Next gen Xbox ‘fully approved’ by Microsoft says source but what is it?

What does a next gen Xbox mean? (Microsoft) As sales of the Xbox Series X/S continue to plummet, an insider claims that Microsoft has already settled on its plans for making a next gen replacement. If Xbox was not owned by a $3 trillion dollar company like Microsoft, it seems fair to assume that by this point they would’ve given up being part of the games industry. Sales of the Xbox Series X/S have endured another terrible Christmas, with the format selling even less than the already disappointing Xbox One. And yet everything that Microsoft has said, and insiders have hinted at, suggests they’re making another console anyway. It was announced this time last year, with the promise that it would bring the ‘largest technical leap’ ever seen in a generation. There’s still no indication of what that means, but according to one source the concept behind the console has ‘moved past its early pitch stages’ and has now been ‘fully approved’ by Microsoft execs. When will the next gen Xbox be released? The information comes form Windows Central’s Jez Corden, although he speculates that an official reveal won’t be ‘any time soon.’ There are many questions surrounding even the concept of a next gen Xbox, the most obvious being why is Microsoft making one given the failure of their last two and, more importantly, their current multiformat publishing policy. If the next gen Xbox is successful will they suddenly stop releasing games on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2? If they don’t then want incentive would there be for anyone to buy a new Xbox? Presumably, the the ‘technological leap’ is meant to help with that but what could it be (something AI related seems the best guess) and if it means only the new Xbox can run its first party games then what does that mean for multiformat releases? It’s all very confusing and none of the rumours so far address any of these points. But while Microsoft has often seemed uncertain about its own future, as it constantly changes policy with regards to multiformat games, the Windows Central report claims they have settled on a plan for the hardware itself. Microsoft has been hinting about a portable Xbox for a long while now (Valve/Microsoft/Metro) What is the Xbox portable console? To add to the confusion, there’s also Microsoft’s persistent talk about making a portable Xbox in the vein of Steam Deck et al. They’ve never made it clear whether this is their next gen console, whether it’s just one of many different models, or if it’s simply a portable Xbox Series S. The latter did seem the most logical assumption, except Microsoft recently said the portable is a ‘few years out’, which in turn implies it’s not based on current gen technology. It’s almost impossible to guess what Xbox is planning and while initial rumours suggested they were intending to release the console as soon as possible, perhaps even as early as next year, most subsequent rumours have implied it’s a lot further off than that. What Microsoft is going to do in the meantime, given how little they promoted the Xbox Series X/S over Christmas and how far it is likely to fall this year, is a mystery but the one relief for fans is that this latest rumour implies they do have a clear plan and are executing on it. If Xbox is multiformat why does it need a new console? (Xbox Game Studios) Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.