A job listing on the Microsoft website seems to hint that Project Scorpio will require some form of emulation to run
Xbox One games.
Microsoft is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to work with the team that created the fabled
Xbox One
backward compatibility emulator, that allows us to play an expanding library of
Xbox 360 games on our consoles. Interestingly, the same job listing states that the team will be working on bringing "
Xbox One games to Project Scorpio," implying that
Project Scorpio won't run
Xbox One games natively.
From the
Microsoft Careers website (via
h0x0d):
"We are the
Xbox Compatibility team. Our mission is to bring the 360 game catalog to the
Xbox One, and
Xbox One catalog to Project Scorpio. We have a culture of collaboration and lean process with a straightforward and laid back style. We especially value transparency, competency and self-direction. We work in assembly as well as native and managed languages, in all layers of the platform. We eagerly work on some of the most difficult technical challenges in gaming, and love what we do."
Microsoft has
gone on the record multiple times to state that no gamer will be "left behind" with Project Scorpio. The company has indicated that not only will every game that is available on
Xbox One function on Project Scorpio, but also that games launching on Project Scorpio would have lower-end versions on
Xbox One as well, with the exception of VR titles.
The idea that Scorpio requires emulation to run
Xbox One games confuses the idea of games scaling natively between devices. The emulation layer could simply be for older games that aren't "updated" to the new system Microsoft has cooking for Project Scorpio, which
would allow games to scale up and down natively between devices.
If the emulation layer is simply for games that haven't been developed to take advantage of the scaling capabilities between the
Xbox One and Project Scorpio, it seems likely that Microsoft will bring the games to Scorpio on behalf of the developers, as seen with the
Xbox 360 emulator.
Still, the job listing could also hint to the architectural nature to Project Scorpio. If the new console requires some form of emulation to run
all Xbox One games, it could feature a wildly different hardware and software infrastructure than what is present in the current box.
This job listing raises more questions than answers, and it could be a
long time before we get explanations for these mysteries.