Okay this sounds far, far more realistic than the all the headlines I saw before from other websites. Lord Jez you're giving them a field day. First everyone and their mom ran with what you said on the podcast and now this. It's actually rather hilarious because these journalism sites have been so desperate for attention. Reporting on every rumor they get a whisper about and making mountains out of molehills. I saw one about how the invite only highest insider ring (out of 5) got an annoying update that made me connect to the internet and sign in again (that was it; wasn't a reset as headlines were saying and nothing was loss; just took like a minute). Like Sheesh. I guess if Xbox isn't announcing games going to PS or buying a company these "news" sites are bored out of their mind.
Anyway, getting back on topic this does feel realistic. I would hope for a new hardware lineup in 2026 just because we're lacking mid gen refreshes (even the all digital brooklyn refreshes would've been better than the storage updates we got) and that's the anniversary year, but it's not a huge deal. Realistically speaking it's better for my wallet if we don't and Xbox should take their time on next gen. I could see a huge reveal during the anniversary live stream though.
It does seem like Xbox and Microsoft clearly want a future where they have a gaming empire and every Xbox game is simultaneously launched across console, PC, and cloud with Xbox Play Anywhere enabled. Whether they'll get there and how long it will take remains to be seen. They also clearly want more third party games on both Xbox consoles, their PC storefront, and Cloud and uniting those platforms would seem the way to do it. I really don't envision Microsoft getting rid of dedicated Xbox hardware, because we make them so much money. However, console market growth in general continues to be a worry. For next gen, Xbox should continue to have a console for both core gamers and casuals and they should actually market the console for casuals/non gamers to casuals/non gamers. This could be a series S successor, the first party handheld (but I don't see a good Xbox handheld being cheap), or some type of XCloud Box. Regardless marketing needs to focus on how consoles aren't just for gaming anymore. This was a huge miss with the Series S. I genuinely think the Series S is the perfect family room device on the market between it's low entry price, small size, ability to play all modern games (and previous generations due to backwards compatibility), and the reality that streaming services and entertainment apps are just on game consoles now. That really should've been a pitch during Black Friday when the Series S was dirt cheap (and other times). Convince gamers to pick up the Series X instead of the PS5, but convince non gamers to BECOME Xbox gamers by picking up a Series S instead of a 4K Apple TV or FireTV or Roku. Though the big questions remain of if Microsoft will continue to or be able to subsidize console hardware. Especially if they let in third party stores. I still only see them doing Xbox OEMs on the PC side and improving windows for gaming for this. But keep dedicated Xbox hardware focused on the Microsoft Store even if under the shell it's more like PC. They could even just emulate SteamOS in this way. How many Steam Deck users are power users tweaking settings to access third party storefronts or even going to desktop mode to download Linux? Okay, probably not the best example because that's Steam but still. Maybe it's a plan of making it possible to do the work and access third party storefronts, but it'll be highly incentivized not to (still don't really see how they can subsidize hardware based on a hope though). Pricing will be incredibly important as with any console, so I hope they don't falter there.
As far as the Xbox OEM this year, I could see it. It wouldn't be too much work on the hardware end and windows is already windows. The real question is if they'll have their SteamOS competiting Xbox gaming mode this year and I don't think so. I don't feel like Windows moves that fast and is that good at giving gamers the better user experience and user interface. Though with as janky and cumbersome and bogged down Windows is, I'm loving my Lenovo Legion Go. I've all but abandoned my Steam Deck now because of it. I just love the access to games across storefronts and Xbox Play Anywhere titles are so much fun. They're my go to. Something about knowing that my progress is being shared across console and pc just makes playing the game itself feel more fun. I'm easy to please I guess.
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