Project Scarlett

A little while back, when talk began circulating about Microsofts next generation Xbox, dubbed Project Scarlett, there was going to be two different SKU’s. One would be your standard console, that we have all come to know and the second one would be without an optical drive. In theory this would appeal to more consumers as we have seen earnings reports from publicly traded companies, digital game purchasing is increasing every year. Offering a disc less Xbox would allow Microsoft to manufacture the system for less money therefore offering a cheaper alternative. There was a story on Kotaku this week from Jason Schreier, who according to his sources say that the forgotten disc less drive, codenamed Lockhart, is still on track and will be released next holiday alongside Project Scarletts stronger console Anaconda.

Microsoft has learned many things this generation that they will hopefully trying to emulate from the start of the race rather than trying to play catch up. One key thing is that having multiple options based on price and power seems like a good idea. For people that wanted the best gaming console money could offer they could choose to purchase the Xbox One X. Many people initially suggested that the price point was too high for the X when it launched mid cycle, but Microsoft has stuck behind it and spoken publicly that they have been very happy with its success.

This formula can be applied to a lot of things Microsoft does. For example, they have a basic Xbox One wireless controller, which you can normally purchase for around 50 bucks or they also introduced the elite controller this generation with button mapping, paddle controls, adjustable thumb stickss, and an overall much sturdier build but all at a much more premium price. This controller one again defied expectations that it wouldn’t sell greatly due to its high price point but Microsoft learned that if you have a high quality, premium featured product that is built in house in addition to a standard offering people will make their own choice and many decided to buy the elite. Once again, clearly a success due to the fact that Microsoft released the elite series 2 controllers just recently. The forward thinking from the Xbox team is on full display as any elite or elite series two controllers will be compatible Project Scarlett. This is a very pro consumer move that drives good will for the brand.

The way that this parallels the most recent story about Project Scarlett is that having a stronger, more premium rich, expensive console in the lineup is a great idea and will allow customers who want the best console experience to purchase the Anaconda.

According to an article on The Verge, sources say Anaconda is “targeting more than 10 teraflops of graphical power. Plans for the Lockhart may change, but currently this console will debut with around 4 teraflops” As you can see there is a pretty great divide between the two next gen consoles from Xbox. To put the flops in perspective, Xbox One X has 6 teraflops of graphical processing power, while the Sony counterpart PS4 Pro has just a little over 4. Which means that what Microsoft plans to offer next holiday will be a gaming console that is almost twice as powerful as the Xbox One X alongside a machine that has no disc and is as powerful as the PS4 Pro. If I had to guess what the price points would be for the systems I would say the Anaconda will most likely be in line with where the Xbox One X launched at $499 and may even go up to $599. I would expect the less powerful console, the Lockhart to be $299-$399.

Just a few weeks ago on The Verge Phil said “I would say a learning from the Xbox One generation is we will not be of position on power and price” I think a few weeks ago this statement feels much different compared to how it can be interpreted today. Xbox One launched more expensive and less powerful than its counterpart, the PlayStation 4. Two weeks ago this statement sounds like the next Xbox and the PS5 will be similar in power and similar in price. However, with this new report on the specs of the two SKU’s, it could mean that they are going to have the stronger Anaconda that won’t be beat on power and they will have the Lockhart that will be less feature rich but won’t be beat on price. Maybe they don’t need to play a game of cat and mouse with Sony this generation and try to compete on the exact price point with the PS5. Giving consumers the choice to purchase a more powerful or less expensive Xbox could be the perfect way to compete with Sony after all.

In a related note, even though we are still probably just under a year away from the next Xbox, Phil Spencer himself tweeted out that he already has Project Scarlett. “And it’s started….this week I brought my Project Scarlett console home and it's become my primary console, playing my games, connecting to the community and yes, using my Elite Series 2 controller, having a blast. Great work by the team, 2020 is going to be an incredible year” Stories like this are always exciting when leading up to a new console launch.

