Xbox President Sarah Bond was recently asked if Microsoftâs next-gen Xbox âcould kind of be a gaming PC and console in one.â Her response didnât pour cold water on the idea, kicking off a new wave of speculation that Xboxâs future lies in a new Windows hybrid gaming experience rather than in the traditional console space. It also made the upcoming hardware sound pricier than fans might be used to.
âI can tell you youâre right that the next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience,â Bond told Mashable this week. âYouâre starting to see some of the thinking that we have in this handheld, but I donât want to give it all away.â
The handheld she was referring to is the ROG Xbox Ally X, a collaboration between third-party hardware maker Asus and Microsoftâs internal next-gen team which developed a modified layer of the Windows OS to boost performance and ease of use. With previous reporting suggesting the next-gen Xbox will run a version of Windows that supports competing storefronts like Steam, it certainly seems like a vision thatâs a major break from Xboxâs past and more in line with the rest of Microsoftâs business (software, cloud, and AI).
The phrase âvery premium, very high-endâ also keeps rattling around inside my head. While we shouldnât read too much into any one soundbite, it feels like Microsoft is laying the groundwork for new Xbox hardware that costs as much as $1,000 or potentially even more. Thatâs how much the ROG Xbox Ally X is, and the most premium consoles like the PlayStation 5 Pro are already pushing north of $700.
However much the next Xbox ends up costing, it doesnât sound like this generationâs cheaper Series S model is a part of that picture. If thatâs the case itâs a shame. Prior to recent price hikes, it was a very appealing experiment in affordable gaming. Coupled with pre-price-hike Game Pass, it was the cheapest way to access big-budget blockbusters without relying on cloud gaming. It would be a shame if Nintendo remains the only company competing in that space by the time the next Xbox and PS6 launch around 2027.
