Xbox has been causing some drama in the gaming world lately, thanks to the recent GamePass price hikes, rumours of a next gen Xbox cancellation which were eventually put to bed, and (fortunately false) reports that Xbox consoles were being removed from Walmart and Target shelves.
Today, in an interview with Mashable, Xbox president and chief executive officer Sarah Bond was asked if they could say anything about the next gen hardware, or comment on the recent rumours that the next gen Xbox was going to be some of kind of middle ground between a PC and a console.
Sarah stated, “Well, I can tell you you’re right, that the next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end, curated experience.” Then referring to the ROG Xbox Ally X you can see between the interviewer and Sarah in the video below, she went on to say, “You’re starting to see some of the thinking that we have in this handheld, but I don’t want to give it all away.”
Now obviously Sarah was playing her cards very close to her chest there, but I am a little concerned by the term “premium, very high end” which does lead me to believe that we could see the next gen Xbox be quite a bit more expensive than this current gen. Of course, this is pure speculation but her comment at least gives the impression that the Xbox Next will be more “cutting edge” with it’s hardware specs which of course would mean an MSRP to match. Naturally we will have to wait and see.
But her comments regarding the ROG Xbox Ally X are also very interesting, as we could see the next generation of Xbox hardware have a true handheld device that could perhaps be a bit more like a Steam Deck – with the ability to access PC games across different storefronts and bringing in a more more console like experience of couch gaming to your PC games. This would actually be quite interesting, and I would be curious to see what effect Microsoft bringing their A game to this market could have. Obviously this is all speculation, and if the current rumours are true then we will see the Xbox Next take the stage sometime in 2027.
I definitely think Microsoft needs to bring their A game next gen, and do something truly exciting and innovative with it, as well as earning back the trust they seem to have lost in the gaming community.
