The Project Scorpio console is going to be insanely powerful, there’s no doubt about it. Microsoft’s newest venture will have capabilities far beyond that of the Xbox One and even its next-gen competitors. However, the technology required to make the console what it is comes with a hefty price tag.
Let’s break down the price of the Scorpio piece by piece based on what Microsoft has planned for it. For starters, the console will have a top of the line AMD processor- probably from the new Ryzen line if AMD’s Scorpio namedrop at CES 2017 is anything to go off of. One of these costs anywhere between $350-$450 ALONE, a price point considerably higher than a 500GB Xbox One.
In addition to the processor, the Project Scorpio console is also equipped with an incredibly powerful graphics card; according to Microsoft, it will have 6 teraflops of processing power and will be able to support games with 4k graphics AND stream in 4k AND record in 4k simultaneously.
It will have incredible VR capabilities as well. The graphics card needed for this heavy of a workload would cost around $400 as well. However, keep in mind, Microsoft will almost definitely get a huge discount for buying for mass production for all of its parts.
The two parts (literally just the processor and graphics card) we have a solid estimate on still cost upwards of $700 themselves- that doesn’t even include the storage, OS, casing, etc.
Experts estimate a gaming computer with specs identical to the Scorpio would cost approximately $2,000. Fear not, though, there’s no way the Scorpio will be that expensive. It’ll probably sit in the $700-$800 range, which still makes it the most expensive console in over 20 years.