Microsoft Is Targeting 2028 For A 'Hybrid' Next Generation Xbox Console

Cloud gaming is so good when it works, and it mostly does. Definitely happy to see it become a bigger part of Xbox, especially when they'll have had more time to get everything working as best as it can.

To be honest. Xbox should just be fully open moving forward.

“Yes, this is our strategy. You are all welcome on this journey with us. We are not afraid of our competitors knowing what we are doing. We want our customers to be prepared for the best future with Xbox.”

That kind of take.

Does this suck? Yep.

Does it give Sony/Nintendo an advantage? Hugely!

But they opened themselves up to this mess through acquisitions that resulted in lawsuits. They have made bold/controversial moves that have shifted the gaming landscape. So now they need to suck it up and make the best of it.

So poor internet speeds, poor next gen graphics?

Cloud gaming simply doesn't work for any game that relies on reaction times. I don't know why they keep pushing for this.

Returning to the power of the cloud. We'll see if it works any better this time around.

MS already said during the X1 era that they'd "use the cloud" to increase the console's power, so this isn't 100% shocking.

2028 seems about right for the next gen consoles. Most generations last 8 years.

I expect a lot of the above to change between now and then but anyone surprised Microsoft pushing an all digital future has not been paying attention to Gamepass and their strategy for the past few years.

So no Internet no gaming? Doesn't sound good to me, cheaper for MS though as they will just need to update its cloud hardware.

Can't Xbox sue FTC for this mess?

If the FTC are behind the leaks, @OrfeasDourvas, or at the very least not keeping the information secure, and Microsoft can show that their business has been harmed as a result of the leaks, then you would certainly think that Microsoft could sue. Problem is of course, that you want the FTC on side in the event of needing them in the future (like any further acquisitions, etc.)...

@OrfeasDourvas arguably yes, but if these documents are a few years old now, like others in the comments are suggesting, they may not even be indicative of the future Xbox product lineup as it stands today. If so, Microsoft would have a hard time proving that their newly public existence does harm to their business or ongoing strategies.

Personally, I feel like a lot of this stuff is the most poorly kept secret actually within the industry because nobody seems... particularly shocked by any of it? It all about seems to add up to where people have thought Microsoft has been going for a while now, because I do remember industry types being shocked that the Series X had a disc drive -at all- when that was finally publicly revealed.

Anyone remember crackdown 3
You can’t rely on the cloud.

@OldGamer999 was your old username dezzy70?

Given how much Microsoft have invested in their cloud services (Azure is MASSIVE) it totally makes sense that they'd find ways to leverage that in their other divisions like gaming. I'm interested to see where this could go with consoles not doing all the heavy lifting themselves.

@Kaloudz
It always worries me with the internet with regard boosting performance because of internet speed and connections.
I’m a bit of a snob graphics and performance wise hence the series x I have and LG C2 and Dolby Atmos system. I don’t want to rely on the internet to boost my console’s performance.
I want the console to give me the top performance.
Would hate to be playing a game in the future running at below 4K at 30fps and lower textures and have to rely on the internet to get full 4K at 60fps with high res textures.

Perhaps they now have leverage with the FTC to push through another large acquisition…

I’ve been saying for a while MS should make an Xbox OS (especially as physical dies out and everything is essentially an app purchase) and having some handheld like device could be a nice step to that. It will likely have to be a streaming device though. I don’t think that MS consumers will take a decrease in performance/graphics the way Nintendo consumers will.

This is almost funny. I remember another company promisising cloud compute was going to revolutionise the power of gaming, but it failed to, spectacularly.
Wait a second, that was MS.

To be fair this was 2020 and things have changed a lot. I hope to god they are still not this deluded.

I hate the thought of games that require an online connection because a game requires some server to compute x or y algorithms. It’s one thing if the game is an online multiplayer game and the connection is then leveraged (I hear the water in Sea of Thieves looks as amazing as it does because it’s physics are calculated in the cloud) but I would hate for single player games do demand online connectivity.

