Microsoft’s Xbox Project Scarlett will be released sometime around the 2020 holiday season. But there is at least one Project Scarlett console already in a living room somewhere in Washington state.

That would be the living room of Phil Spencer — the Xbox master chief, who says that he is using the next generation machine as his “primary console.” That means that he is playing all his games there — both new betas (if any) and old titles — and “connecting to the community.”

This is quite significant because, while obviously Spencer’s Xbox Project Scarlett is not the final product, it means that Microsoft has reached a milestone in the game console's development. If it is ready to be a fully playable primary console, one that even connect to the Xbox’s cloud services, it means that it's getting closer to being consumer ready, even if that consumer is the guy in charge of development.

Get the best Xbox Series X deals before anyone else! We'll send you pre-order details and the best Xbox Series X deals as soon as they're available. Remind Me Send me details about other relevant products from Toms Guide and other Future brands. Send me details about other relevant products from third parties. No spam, we promise. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details without your permission.

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.December 4, 2019

In the tweet announcing this milestone, Spencer also says that he has been using his Elite Series 2 controller to play. Again a sign that things are quite solid and perhaps only pending the usual cycle of hardware optimization that happens under beta testing.

Project Lockhart: Project Scarlett‘s little sibling

The other bit of interesting information about the Xbox comes from video game blog Kotaku, which reveals that Microsoft is not only working on Project Scarlett but on another console called Project Lockhart.

If the blog’s sources are right, Project Lockhart will be the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition’s heir. A compact console with no disc, Project Lockhart will apparently come with a internal solid-state drive and CPU powerful enough to play the next generation games made for Project Scarlett.