Next Gen Console Will Rely On Windows And Be “A Very Premium” Experience According To Xbox President
- Xbox President steer clears of answering customer concerns regarding price hikes
- All Xbox consoles in the U.S. became more expensive in 2025
- Next gen console will be a premium experience leaning towards cloud gaming
- Games exclusive to platforms are a thing of the past according to Xbox President
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Xbox President Disconnected From Customers
On Oct. 21, the popular YouTube channel Mashable posted a video where Tech Editor, Timothy Bech Werth sat down with Xbox CEO Sarah Bond to talk about the recently released ROG Xbox Ally X and what players can expect from the next gen console, which has been confirmed.
It was a very carefully orchestrated chat where Bond was given ample room to say very little. For example, when asked about accessibility to games and the recent price hikes on the currently available consoles, and most recently the restructuring and pricing of Game Pass, she answered as if she had not seen the endless threads on social media of people posting images of cancelling their subscriptions.
“Yeah, there is a lot going on, but at Xbox, what we’re focused on is how do we create options for everybody,” she said, and after pivoting to talking about the two versions of the Xbox handheld, she circled back and said: “So, it’s all about having choice and options for players in a time when there’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of different things that people want.
Xbox Consoles Became More Expensive After Years On The Market
Judging from the reactions on social media, people do not want to pay $30 in monthly subscription fees for the newly branded Ultimate tier of Game Pass. This followed two separate announcements of the existing consoles also becoming more expensive earlier this year.
On May 1, the standard Xbox Series X in the U.S. went from $499.99 to $599.99 while the Series S (512 GB) saw a smaller increase from $299.99 to $379.99. In September, Xbox announced further price hikes in the U.S. market.
As of Oct. 3, both Xbox Series S consoles saw a $20 increase, the Series X consoles went up by $50 each, and the flagship 2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition saw an increase of $70 to a total of $799.99. With the ROG Ally X currently priced at $999.99 in the U.S. it begs the question: How does this align with Bond’s assertion that players want options, when the only option is to pay more?
Next Gen Console Will Cost Even More
It is clear that the next generation of Xbox will be a hybrid between a gaming PC and a console. This is clear from the direction the company took with the ROG Ally X which is essentially a handheld gaming PC operating on Windows with an Xbox interface.
Bond has already confirmed in a previous YouTube video that Xbox has an agreement in place with AMD and this suggests that the next gen Xbox, so far only codenamed Magnus, will be closer to a PC than an Xbox. So far the release date of this new machine has been speculated to be in 2026 or 2027 and cost “well over $1,000.”
In her conversation on the Mashable YouTube channel, she was asked if the next console will in fact be a PC console hybrid, similar to the ROG Ally X, she said: “Well, I can tell you that you’re right that the next gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience. You’re started to see some of the thinking that we have in this handheld (ROG Ally X), but I don’t want to give it all away.”
Hinting At The Future Of Gaming Being In The Cloud
Over the years there has been a clear shift when it comes to games being exclusive for particular platforms. With the advent of Game Pass and PlayStation Plus as subscription based models for accessing games very much in the same vein as consumers watch movies and TV series on Netflix, more and more games have become available on both consoles.
When speaking on this topic, Bond said that at Xbox they are seeing that people have evolved past locking into one system to access games and that the company is taking this into consideration moving forward.
“Like, the biggest games in the world are available everywhere. You look at Call of Duty, you look at Minecraft, you look at Fortnite, you look at Roblox. Like, that’s actually what’s really driving community in gaming. That’s where people gather. They have experiences, and the idea of locking it to one store or one device is antiquated for most people,” she said.
“You want to be able to play with your friends anywhere regardless of what they’re on. And we’re really leaning into that with this experience because it just opens up another way for you to play. As does cloud, as does PC, as does the consoles that we all own and have in our living room.”
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