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Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, is seeking to assuage the fears of gamers who worry the company might give up on its Xbox consoles. In a new interview, Spencer said more Microsoft gaming hardware is coming. However, you shouldn’t expect a mid-generation refresh similar to the new PlayStation 5 Pro.
Microsoft has spent the last several years focused on increasing the number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers. This product offers access to a library of games from Microsoft and other publishers on both PC and Xbox. The highest tier of Game Pass also includes Xbox Cloud Gaming, which increasingly feels like the product Microsoft wants to sell.
Just this week, Microsoft revealed its newest marketing campaign: “This is an Xbox.” The ads feature various devices that gamers can use to play Xbox games alongside the Xbox consoles. A Samsung phone? This is an Xbox (that makes calls). A Meta Quest 3? This is an Xbox (that you wear). Many of the devices can’t run Xbox games themselves—they can only stream games from the cloud.
Talking to Rolling Stone, Spencer downplays any shift in Microsoft’s priorities. “We’ll definitely do more consoles in the future,” Spencer said before adding, “and other devices.” The “other” here might refer to the possibility of an Xbox handheld hinted at by Spencer himself, or perhaps a cloud streaming dongle like the canceled Keystone.
When asked about a refreshed Xbox console, Spencer demurred. “We think about hardware that can create unique value for our players or creators on our platform… we don’t need to do incremental hardware for our own benefit,” he said. Spencer seems to believe a higher price tag is not in the interest of gamers, as he has criticized the PS5 Pro’s high price.
Credit: Microsoft
Sony is currently riding high on the release of the PlayStation 5 and the new PS5 Pro. The Pro model is marginally more capable than the previous versions. Nevertheless, it announced dozens of games would be updated with enhanced visuals to take advantage of the new console.
Microsoft put itself in a tough spot this generation by releasing both the Series X and Series S. It does not allow developers to release games only for one version of the console, so experiences have to be created with the lower-specced console in mind. That limits what Microsoft could do with a refresh. It’s almost like Microsoft released its ninth-gen console and the refresh at the same time.
While Spencer is currently promising more Xbox hardware, the company does seem to be planning for a future in which it doesn’t have to sell consoles. Console hardware doesn’t usually turn a profit at all—it’s a vehicle for selling games. That’s where the money is, and if Microsoft can convince enough people to pay monthly to stream games, it might start to look at consoles as an unnecessary expense.