As the E3 2017 game show draws closer, fans have begun to speculate some of the features of Microsoft's Project Scorpio. Gamers are expecting the company to unveil the new flagship console before their E3 press conference. Very little information about the new game system has been leaked so far, and it appears that several speculations have also been shared. One of the more popular rumors that persist claim that the Scorpio will be upgradable, but it appears Phil Spencer, Xbox executive, puts those rumors to rest.
Reports say that Phil Spencer has communicated with a fan through Twitter to confirm that the Project Scorpio will be a non-modular gaming system. The fan apparently asked if it is "silly to try upgradable components for consoles." However, Spencer confirmed that the idea "seems like a stretch" for him, says Game Rant. His confirmation finally kills the speculations that the new console might allow gamers to upgrade its components.
@HOLYFRIEDMONKEY The idea that users will open up a console and change compute components inside seems like a stretch to me.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 2, 2017
Several analysts reportedly find the non-modular feature of the Project Scorpio already set in stone, even though speculations continue to claim otherwise. However, it has been suspected that Microsoft might start to follow the well-established smartphone business model, where manufacturers regularly release new models in a short period compared to every few years. Other reports also claimed that Spencer considers the idea of an appliance that features a plug-and-play concept quite special.
Tweak Town has detailed some of the confirmed specifications for the Project Scorpio. These include 6 TFLOPS of performance power, a 320GB per second memory bandwidth and will supposedly rely on an octa-core chipset. The confirmation that Microsoft's new flagship console will not be upgradable obviously makes sense from a business standpoint. The company would not want to compete with its Windows PC market, as observed by analysts.
Lastly, it appears that Microsoft has completely decided that the Project Scorpio will be a plug-and-play only game system. However, some fans suspect that the only modular aspect of the new console will be its HDD, which was easily replaced back then on the Xbox 360.
