Microsoft's next Xbox is called Xbox Series X, arriving in 2020 to take on PS5

It's official, Microsoft's next Xbox console is called the Xbox Series X. While it isn't clear how many next-generation Xbox consoles Microsoft is looking to kickstart things with when the 'series' drops coming holiday 2020, we now know what the next Xbox will look like. For starters, it will look nothing like any other Xbox in the past. Or for that matter, any other console out there.

Microsoft made the reveal at the Game Awards and while finer details - with regards to both design and hardware - still remain a mystery, we now know that the next Xbox console will look a lot like a tower PC, quite literally, and it will "deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way.”

At E3 2019, Microsoft had revealed that its next Xbox console will be powered by a custom-built AMD Zen 2 processor and Radeon RDNA architecture paired with GDDR6 RAM and solid-state drive (SSD) storage – the combination will entail in a 40x performance boost in storage speed over existing consoles, according to Microsoft. “Thousands of games across four console generations will look and play best on Project Scarlett,” Microsoft had also said, hinting that the console will theoretically be compatible with existing backward compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 games, and Xbox One titles, a strategy that the company has employed to open its past games for next-generation consoles to overcome the dearth of exclusive titles. 

The Xbox Series X will also support -  

• 8K gaming 
• 120fps gaming 
• Ray-tracing 
• Variable refresh rate

No more technical details have been shared since, and at the Game Awards, but in an interview with Gamespot, Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer said, "we wanted to have a dramatic upgrade from the Xbox One base console. So when we do the math, we’re over eight times the GPU power of the Xbox One, and two times what an Xbox One X is.” A quick background check will indicate Microsoft's next high-end Xbox could be capable of 12 teraflops of GPU performance since the Xbox One X is capable of 6 teraflops. 

Microsoft has been rumored to be working on two Xbox consoles under the codename Project Scarlett – a high-end Xbox One X successor and an Xbox One S successor with hardware comparable or even slightly more powerful to the existing Xbox One X. Turns out, Project Scarlett will be officially called Xbox Series X. Microsoft's 'name' reveal may have come days after Sony confirmed its next console will be called the PlayStation 5, but Redmond has really stepped up by showing an 'actual' Xbox Series X console first. Considering how both the Xbox Series X and the PS5 are expected to have 'almost' the same specs, design will surely act as a big differentiating factor between the two rival consoles.