of this article... Was Destiny 1 really not well received? Destiny 1 had almost 25 million players by 2015.. I know some of the early reviews were average (like 6/10), but the game was pretty well received as far as my memory goes