You’ve seen them before. Those memes, those theories that Xbox is getting thoroughly pummeled in the console war. That it’ll soon join the ranks of SEGA and Atari; perhaps not leaving the gaming market entirely, but certainly getting muscled out of the console space.
Microsoft, apparently, didn’t hear no bell. Because not only are they still willing to duke it out, they fully intend to release more hardware in the future.
“We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox,” said Microsoft in a statement about these rumors. They then referred curious onlookers to their partnership with AMD, which was revealed back in June.
Xbox’s AMD Partnership May Prove Microsoft’s Long-Term Hardware Goals
The Microsoft/AMD partnership, a “multi-year” affair, was essentially a commitment to get AMD chips in Microsoft products for the next long while.
This would affect “a portfolio of devices, including our next-generation Xbox consoles — in your living room, and in your hands,” which Windows Central speculates is in reference to a future first-party Xbox handheld console.
It is, however, not a big surprise that Xbox’s continued commitment to the hardware space is something that needs clarification. The company’s biggest source of revenue is from Game Pass, and that just went through a fairly major price hike controversy.
When Windows Central checked in with their own sources on the matter, they reported that “there’s no reason to think anything is changing.”
From what I’ve been told, the hardware plans are not even ‘up in the air,’ and remain firmly Xbox’s path forward. Xbox Series X|S hardware production has not ceased, and new stock will go out to retailers at its usual cadence.
Rumors of Xbox’s demise in the console market started on NeoGAF, with a known insider by the name of SneakersSO, who said “the future of Xbox is software publishing.”
The steps you would need to take in the lead up to delivering a new console gen weren’t being met. Lots of things that were ‘sure things’ started getting pushed.
Also of note is that this insider is forecasting another big round of layoffs, hitting the company early next year. The last one shook things up in a pretty terrible way, gutting many projects and leaving developers “heartbroken“.
It was a whole load of bad news that lined up fairly well with Microsoft’s established behavior. ‘They do a big layoff wave once, they’ll do it again.’ ‘They focus in on Game Pass even more, they leave hardware behind.’ It all felt quite plausible, and that’s something Microsoft apparently doesn’t like very much. Hence their statement.
Xbox still wants to keep a foot on the court for the time being, but whether they can claw their way back to being the player they once were, is something we’ll have to wait and see for.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
