The next gen Xbox will include both a home and portable console, but it’s unclear whether the rumoured Steam support is going to happen.
Every time Microsoft talks about their next generation Xbox, or new rumours emerge about it, it seems as if the plans have changed completely. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – flexibility is one of the many benefits the company’s vast wealth provides – but it’s made it hard to tell what they’re planning, with their various statements being purposefully vague and short on details.
That hasn’t changed, but they have confirmed a ‘strategic, multi-year agreement with AMD’ to create chips for a ‘portfolio of devices’, including ‘the next generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands’.
Microsoft is promising ‘deeper visual quality, immersive gameplay, and [sigh] AI-powered experiences’ but in a platform ‘not tied to a single store or device’ and which is fully backwards compatible.
Making sense of all this is difficult but the talk of multiple stores seems to be a hint that third party stores such as GOG, Epic Games Store, and Steam could be accessible from the new console.
This has been rumoured for a long time and only 24 hours earlier insider eXtas1s had tweeted news from long-time AMD leaker Kepler, that the next gen Xbox will be made by AMD and that the device will be a ‘traditional console’ and not a PC, that supports your existing library.
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That information was clearly dead on, although interestingly Kepler suggested that Steam integration is ‘in doubt’. Asked about the issue on forum NeoGAF, he replied: ‘IDK [I don’t know], probably not. Kinda ruins the whole business model if people can bypass your store.’
That suggests that the Steam comments were merely his personal speculation and that it is still something that could happen.
Microsoft’s annoucement was a very brief video from President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, who added: ‘At Xbox our vision is for you to play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want. That’s why we’re investing in our next generation hardware line-up, across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories.’
There have been multiple hints about a next gen portable console before, particularly from Xbox exec Phil Spencer, but that would be unconnected to the recently unveiled Asus ROG Ally device – which is essentially just a portable PC.
Recent rumours suggested that Microsoft had abandoned plans for its own portable and it may well be that this annoucement was meant to counter that and to acknowledge that Kepler’s leaks were accurate.
There’re multiple ways to interpret Bond’s comments though, especially as being a traditional console seems at odds with running PC software and third party stores.
No date was given as to when there’ll be more information or when any next gen hardware could start to appear, but rumours have pegged it, and the PlayStation 6, for sometime in 2027 or 2028.
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