The Xbox console is not dead, far from it according to Microsoft, which promises wonders for the future generation, while mentioning the case of portable consoles.
Microsoft discussed many topics in the official Xbox podcast broadcast yesterday. After confirming that four games, still unknown (but not that many), will arrive on competing consoles, Sarah Bond spoke in particular about future devices coming from Xbox in the coming years.
A future super-powerful Xbox
The communication exercise is rehearsed from start to finish when Sarah Bond mentions the next generation of console. According to the president of Xbox, this should bring the greatest technical advancement, all hardware combined:
We’re focused on delivering the greatest technical advancement ever seen in a generation of hardware, improving the experience for players and for creators and the visions they build.
The announcement effect is obviously sought, but the details are obviously missing in this declaration. This serves above all to reassure the public, developers, but also investors that Xbox does not intend to abandon its devices to become a simple publisher of games like Sega.
We already know some of the manufacturer’s plans since the last leak emanating from its lawsuit with the FTC. Beyond its technical sheet, the next Xbox should unsurprisingly rely on AI and the cloud to offer new experiences in single-player and multiplayer, but also fully embrace the latest graphic developments in terms of ray tracing. This point, the PS5 and Xbox Series are still struggling to convince.
An Xbox portable console?
Phil Spencer is a fan of portable consoles and has raised the subject many times in interviews. Asked by the media The Verge about a possible machine of this type for Xbox, the president of Microsoft Gaming however kicked in by declaring that he had “nothing to announce» despite his attachment to the format.
The American media, however, cites a sentence from the Microsoft blog, since deleted, which seems to allude to more than one type of console. “We see a lot of opportunity in different types of devices and we will share details of our future hardware plans as soon as we are ready.»
But if there’s one area where Microsoft has fallen behind, it’s in adapting the Windows experience to these portable consoles. “One of the weak points of the experience on an ROG or the Lenovo Legion Go is Windows» according to Phil Spencer who assures that the teams are working to improve the use of the system on these screens with a much more restricted diagonal than on PC.