Should you buy new Xbox when even more powerful Project Scorpio is due in 2017?

Microsoft has released an updated Xbox One that’s slimmer and more powerful, but some gamers have their eyes fixed on next year’s release. So which should you buy?

Reading Time:4 minutes

The new and improved Xbox One S is the most powerful Microsoft console … until next year. Photo: EPA

Published: 8:01pm, 31 Aug 2016Updated: 5:38pm, 2 Sep 2016

Earlier in August, Microsoft launched the Xbox One S: a leaner, meaner update of 2013’s original Xbox One console that packs a little extra juice into a 40 per cent smaller shell.

It's a huge improvement over the original Xbox One in just about every way. Normally, I’d say you should buy it without reservation. But back at this year’s E3 video game conference, Microsoft made the extremely atypical move of pre-announcing a new, mysterious Xbox console, codenamed “Project Scorpio”, to be launched in 2017.

Video-game console cycle is history as developers face rapid technological change

Project Scorpio is promised to be “the most powerful console ever”, bringing a lot more graphical horsepower to the table. We don’t know what it looks like, what it will cost, or which games are coming to it, but we do know that it’ll deliver ultra-high-definition gaming in full 4K resolution, among other graphical feats.

That leaves people considering getting an Xbox with a difficult choice: buy an Xbox now, and risk being left in the cold when Project Scorpio comes out next year; or wait for more details on Project Scorpio but miss out, in the interim, on upcoming Xbox-exclusive games like Gears of War 4 and Scalebound?

Here’s what you need to know when choosing between buying an Xbox One S now versus Project Scorpio later.

Xbox head Phil Spencer announces the new Xbox console in June in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP

Don’t sweat it too much

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

Should you buy new Xbox when even more powerful Project Scorpio is due in 2017?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Microsoft has released an updated Xbox One that’s slimmer and more powerful, but some gamers have their eyes fixed on next year’s release. So which should you buy?

Video-game console cycle is history as developers face rapid technological change

Microsoft has released an updated Xbox One that’s slimmer and more powerful, but some gamers have their eyes fixed on next year’s release. So which should you buy?