Microsoft's Project Scarlett Is Only One Console - For Now At Least

Microsoft has pulled the veil back on its next console ever so slightly, which means there's a lot we still don't know. The company has only talked about Project Scarlett in broad strokes at this point, leaving many questions unanswered. One of those questions is whether or not the Project Scarlett name refers to a single machine or multiple ones.

It's a fair question, considering that Microsoft is currently offering different three different Xbox Ones: the standard Xbox One S, the more powerful Xbox One X, and the entry-level Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Last year at E3 2018, Xbox Chief Phil Spencer said that the team responsible for the Xbox One X was "deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles."

In the lead up to Microsoft's E3 2019 reveal, there were even a number of reports that claimed the company was gearing up to launch more than one next-generation console. In the end, you'd be forgiven if you thought Project Scarlett would be comprised of multiple machines.

As it turns out, it isn't – at least not for now. In an interview with Business Insider, Spencer clarified that the consoles he was referring to at E3 in 2018 were the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, which was revealed in April, and Project Scarlett, suggesting that there will only be one new Xbox on shelves when Project Scarlett launches next year.

"Last year we said consoles, and we've shipped a console and we've now detailed another console. I think that's plural," he said. It may be a bit of a technicality, but if there's one takeaway from this interview, it's that Project Scarlett will launch as a single console instead of a family of consoles.

It might not stay that way for long after launch, though – this generation we saw both Sony and Microsoft launch mid-cycle updates, and it stands to reason that we'll the same thing in the next generation. We'll see how it all shakes out soon enough, so stay tuned.