Despite Microsoft’s current strategy suggesting otherwise, it seems like Xbox hardware will continue to exist in the future, although it may not be what players have come to expect based on previous console generations.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Xbox head Phil Spencer commented on future hardware and the console market, highlighting how the console space isn’t growing across all systems. “We love those customers,” Phil Spencer added, “but in terms of continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it’s about PC, it’s about cloud, and it’s about making our games more available in more places.” Still, Phil Spencer has no doubt that they will release more consoles and more devices in the future, adding that they are trying to expand the concept of what Xbox means and reach success with multiple pieces of hardware, another not-so-veiled hint at the handheld system that has been confirmed to be in the works this week.
Asked about mid-generation refresh systems like the recent PlayStation 5 Pro, the Xbox head made some interesting comments, implying in his answer not only that a system like that is no longer needed but also that they may approach future hardware in very different ways than before. The company thinks about hardware that can create unique value for the players and the creators on their platform and doesn’t need to make a mid-generation console for their own benefit. Nowadays, it has become more difficult to show the benefits of a system like the PS5 Pro because of the diminishing return developers are seeing with increased power and the related difficulty of showing such benefits over previous generation consoles, where the jump in resolution and image quality was way bigger.
On mid-generation refresh consoles, the Xbox head is definitely on point, as it took multiple in-depth analyses to show how the PlayStation 5 Pro improves the vast majority of titles. As machine learning has entered the console space with the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, there’s no doubt that AI will play a major role in future console generations that will somehow address the diminishing returns issue that has become evident.
