14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is becoming increasingly focused on its gaming efforts, and after several big announcements at E3 conference earlier this week, the company is said to be speeding up its hardware efforts as well.
A report from Thurrott reveals that the next-generation Xbox lineup is already in the works and is projected to see daylight as soon as 2020, with a bunch of major surprises currently on the table.
First and foremost, it looks like the next-generation Xbox is codenamed Scarlett, and as compared to the previous models, it does not represent just a single new gaming console. Instead, it appears that Microsoft is actually working on a whole new family of products that would launch under the Xbox brand, though for the time being no specifics are available.
Microsoft investing aggressively in gaming hardware certainly makes sense in the long term, especially as the company is currently very committed to services and software that could power such devices.
Backward compatibility is the key
There are several questions, however, that are yet to be answered. Is Microsoft planning to launch an upgraded Xbox One? Or maybe the company is actually working on a completely new model to be positioned as a full overhaul of its gaming console?
No matter the answer, there’s no doubt that the next Xbox will be fully backward compatible with the content that Microsoft is offering at this point. As the cited source notes, Microsoft has put a lot of effort into backward compatibility lately, so the company might be planning on the long term here.
A 2020 release date for a new-generation console seems to align with Microsoft’s strategy, as the previous unveiling was the Xbox One X last year. A three-year gap between new product launches leaves enough time for Microsoft to introduce a completely revamped family of products, and there’s no doubt that Microsoft’s investments in gaming are going to be worth watching.