Xbox consoles going premium
I hope your $1000 gaming console purchase goes well.
As if Xbox hadn’t already faced enough bad news in recent weeks, Xbox President Sarah Bond has now confirmed that the next-generation hardware will target the premium market. Over the past week, Bond has been addressing rumors suggesting Xbox might cancel its hardware plans. These rumors followed recent price increases for current-generation consoles and the Xbox Game Pass service, which went up just weeks before one of this year’s biggest launches: Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
In an interview with Mashable, Bond surprisingly confirmed what had so far only been discussed in rumor circles. The next-gen Xbox will focus on a premium experience:
“I can tell you you’re right, that the next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience. You’re starting to see some of the thinking we have in this handheld, but I don’t want to give it all away.”
— Sarah Bond, Xbox President
The interview mainly centered on the Xbox ROG Ally handhelds, developed in partnership with AMD and ASUS. Bond previously confirmed that ASUS fixed the high retail pricing for those devices. Hopefully, ASUS will have less involvement in the next Xbox, though reading between the lines, Microsoft could easily open its ecosystem to third-party hardware makers, who could release devices under the Xbox brand.
Outlets like The Verge speculate that this could mean the new console will adopt a more “PC-like” approach. Microsoft might further merge the Xbox and Windows platforms, potentially allowing games to run across both with minimal adjustments.
IThe fact that the upcoming Xbox will be marketed as a high-end product is becoming more and more obvious. Bond also noted that Microsoft is learning from and experimenting with the current Xbox Ally systems. That could mean a broader range of devices in the future, though calling a $599 handheld with a refreshed five-year-old chip “mainstream” might be a stretch.
Source: The Verge , Windows Central