It's been an interesting year for the Xbox brand.
There's been a lot of great first-party games released in 2025, such as Ninja Gaiden 4 and Doom: The Dark Ages, and Xbox Game Pass has seen a lot of great Day One releases, most notably Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
All of that good news has been drowned out by layoffs, studio closures, game cancellations, and price increases.
Last week, we got confirmation that Microsoft is working on the next Xbox console. Xbox president Sarah Bond didn't say much about what it will look like, but did release one tidbit of information:
She added that we're already seeing what Microsoft is thinking with the recent release of the ROG Xbox Ally X, an Xbox-branded ROG Ally handheld device similar to a Steam Deck. This marks Microsoft's "entry" into the handheld gaming space. It's not a dedicated handheld device we were expecting, but instead a portable gaming device that happens to run Windows 11.
Given that line of thinking, it shouldn't come as a surprise that, according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, the next Xbox console will essentially be a prebuilt Windows-based PC.
"Where the...
