Insider Claims Next-Gen Xbox Hardware Has Been Fully Approved by Microsoft - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 February 2025 / 10,157 Views
The next-generation of Xbox hardware has hit a significant milestone, according to Windows Central's Jez Corden.
He claims to have been told the next-gen Xbox hardware has now moved beyond the pitch stages and has been fully approved by Microsoft.
"Xbox's next-gen console hardware has now moved past its early pitch stages and has been fully approved and costed all the way up the chain," said Corden.
Corden adds not to expect a reveal for the next-gen Xbox any time soon. There have been rumors Microsoft wants to get a jump start on its next hardware with a possible late 2026 release.
Xbox President Sarah Bond in April 2024 in an email sent to Xbox employees did reveal team is "moving full speed ahead" on the next-generation Xbox console.
"We are moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused on delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation," said Bond at the time.
Bond in February 2024 also stated, "We're also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we're really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they’re building."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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"Insider" Jez Corden. LOL
The inside of Microsoft tell him whatever narrative they want goign out there at the time.
Okay so the question I have is regarding the timing. If it was just approved... isn't that kinda late. Or are we just getting all these rumors mixed together at this point. How is the console gonna be ready for a 2026 release?
The only thing i see as guaranteed it that MS ditches physical media for games. Whoever does that i won't buy their console!
Unless Super Switch does something radically new, I'm already there. I have all the retro consoles, and I'm currently amassing as many legendary carts/discs as I can. I don't need/miss modern games at all. I'm good. Most of them pale in comparison to SMB 3, Gunstar Heros, Chrono Trigger and Super Metroid, anyway.
Just use GOG.
Honestly yes.... with GOG you atleast can "own" the game. You can dl and keep it, if you bought it.
probably their last gen if the sales trend continues
Can it at least have a disc drive please? Otherwise it is completely pointless.
Sorry my friend, but many people don't believe there will ever be a new XBox, M$ has already dropped the towel, we think they already stopped building XBox X, they are selling the one's they already built. On many markets like Europe, South America, etc, you can't buy them anymore on main retailers, and the price is around 700$ for the base console. The ones you find you have to wait a week or more and the small retailers ask the ordered consoles directly from M$. So I recommend for you to take good care of your XBox, so it can last long, in a few years it will be a vintage collectors console, and because not many were sold it will be more valuable.
I didn't know Xbox making more gaming hardware would be so triggering for some. More hardware options is always a good thing.
Absolutely.
But why?
Everyday M$ is shooting themselves in their feet. Only now they are starting with the project? when is it coming out? It takes ages for a console to have a proper architecture, it's not all about a powerful processor and a good GPU, the way it's architecture is designed is way more important. SONY is working on the upcoming PS6 for years now.
Jez Corden eh. Anyone got some spare salt I can borrow? A couple of bags should be fine.
Who cares? There's no reason to buy Xbox hardware. They are killing off physical releases and Game Pass is their focus.
That's great news.
"early pitch stages" ???? wtf.... these things take years to make... if its in early pitch stages only... how far out is this?
I'm no expert but I suspect if it was coming late 2026 then they'd probably be close to finalising specs with AMD
"has now" implies it happend just recently... ei. until resently, it was still just at a "pitch idea" stage... so even if its past that part... the actual design work is still ahead ect. Consoles don't just magically pop out of thin air, its years of R&D, before production. Which was my point,.... I thought we would be getting xbox hardware "soon" ish... not multiple years from now. Like does this just means they have a Xbox out in 2028? Wouldn't that just be expected?
Fully approved...to be deleted
Last chance on consoles Microsoft
Last quarter over 42% of new PS5 users, were new users, that never were part of Playstation before.
These people are either new audiences or old ones from other places (xbox, pc). I think alot of xbox buyers this gen, went Playstation 5 tbh. If they are jumping ship and starting a new games library on the Playstation side, they took a choice, to start over. Next gen, getting them back might not be easy.
Ex-Box fans are downvoting every comment that doesn't favour their loved console. lol
i have all 3 systems. i play switch most by far, xbox second and PS least, i dont own stock or work in any of these companies, does not matter to me
You are the one that is a fanboy since you never owned a X Box console keep the irrelevant comments coming fanboy.
Internet says Xbox dies every year yet we continue to get new Xbox hardware. Something isn't adding up.
Does it matter,? Read the tea leaves, chances are there isn't going to be an Xbox beyond this next one, chances are there won't be a PlayStation at some point in the future. In business if you aren't growing, you're dying and the console market is dying.
Writing is on the wall and has been for a while. Still exciting though.
No console future is garenteed. But saying their won't be an Xbox beyond this gen is another fear mongering rumour that we hear every gen. Chances are their won't be a next next Xbox like their won't be a PS7.
