Leaked documents from the recent FTC v. Microsoft case reveal potential plans for the future of Xbox. It seems that Microsoft want their next console to be a hybrid platform capable of "leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud". The documents also reveal that they're aiming to release the next Xbox by 2028.
With Microsoft's acquisition of Activision now being finalized, we can conduct a full postmortem on the FTC v. Microsoft case, which was the most significant court battle in the whole process. There were some amazing highlights, and even a bit of GTA 6 news, but a newly-leaked batch of documents from the case is perhaps the most exciting thing we've seen yet.
The leaked documents reveal an internal pitch to Microsoft for the next Xbox, including a release date, and a plan to make the console a "cloud-client hybrid".
Plans For The Next Xbox
The documents from the FTC case include a full plan for how Microsoft will develop the next Xbox console, laid out quarter by quarter from 2022 all the way to a launch in Q4 of 2028. At the moment, in mid-2023, they are apparently still in the conceptual/pre-production phase, with hardware design starting soon:
This plan would give the Xbox Series of consoles an eight-year lifecycle, which is about what most observers would have predicted even before this leak. But the release date isn't the unusual or even exciting part, it's Microsoft's ambitious concept of a "hybrid platform".
The New Xbox Will Be A "Cloud-Client Hybrid"
In another leaked document, Microsoft's vision for the new console was revealed. Without going into specific details, the concept is explained as "leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver [...] new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone". That is to say, Microsoft will improve your local hardware performance with their cloud network, rather than just offering a stream of the gameplay being run on cloud-side hardware (traditional cloud gaming).
Perhaps this could be achieved by powering some DLSS-like AI software on their end that can up-res what your hardware is capable of? We simply don't know yet, and it's worth bearing in mind that Xbox might choose to go in a different direction.
One thing that seems more certain is the introduction of a handheld device for less than $100, or "Thin OS", as they describe it:
We assume the Thin OS mentioned here is a far more conventional device that will simply offer cloud streaming, which is an area we know Microsoft wants to develop in, independent of any client-cloud hybrid. This much was confirmed by their hire of former Google Stadia design director Kim Swift in 2021, who has been set to work on developing cloud-native games.
Would you be interested in a console that could harness client-side hardware and cloud services in unison? Or would you rather your platform that could game offline?