Microsoft says next Xbox will ‘deliver largest technical leap seen in a hardware generation’

As part of a ‘business update’ confirming four first-party Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation 5 and Switch, Microsoft has moved to assuage fan fears it might be considering abandoning the console market, saying it’s planning a new Xbox that will deliver “the largest technical leap…ever seen in a hardware generation.”

That’s according to Xbox president Sarah Bond, who was speaking on an “Updates on the Xbox Business” edition of the Official Xbox Podcast, alongside Microsoft Gaming boss Phill Spencer and head of Xbox game studios Matt Booty.

According to Bond, Microsoft has hardware plans for Xbox in both the short and longer term. Starting this “holiday”, for instance, Microsoft will share “some exciting stuff coming out in hardware”. An official Xbox tweet accompanying today’s podcast expanded on Bond’s comments, saying Microsoft currently has a “robust and innovative multi-year hardware roadmap” that’ll include “more console and controller options…this holiday.

Bond also confirmed that, in the longer term, work on the “next-generation” of Xbox hardware is afoot too. “We’re also invested in the next-generation road map,” she explained, before ending with the bold claim that, “What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap that you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.”

Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer also underlined the company’s ongoing commitment to Xbox hardware in a conversation with The Verge. “I’m very proud of the work that the hardware team is doing, not only for this year, but also into the future,” he told the publication, adding, “[We’re] really thinking about creating hardware that sells to gamers because of the unique aspects of the hardware. It’s kind of an unleashing of the creative capability of our hardware team that I’m really excited about.”

As to what Microsoft might have brewing as part of its “robust and innovative” hardware roadmap, leaks last year pointed to a discless Xbox Series X revision and a new controller with a swappable battery, both releasing in 2024. The same leak also revealed Microsoft was targetting a 2028 launch for its “next-generation” console – but Spencer, addressing the leak in a staff memo at the time, insisted the information was “old” and that “so much has changed”.