Also feel like it would be a nightmare to develop for on a single player game.

No No No, please God no.... hybrid cloud? A platform that runs on mobile? What, DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES???

This is the single dumbest idea and direction they can possibly go in, worse than making the Xbox One a set top box to watch cable TV on... the masses have spoken, PS4 won a whole generation and has sustained its lead since then for maintaining focus where it belongs: DEDICATED GAMING, not gaming + TV, not gaming + "cloud" (name 1 streaming game console that ever succeeded... oh they all flopped? Even when tried from giants like Google? What a SHOCKER!)

With UE5 rapidly advancing, providing essentially the "apex", grand finale of what is possible graphically speaking, with unlimited geometry, ray-traced everything and so on, the focus should be on who can make the first console that can handle anything UE5 can throw at it at maximum settings, in a "worst case" scenario, and sustain 4K/60fps the whole time.

Either that, or that plus VR headset compatibility which Phil Spencer even seemed to imply would be explored with the Series X before its launch.

That would basically be console gaming's "final form", and would require no further advancement beyond that point.

@Netret0120 Digital isn’t MS’s future, it’s the future we the consumers are living in. I haven’t bought a disk for Games. Movies or music since the end of the 360/PS3. Most sales on PS have been reported to be digital as well. Apple Music and Spotify is the music industry, discs are dying off. Even local stores rarely have much on the shelves, some stores completely gotten rid of discs from different mediums. Physical is dead, it’s just not dead in the sense that it’s gone for good. But it’s largely dead and MS would be foolish not to support digital.

I’m surprised you guys are allowed to cover this stuff.

@Kaloudz
Forza just updated to 132.10 GB.
Downloading it now.

Sounds like the demise of Don Matrick was greatly exaggerated, he is alive and well in a guy with a smile and T-shirt.

If you've used Nvidia's GeForce app for game streaming (not the free tier), you'll know streaming can work, even for fast paced games. I was shocked the first few times I streamed Destiny 2. The lag was so barely noticable as to be non-existent. Far better than even Stadia, when it existed. Granted even that very small lag would still be relevant for some high level PvP games, but streaming is the future.

None of this should really be a surprise. Stadia was the future too soon. MS paid attention and is moving quickly to leave Sony in the past. The biggest hurdle will be broadband availability. The US has terrible broadband coverage. It's getting better but slower than it should. One can hope as cable dies a slow death, they finally wise up and expand broadband faster.

When Pocket PCs/PDAs with Windows portably is more exciting, we never got an Xbox handheld because the project was held off for fair reasons and well..... Oh cloud/remote play sure it's less effort then a new storefront or a portable Xbox One/Series X storefront and whatever hardware but I mean I'm not interested in the games they offer compared to the OG/360 era so I don't really care for an Xbox handheld 'now'. Is Cloud/remote play good at times yes, is the tech useful (I think in other cases them gaming but sure) but I'd use a phone or the Samsung TV app if I cared as I don't and WANT hardware not 'a server connection and to play games and whatever resolution/tier payments and other factors and the controller is the only physical thing let alone a phone maybe' then no I am not interested in that future.

I like tech changing as much as the next person but there is a reason I look back and also what I don't like about modern tech, and that's getting less out of something. Sure they save production costs (hence why the streaming box being cancelled over a tv app I thought was the point?) So why a handheld? A hybrid sure (Switch, Pocket PCs/PDAs, Gamecom, Zodiac, NGage, Xperia Play, Gizmondo were all that in their entertainment, phone, PDA and gaming way but no one cares then, PSP as a entertainment/gaming device even and cable to a TV only a few people used/knew about like remote play and it's brief games supported before Vita/PS4 scale support) but it's just going to be like the PC handhelds now who cares, are they good yes, can I put it in my pocket no, would I want to dare take it outside no.

That and the games. Eh.