The Xbox Series X is here. It may not be on shelves, but Microsoft has officially unveiled its gaming console to the world. First, a brief teaser was shown at last year's Game Awards, and now Microsoft has revealed the specs, features, and launch plans for the console at a time when no one even knows what the PS5 looks like.

Dubbed the company's "fastest, most powerful gaming console ever," the surprise announcement came via a blog post by Xbox head Phil Spencer. Let's get right to the details about Microsoft's next-generation game console.

The console has been confirmed to feature custom processors based on AMD's new Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture. This new processor will allow developers to use a 12 teraflops GPU, twice as much as the Xbox One X.

We already knew about DirectX ray tracing, which provides a more immersive environment than ever before, and variable rate shading (VRS) prioritizes what the console renders, including important objects in the game environment that players can interact with It is a new technology that improves the efficiency of the Xbox Series X by prioritizing.

Solid state drives, similar to those said to be in the PS5, will improve "nearly every aspect of game play" by increasing the size of game worlds and minimizing load times. A new "Quick Resume" feature allows users to continue multiple games almost instantly from an interrupted state, eliminating the need to quit one game and launch another. Neat.

The console will support a frame rate of 120 fps, which is twice the frame rate at which current console games typically run, ensuring silky smooth motion on the screen. However, according to the developers of Gran Turismo, the PS5 will reportedly run games at up to 240 fps, which means that Sony may be losing out to Microsoft's offering.

One of the rumors of a next-generation console appears to have become a reality: the Xbox Series X will support "four generations of games," citing existing backward compatible Xbox One, 360, and original Xbox games. Xbox One gaming accessories, such as the Elite Series 2 controller, will also work with the Series X.

Paired with this is a new technology called "Smart Delivery," which, according to Spencer, will allow users to "purchase a game once and get the correct version of that game no matter which Xbox they are playing on, whether Xbox One or Xbox Series X."

This sounds particularly exciting, and is evidence that Xbox is trying to encourage player retention by making a smart, cost-effective decision not to buy a game on disc and then buy it again later via digital download. Xbox says that this technology will be available to all developers and publishers, but does not say how this technology will actually work.

With news that games like "Halo: Infinite" will be available on Xbox's Game Pass subscription game delivery service from launch, streaming games will likely be a big part of the Xbox Series X strategy. While the full lineup of Series X launch titles is not yet known, nor have we seen gameplay on the console in person, this major detail down is consistent with many previous rumors and leaks.

This blog post is a surprise backhanded move to Sony, which has revealed little about the PS5's performance to date. Microsoft now appears to be further ahead of the competition, with Spencer stating that they "look forward to boldly sharing more as we head into E3," suggesting that more announcements are on the way.

Will this latest coup spur a PS5 announcement? Not likely: Sony's plans are undoubtedly already in place and will not be altered by Microsoft's blog post. Nevertheless, we can't wait to finally experience the next generation of games on both major consoles. It has been a long wait, but Holiday 2020 is no longer far away. ......

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