Next Xbox console
Somehow, news about a new gen Xbox console announcement during E3 2018 has slipped through the cracks, almost unnoticed.
With all of the hype surrounding all of the great new games announced at E3 2018, most people seemed to miss the new Xbox console announcement from Phil Spencer.
There’s still a lot to learn about the new console, but it will be a jump to a new generation as opposed to a revamped edition of the Xbox One like the Xbox One X is.
Here’s everything we know about the new Xbox console.
New Xbox Console At E3 2018 – All We Know So Far
Despite Phil Spencer saying very little at all during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, he did take the time to talk about the new Xbox console.
On stage, Phil Spencer said this – “The same team that delivered unprecedented performance with Xbox One X is deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles, where we will once again deliver on our commitment to set the benchmark for console gaming.”
Eurogamer had the chance to speak to Phil Spencer more about the new Xbox console, so thankfully we have more information to go off of.
During Phil Spencer’s interview, he mentioned that when people buy an Xbox, they buy into an ecosystem and they become an Xbox fan. He said that many Xbox fans that exist today started on the original Xbox or on the Xbox 360 and they’ve stayed loyal to the console ever since. Phil Spencer believes that this commitment will help to bring new people to the new gen Xbox console.
Phil Spencer says that Microsoft has learned from their past experiences, as well. In the past, new generations of consoles have always struggled at the beginning due to a lack of games to jump into.
With the new gen Xbox, backward compatibility all of the way to the original Xbox will be available out of the box. The same Xbox ecosystem on the Xbox One will continue onto the new console.
This means that you’ll be able to sell your old Xbox One and upgrade and still keep your profile, your achievements, and your entire physical and digital game library.
However, upgrading to a new console will open up new opportunities for more impressive games with larger worlds, better graphics, and better performance.
Most importantly, some of Xbox’s biggest franchises will bridge the gap between the Xbox One and the new gen Xbox console. Halo Infinite, for example, may become a cross platform game where people on both Xbox One and the new gen Xbox console can play together.
The experience will be seamless and it’ll mean that people on the Xbox One won’t have to feel left behind.
Phil Spencer specifically said that once the new wave of hardware hits, many of the large games people are playing today will still exist. We won’t see new games released to encourage people to move to the new platform, but instead, these games will continue with bigger content releases that’ll be available to both Xbox One and new gen Xbox players.
During Phil Spencer’s interview, he said that “We went through it with Minecraft. We didn’t ship Minecraft 2 on Xbox One to try to compel everybody to move to the next console, because that’s not what Minecraft players want. They just want Minecraft to get better.”
“When you look at games like PUBG and Fortnite and you think about these large games and ecosystems that’ll be out there, when new hardware comes, people are still going to want to play those games, and it’s going to be important for us as platforms to support them.”
This will give Xbox One owners the option to move to the new console when they are comfortable with it. Players that buy into the Xbox ecosystem will always feel a part of it and they will never again feel left behind just because a new console has launched.
There’s also some potential for a future of game streaming. Phil Spencer doesn’t think that consoles will die out any time soon, but the potential for players with low end hardware to stream games through the internet will be possible in the very near future.
In the next 10 to 15 years, we may all be streaming games over the internet instead of buying hardware to support the games locally.
But before that happens, we will be seeing at least one or two more Xbox generations.
PlayStation Definitely Won’t Be Far Behind
With Xbox sharing their plans to release a new gen Xbox console relatively soon, we can assure you that Sony will be following suit with the PlayStation 5.
It makes sense that Sony will also offer a similar cross-platform experience to soothe the transition for existing PS4 and PS4 Pro owners.
Sony still needs to work on improving their backward compatibility offering, so hopefully the PS5 will have backward compatibility down to the PS One.
Alternatively, Sony may offer game streaming through PS Now that will allow players to play games from different platforms.
Either way, we should expect some form of backward compatibility on the PS5 that beats what the PS4 currently offers.
Apparently, the specifications for the PlayStation 5 have already been leaked, so even if Sony hasn’t announced their console yet, we bet it’ll be ready to fight up against the new gen Xbox whenever Microsoft decides to release it.
When Will The New Gen Xbox Release?
At this point, it’s too hard to make a precise estimate, but it would make sense that we would hear more solid information about it in 2019.
If we are lucky, we may also get a release date in 2019 to go along with the announcement. If that logic holds true, then we may be looking at a 2020 or 2021 release for a new Xbox console and the PlayStation 5 will surely follow suit.
What are your thoughts on this information? Are you excited about a new Xbox console?