Project Scorpio: First details of next Xbox surface

If video game consoles were cars, Microsoft's Xbox division just revealed its Ferrari.

The tech giant revealed the first details of Project Scorpio — a high-end model of its Xbox One video game console launching during the Christmas holiday season — in a report published Thursday to games website Eurogamer.

Eurogamer says they traveled to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to get a first look at Scorpio as well as talk to the console's top creators.

According to tech specs revealed in the report, Scorpio will boast an improved processors (31% faster than Xbox One), and more memory compared to its chief rival, Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, launched last holiday. Scorpio will also support 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, and runs its own custom-built graphics processing unit.

So what does that mean for the games you play? Eurogamer reports the performance of Scorpio is "remarkable." Among the examples of how powerful Scorpio runs was a demo of the Xbox racing series Forza Motorsport.

"It hit 60 frames per second with a substantial performance overhead — suggesting Scorpio will hit its native 4K target across a range of content, with power to spare to spend on other visual improvements," reads an excerpt from the Eurogamer report.

The report also notes Microsoft promises games running on 900p or 1080p resolutions will work in native 4K when played on Scorpio.

Microsoft has yet to reveal how much Scorpio will cost. In an interview with a New Zealand based gaming site last fall, Xbox head Phil Spencer seemed to dismiss concerns Scorpio will carry a significantly larger price compared to the Xbox One S, available since last year and starting at $249.

"We thought about the price performance of what we wanted to hit with the Scorpio, relative to what we were going to be able to do with the S," he said during the interview with NZGamer.com. "So that we would have a good price continuum, so people wouldn’t look at these two things as so disconnected because of the price delta."

Scorpio was revealed last year during the Electronic Entertainment Expo hosted in Los Angeles. Touted by Spencer as "the most powerful console ever built," Scorpio will run native 4K content and support virtual reality headsets, putting it on par with Sony's PS4 Pro, which sells for $400.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.