Rumours of Xbox's demise were greatly exaggerated.
A next-gen Xbox console is still in the works, and in partnership with AMD, Microsoft confirmed over the weekend.
Microsoft needed to make that confirmation following new rumours that suggested the corporation was closing up console production and would instead move into third-party games publishing. The rumours followed news that retailer Costco had pulled current-gen Xbox consoles from its stores.
“The ramifications of the [Call of Duty Game Pass] gambit not working out were just starting to get properly measured, but the thing that really stuck out to me was that suddenly, really concrete plans for actual [Microsoft] Xbox [hardware] went from being definitive, to up in the air, which was really startling given that this thing was meant to be out relatively soon. It was one of those situations where, despite folks being told ‘hey, we wanna pull the trigger on this in 2026’, 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. The Costco retailer pulling Xbox, and apparently they are one of many that we’ll learn about soon, told me all I needed to know,” wrote insider SneakersSO.
“To sum it up: the future of Xbox is software publishing, with a significantly honed-in focus on profitable IPs (CoD, WoW, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Forza Horizon), Cloud gaming being the home of the ‘Xbox platform’, [transitioning] Game Pass into basically becoming the point of entry subscription for xCloud access (which will continue to drive its price tag higher btw, they aren’t done there just yet either), and releasing their software on any device that has a marketplace and users willing to buy their titles.”
Speaking with Windows Central, Xbox denied the claims.
“We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox,” a representative stated. “For more details, the community can revisit our agreement announcement with AMD.”
It’s been a rough week for Xbox, with fans actively voicing concerns about the latest Xbox Game Pass price hike. Bloomberg also reported that Microsoft’s decision to make Call of Duty a day one Game Pass title has lost the company $300 million USD in potential sales.
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