Microsoft is moving on to bigger and better things. The American platform holder is hitting the market once again with not one, but two new video game consoles, each one of which is set to deliver augmented living room entertainment experience. This year will see the launch of Xbox One S, a slimline version of the current console that comes with added features, while next year, a whole new, more powerful system, currently codenamed “Scorpio,” will hit the shelves. However, the Scorpio is not for you if you don’t have a 4K display.

Xbox Scorpio "is for the Person Who's Got a 4K Television, Who's Really Focused on 4K Gaming," Says Phil Spencer

Set to deliver “true 4K gaming and high fidelity VR,” Microsoft claims the Xbox Scorpio will be “the most powerful console ever made” when it comes out in Holiday season next year. The upcoming new console will be a great leap ahead Xbox One in terms of specifications and hardware power. With 6 teraflops of computing power, a 8 core CPU, and more than 320GB of memory bandwidth, the Scorpio is aimed to “lead the industry into a future in which true 4K gaming and high-fidelity VR are the standard.”

However, since the basic purpose of Xbox Scorpio is to allow players to play games at 4K resolution on console, Microsoft suggests you only wait for the new console if you have or are planning to buy a 4K display. If not, you should buy an Xbox One S instead. After a Eurogamer writer told Xbox boss Phil Spencer during an interview that he had a 1080p TV, Spencer clarified that upgrading to Scorpio won’t do him any good, saying:

“You should buy [an Xbox One S], because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you. Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don't have a 4K TV, the benefit we've designed for, you're not going to see. Clearly, you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you. For us in the industry, it's easy to think that most power is always the thing that wins. If you look at last gen, what won? The Wii won. The Wii sold more than we did on Xbox 360 and the PS3, and it wasn't the most powerful console out there. Price is critically important. Wii was a good price and it had a great experience. Scorpio is for the person who's got a 4K television, who's really focused on 4K gaming. It's going to be a premium price over what we're selling this one for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that's what we designed it for.”

Spencer later clarified his comments, saying that dynamic resolution games will run better on Scorpio, and downsampled 4K games will "look different than the game running at 1080p," meaning that gamers with 1080p TVs would still get to experience an overall better performance. However, the point he made earlier is pretty clear: 4K is one of the main functions of Microsoft’s new hardware, and what good is a 4K console if your TV can’t run 4K. Still, all the focus on “4K TV” side of things is a little odd, since there is a VR side as well, which, apparently is an important part of the Scorpio.

What do you think about Phil Spencer’s comments on the Xbox Scorpio and 4K TVs? Why do you think Microsoft is not talking more about the VR side of its new console? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.