Xbox Boss Talks Project Scorpio Price, Suggests It May Not be Above $600

One of the big questions surrounding Microsoft's Project Scorpio console is how much it will cost and how it will compare to Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro. Microsoft is not yet ready to talk specifics, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in a new interview with NZ Gamer (via WinBeta) that the console is a "premium product," so you can expect it will not be cheap.

He also teased that Project Scorpio will not carry a price tag that's unheard of in the console gaming world. This may suggest that the system won't be more than $600, which was at the high end of what the PlayStation 3 cost when it came out in 2007. That was thought to be the most expensive mainstream console price ever.

"When we designed both of these (Xbox One S and Project Scorpio)...we kind of designed it in parallel," Spencer explained. "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. 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."

He added: "So I think you will feel like it's a premium product, a premium console. And not something, anything more than that. So I wouldn't get people worried that this thing is going to be unlike any console price you've ever seen. We didn't design it that way. That said, the opening price point for the Xbox One S, and the different hard drive sizes that is a critical part of this whole product. When I think about it as a product line, you should expect the pricing to kind of be in line with that."

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg used the same description--"premium product"--when asked about Project Scorpio's price in an interview earlier this year. The system is labeled by Microsoft as the "most powerful console ever made."

Sony's PS4 Pro, which comes out in November, will cost $400. The newest available Xbox console, the Xbox One S, starts at $300 for a 500 GB bundle. Prices go up from there with larger hard drive sizes and pack-in games.

Microsoft's Albert Penello recently spoke out to say the PS4 Pro is not powerful enough to support true 4K. The performance gap between the Scorpio and PS4 Pro will be "obvious," he added.

This story has been updated and corrected.