They'll exist but they won't have the same reason to exist or mission statement. Change is inevitable, much like the steam engines were replaced, and being in tune with that is not fear mongering at all, it's just following the times. Anyway this is a sales forum so why discuss anything if it can just be called fear mongering. Anyway what is there to fear, now that gamepass is a force to respect? Microsoft is more relevant than ever, just in a different way. Nothing to be scared of if I were an xbox fan. It's the games that matter anyway, and I'm not the only Phil to think it. Also rapsuperstar didn't deny there may not be a PlayStation, why would there be if games are playable everywhere? I personally believe they'll exist, just will not be sold in the same way or as what they are being sold today: machines that play exclusive games. Anyhow not for Sony and even less for Microsoft. It will be sold more similarly to the microsoft surface: a pc tablet like many other on the market, but made by microsoft with a certain guarantee of quality, but can do what others just like it can. Just that instead of a tablet it will be an affordable gaming computer. Will be similar for xbox and ps going forward, not like it hasn't been so far for the past gens, just that it will become even more like that as MS acquires more into xbox studios and makes things even more cross-platform, and diminishing returns on graphical capabilities become even more tight.
The console market is dying? Tell this to 150 million+ Switch users and 75 million+ PS5 users, lol! Its PC fanboys wet dream lol. Without consoles there would not even be GTAVI!! Physical media will disapear next gen! Xbox 100%, PS6 not impossible after all that happened (BD discontinuation by Sony, DD only seperate in limited quanitities...) maybe Switch 3 will be the only system with physical games. The market will get smaller but dying is far from reality.
Playstation peaked on the PS2, Xbox peaked on the 360, Nintendo goes up and down, the Wii sold 100 million, the Wii U sold 13.5 million, the Switch sold 150+ million. We shall see if the Switch 2 can expand and outsell the Switch 1.
The console market averages 300+ million every gen.
Yes but firstly you have to count all sales handheld and home console variants .
For that the best gen for hardware was
Wii/DS: ~255M
PS3/Vita: ~103M
XB360: ~85M
Total: ~443M
Already this easily beats this gen but also we really should be using software sales to compare the health of a gen compared to another.
How about you stop calling people idiots to start. Then you have to consider that home consoles don't live in a bubble. If you factor in all the handhelds that were sold and you don't ignore that the switch is at omce a handheld and a home console, the calculations everyone are posting take a very different twist, not to mention they should be using software sales not hardware sales to compare the health of console generations one against the other. It's a typical mistake people make on this forum.
Do people actually believe what you are saying?
Console market isn't growing, it will finish with the same amount of people who gamed last gen. All that's happening is the same customers change brands.
Why do you think Sony and MS are pushing PC ports more and more?
No. Xbox isn't growing the market. Switch is about to outsell the PS2.
Add up the total amount of consoles sold last gen, then add up the amount this gen.
Even if theres only like 170-180m PS/XB users.... that they have to fight over, and growth is slow or almost stagnent. That should still be able to support 2 consoles imo.
Sony and Microsoft are pushing PC ports because game development has gotten so expensive. Even then, the PS5 has a large enough playerbase now, that I don't think PC ports are needed. However, that doesn't change the fact that they can still pick up tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of additional sales from PC.
They need more customers to buy their games. PS5 will most likely finish where the PS4 finished in sales, the Series X will likely finish behind the XB1 and the Switch 2 most likely won't outsell the Switch 1.
"they need more people buying their games". Exactly what I said.
You then went on to say the PS5 has a large enough audience and PC ports is just for extra cash.
It's alot more then that. They need more customers overall to fund future games and the PS5 clearly isn't big enough as less then 10% of PS owners buy 1st party games.
"chances are there won't be a PlayStation at some point"
What is that based on? Because it sounds like you pulled it out your arse
Not an idiot, and anyone saying that about anyone arguing against their own opinion is probably wrong. But one thing is certain is that you are purposely ignoring that Sony is expanding onto releasing games on non-Playstation platforms like PC, Xbox and even Nintendo. Unless you're willingly ignoring reality, you would realize that Nintendo is the only manufacturer not doing that. Keep downvoting me I don't care.
It's obvious, Sony is releasing their games on multiple platforms much more than before, and the graphical advantage/cost value of a dedicated gaming machine is getting less important the more we advance on the line of time. The only way he could be wrong is if Sony changes their direction and go full-exclusive, but that has a whole set of problems in and of itself, namely reduced revenue from the growing PC gamer population thanks to steam's accessibility. And in the first scenario, PS is more likely to exist as a box like any other that is designed for game-playing, much like the steam deck, and most likely how the xbox will be.
Everquest was on PS2, and the ports continue on into the following decades if you bothered to look. Like Planetside in 2003 for example.
I just stoppped there because I made my point; the point being you don't know what you are talking about.
The examples are not useless because they clearly prove you wrong.
There is nothing to prove, 1 game planetside, clearly a mainly PC game, to be played by kb and mouse. Compare that to today's Horizon, God of War, The Last of Us, Spider Man 2, these are top tier Playstation IPs. Why are you defending this terrible idea? No they don't prove me wrong, they prove that someone who is not interested in reasoning will use whatever terrible arguments to support a bad and wrong idea. You stopped there because there's nothing left!
Everquest was on PC in 1999 before the ps2 was launched. And it's meant as a PC game first and foremost, was ported to PS2 in 2003, you got the wrong direction here.
Look at the sales genius. Yeah what's not adding up is Phil and Co killed the brand. They're indept.
It adds up fine. Xbox has infinite funds to afford failure. Same way Elon Musk wins: HE just keeps throwing money at things until he hits a winner because he can afford to fail. It's not that complicated.
That's not how buisness works. Many layers to buisness then just throwing money at something. One key factor to buisness is you don't want to lose Shareholders/investors. They invest for reasons not because of boredom
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