Resident Evil

It’s no secret that Capcom has been on a very hot streak recently with games like Monster Hunter World, Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 7 and most recently Resident Evil 2 Remake. The creation of the RE engine, which is gorgeous, along with the critical and commercial success of the last two Resident Evil releases which went on to sell 6.8 million and 4.7 million, it became clear that Capcom was back in the RE business. The main question was would the next game be RE8 or after the success of the RE2 remake would they go into their back catalog and give the same treatment to RE3: Nemesis and then there was also the very small, long shot that they would remake Dino Crisis.

A few months ago we got some information that Capcom was working on the 4v1, asymmetrical game set in the RE universe called Project Resistance. This game seemed like an idea that came from one of the other games initially but grew to something much bigger. Although, I still think it won’t be a full priced game upon its release. It was also somewhat obvious that this was in addition to whatever else the team at Capcom was working on in the RE universe. This week there were some leaks found on the PlayStation Store which point to the next release being a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which looks to be in the same vein as the RE2 remake.

I saw this story on IGN from Matt Kim who reported on the users who saw the artwork and leaked images. Not to get too hopeful but Capcom and more specifically their Resident Evil releases have been very early in the year. Possibly being overly hopeful but with Resident Evil 7 being released on January 24, 2017 and the Resident Evil 2 remake being released on January 11, 2019, there is a decent chance that if the speculation is true regarding the RE3 remake it will be released in January of 2020. I wouldn’t think they would want to wait until the following January as by that time the next generation consoles will be out and it will be harder to stand out from the crowd with all the new games and new tech.

Don’t expect to see Resident Evil 3 be revealed at The Game Awards this Thursday as Geoff Keighly cleared the air on reddit by saying that there were never any intentions for that game to be at the show. Although he did generate some new information that we would be seeing “10 new games/projects being revealed if you want to count the things that no one has heard about yet.” The assumption is that this number is an addition to new looks at games that we already know about.  

State of Play 

One area that the new Resident Evil 3: Nemesis remake has a great chance of showing up is at this weeks State of Play happening on December 10th I think there is a good chance of this happening for a few reasons. The first reason is that the RE3 leak was from the PlayStation store and PlayStation will always feel like home to Resident Evil since the series first appeared on the Sony platform exclusively in 1996. The PlayStation store clearly wants to be in sync with the PlayStation Blog and State of Play and with last weeks leak happening briefly on Tuesday all signs point to yes. State of Play is happening on Tuesday which leads me to believe that someone put the wrong Tuesday in their calendar for when to put the RE3 remake on the store. 

Sid Shuman announced on the PlayStation Blog this week that with the year almost over we would be getting one final State of Play for the Decade. 

“We’ve got around 20 minutes of new game reveals, release date announcements, new gameplay footage, PlayStation Worldwide Studios updates, and more. And it probably bears repeating: Don’t expect any updates related to our next-gen plans in this episode”

One thing I would expect is to get news regarding the RE3 remake especially considering there isn’t much time before January to make announcements as it’s clear that Capcom has seen success with that release window. The RE3 remake is also a title that doesn’t necessarily need a huge marketing campaign as people already know the game, the series and level of quality that the RE2 remake was must have spread good word of mouth. 

As for what else we might see at the State of Play, I think this event may surprise some people. Any news and announcements from this show will be working in place of advertising for reasons why you should buy a PS4 this holiday season and what you have to look forward to in 2020 before the PS5. Even though, Naughty Dog flaked on the release date they gave for Last of Us 2 at the last show merely days after its announcement, the notion that aruguably the biggest AAA still coming to PS4 was featured heavily during the State of Play.  This provides precedent that we might see some huge title updates possibly including Ghosts of Tsushima as that is likely the last PS4 exclusive, blockbuster title. Between The Game Awards announcements and a State of Play, this week will be an early Christmas present to gamers.