Update: In a new post on NeoGAF, Mahler said he should have picked his wording more carefully, and he didn’t mean to offend anybody:
This is the second time already that I took part in some discussion on GAF only to then see something I thought was a somewhat innocent comment (again, calling a platform half-assed definitely wasn’t the nicest way of putting things, I know. I’m not a native English speaker and sometimes my wording can come off as a bit rude) to blow up in my face after the press picked up on it. I’m just a dev who loves games and take part in these passionate discussions. Sorry if I offended anybody, wasn’t my intention!
Original Story: Earlier this week, Xbox Head Phil Spencer revealed that he had a great day with the Project Scorpio team, who is working on Microsoft’s mid-generation console upgrade. He added, “Played my first games on early Scorpio unit. Games played great, console looked right, proud of the team.”
As part of the NeoGAF thread focusing on Spencer’s tweet, someone asked if Scorpio is Microsoft’s PlayStation Pro, or if it’s the start of a new generation. In response, Moon Studios (Ori and the Blind Forest) CEO Thomas Mahler said Scorpio isn’t just a half-assed upgrade, which PS4 Pro “kinda is:”
All consoles now are x86 PCs and the architecture will remain the same, that’s why Sony was able to quickly iterate on the PS4 and make a beefier version of it.
Scorpio is a next-gen machine with the added benefit that all your old games will still be compatible. From this point on, similar to PCs, you’ll not lose your library when you buy a next-gen system. I guess since NeoGAF is confsued [sic], Microsoft will need to do a little work to make it clear to everyone that Scorpio isn’t just a half-assed upgrade (which the PS4 Pro kinda is…), but a full blown next-gen machine that’s just backwards-compatible to your current library.
Microsoft has yet to fully unveil Project Scorpio, but Eurogamer got their hands on some leaked specs and published them this week. Scorpio is expected to launch later this year.
[Source: NeoGAF, Phil Spencer, GameSpot, NeoGAF via GamingBolt]
