Microsoft is holding a special gameplay reveal event, showcasing the capabilities of its upcoming Xbox Series X next week. The Inside Xbox premiere will live stream from Thurs 7th May at 8am PT / 4pm UK time. Several global development partners will showcase gameplay on the next gen console, and it was good to see Ubisoft Nordic come straight out to flag that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay will be seen during the event.
We have known about the Xbox Series X console hardware and new controller in some detail since mid-March. The specs seem impressive, and are evidence of a slightly different approach to hardware compared to the Sony PlayStation 5, but it is always good to see how games perform on these new consoles. As a reminder, the Xbox Series X console offers up the following key hardware:
- CPU: 8x Cores @ 3.8GHz (3.6GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
- GPU: 12TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU
- Die Size: 360.45mm2
- Process: 7nm Enhanced
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6 with 320-bit bus
- Memory Bandwidth: 10GB @ 560GB/s, 6GB @ 336GB/s
- Internal Storage: 1TB Custom NVMe SSD
- I/O Throughput: 2.4GB/s (Raw), 4.8GB/s (Compressed, with custom hardware decompression block)
- Expandable Storage: 1TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)
- External Storage: USB 3.2 External HDD Support
- Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
- Performance Target: 4K @ 60FPS, Up to 120FPS
Will the next gen console be all about improved graphics, or will there be some greater vision? Hopefully the answer to that question might start to become apparent next Thursday. However, Microsoft Xbox Game Studios titles, which are more likely to ladle on the special sauce, will be showcased sometime later - this summer.
While Microsoft has only flagged up live gameplay demos as the main feature of this Inside Xbox event, it would be great to get some more info like indicative console pricing, and perhaps a tease or reveal of the rumoured (more accessibly priced, lower performance) Xbox Series S.
