Amid fears that unpopular Game Pass price hikes mark the latest blow to Microsoft’s console gaming ambitions, the tech giant claims its next-gen hardware plans remain unchanged. The next Xbox might be more PC-like than ever, but there will be one. “We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox,” the company wrote in a statement to Windows Central. “For more details, the community can revisit our agreement announcement with AMD.” That last part references an announcement Microsoft made over the summer for a “multi-year partnership” to “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices” including living-room consoles and PC gaming handhelds.
Next-gen panic Some fans were afraid that might no longer be the case after rumors started spreading on social media over the weekend that Microsoft may have decided to finally abandoned first-party hardware as it pivots toward multiplatform publishing. A NeoGAF thread from purported leaker SneakersSO went viral after it claimed that Microsoft’s next-gen console plans were back to being “up in the air.”
Fueling rampant speculation online were recent moves by some wholesale retailers to seemingly stop carrying current generation Xbox Series X/S units on their shelves. The unofficial shift began with a report of Costco ditching listings for the consoles online and shrinking its Xbox footprint in stores, followed more recently by claims that Sam’s Club is discounting Xbox Series X/S hardware to unload the rest of its inventory.
Higher prices, fewer exclusives But the biggest key to the “sky is falling” mentality among some Xbox fans was Microsoft’s decision to ramp up the price of Game Pass Ultimate to $30 last week. That move followed tariff-fueled console price increases that made the already flagging Xbox Series X/S even harder to sell alongside first-party franchises like Gears of War and Forza Horizon coming to PlayStation for the first time ever.
Taken altogether, there’s a perception among some that Xbox hardware has never been less competitive in the console gaming space. Why invest in another generation of internally developed consoles at that point? Especially after a teased Xbox handheld was reportedly sidelined inside the company in favor of an Xbox-branded Ally Rog 2 developed by Asus.
One reason might be that the Xbox platform, even if it’s shrinking, is still a not-insignificant part of the Microsoft gaming division’s bottom-line. One of the cornerstone features of the ever more expensive Game Pass subscription on console is access to multiplayer. The company still gets a 30 percent commission on all purchases made on Xbox, and without a console the company is completely reliant on PC and mobile signups. At least for now, it’s a part of the business the tech giant isn’t ready to walk away from.
