The holiday season in 2020 is going to be a fantastic time for gamers, seeing as it will include the launch of the hotly anticipated PlayStation 5 as well as the fruits of Microsoft’s Project Scarlett effort that will bring an Xbox to market which is just as powerful as the PS5. Except, well, Project Scarlett will also encompass more than that — reportedly, Microsoft will also launch a cheaper, disc-free, and less-powerful Xbox alternative to the high-end, next-gen version we already knew we were getting around this time next year.
Sources have confirmed to multiple outlets, including Kotaku and The Verge, that this second Xbox is codenamed “Lockhart” and also part of the release plan for next year.
What that means is that there will be two 2020 Xboxes (with the higher-end, Scarlett model codenamed “Anaconda”) that will be successors to both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
“Lockhart” will be less powerful than the “Anaconda” console and also launch without a disc drive, a la the Xbox One All-Digital Edition. Per The Verge, Microsoft still isn’t finished nailing down key details associated with this new Xbox — though it sounds like “Lockhart” is in line for a holiday 2020 release.
This complements what we already know about the higher-end 2020 Xbox, which will go toe-to-toe with the PS5 in terms of specs — with both consoles utilizing custom AMD silicon based on Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA architectures. Xbox Scarlett “Anaconda” will also support 8K gaming, up to 120fps, ray tracing, and variable refresh rates. Regarding “Lockhart,” meanwhile, Kotaku is reporting that it will include a solid-state drive and be geared toward 1440p gaming, while both it and the higher-end Xbox will share a variety of next-gen hardware specs.
