Here's what a Project Scorpio development kit looks like

Gamasutra got an exclusive peek at the Project Scorpio development kit and it looks a lot like an Xbox One S. While this is definitely not the final design as the placement of the fan and Blu-ray drive don’t add up, it’s the internal specifications that matter. The outlet revealed that the development kit is substantially more powerful than the retail Project Scorpio. Firstly, the kit features 44 CUs clocked at 1.172 GHz, bringing the power output to just over 6.6 TFLOPS. Apart from that substantial change, the console features 24 GB of GDDR5 memory and a 1 TB solid state drive alongside a 1 TB traditional hard drive.

Many gamers will probably want a development kit now that they know its specifications! The kit may just be the most powerful one ever sent to developers. Hopefully this will help creators realize the vision for their games because they have ample power to do so.

In a recent interview, AMD’s Corporate Vice President revealed that Project Scorpio would support virtual reality devices in partnership with AMD. While it’s unclear if this means that the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift will both work on the console, it’s great to see Microsoft collaborating with them to make sure developers and gamers have the best programming environment.

Project Scorpio is everything that Xbox One owners wanted in an upgraded console. Not only does it offer stupendous amounts of power for the best visuals and frame rates, but it’s going to make complex virtual reality games possible for console owners—a task PlayStation VR failed to accomplish due to its technical shortcomings. The wait for E3 2017 got even harder because that’s when we’ll see proper gameplay and be given the final name and price point. June can’t get here sooner!