Microsoft has revealed new details for its next-generation games console, which goes under the name Project Scarlett.

It will be released next year, in time for Christmas 2020 and with the release of the next Halo game: Halo Infinite. And, while we don't yet know what it will look like, the company describes it as the biggest "leap than any generation before".

It will be four times more powerful than the Xbox One X - the beefiest games console on the planet today.

Specs are yet to be fully unveiled, but Microsoft has said that the machine will be capable of up to 8K visuals and 120fps frame rates.

The hardware will be supplied by AMD and it will feature on-board ray-tracing - something we've seen with high-end Nvidia graphics cards of late.

One of the other big hardware reveals is that Project Scarlett will come with GDDR6 RAM and SSD "drives" that can work as "virtual RAM" as well as storage.

In terms of game, apart from the fact that Halo: Infinite will be a launch title, we do know that Scarlett will be compatible with Xbox Game Pass.

Much of the hardware sounds similar to the spec being talked about for PlayStation 5. But, with Xbox using its E3 2019 press conference as a teaser platform and with Sony not attending the show this year, Phil Spencer and his team have definitely fired the first salvo in the forthcoming next-gen war.

Bring it on.