Three big Xbox exclusives are in-bound after a relatively tepid year – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 next week and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December. While console sales have been dropping over the past year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that there will be future hardware.
When Rolling Stone asked whether the company would stop producing consoles given its focus on streaming and “anywhere devices,” Spencer said, “We’ll definitely do more consoles in the future, and other devices.”
The latter could include an Xbox handheld, which Spencer alluded to “multiple times” in the conversation (and also discussed with Bloomberg recently, though it’s still a ways off). However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a mid-gen console refresh for the Xbox Series X/S similar to Sony’s recently launched PS5 Pro.
“We think about hardware that can create unique value for our players or creators on our platform. We don’t need to do incremental hardware for our own benefit,” said Spencer.
“Does a new device really give you a unique experience on screen in some way? [It’s] less like the old days, going from the original Xbox to 360; that was standard definition to high definition. Now, [it’s] harder to show the benefits.”
It’s not like Microsoft hasn’t considered it, as indicated in leaked court documents during its trial with the US Federal Trade Commission. An all-digital Series X codenamed Brooklin was reportedly planned, targeting 4K and featuring a cylindrical design due to the 6 nm die shrink. Head here for more details.
Whether these will come to fruition or not remains to be seen, but Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed that the company’s next-gen console will offer “the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.”