If recent reports are true, we likely won’t be seeing Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox console until 2027 at the earliest. But that hasn’t stopped the company from teasing a couple of details – including backward compatibility and vague handheld allusions – as it announces a partnership with AMD to co-engineer the bits inside.
Microsoft first confirmed an Xbox Series X/S successor was in the works last February, as the company rushed to assure fans – amid the start of its multi-platform release strategy – that it wasn’t abandoning the console market. At the time, Xbox president Sarah Bond insisted Microsoft was “invested in [its] next-generation road map” and “focused on… delivering the largest technical leap that you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.”
And it now transpires AMD will be the company helping make that bold promise a reality. Microsoft announced its “strategic, multi-year agreement” with AMD in a short video shared earlier today. In it, Bond explained Microsoft is “investing in [its] next-generation hardware line-up across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories”, and would be working with AMD to “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands”.
There is, of course, quite a bit to unpack in that last sentence, starting with Bond’s clear reference to multiple next-generation “consoles”, and continuing on with the distinction between a machine “in your living room” and “in your hands”. While it’s entirely possible “consoles” refers to a dual release strategy similar to the Series X and S, it’s hard to ignore the additional allusion to an Xbox-branded handheld. But whether that might be an internally development machine – as previously rumoured – or something similar to AMD’s recently unveiled Xbox Ally, remains to be seen. Notably, Windows Central recently reported Microsoft’s internal handheld project had been “sidelined” in favour of more third-party partnerships, while The Verge went further, saying the project was “essentially cancelled”.