Microsoft surprised people in a lot of ways with their E3 press event this year, but perhaps the one things that surprised people more than anything else was when Xbox boss Phil Spencer quickly mentioned in passing that the Microsoft team that developed the Xbox One X’s stellar hardware is currently working on the next generation of Xbox.
It wasn’t an official announcement of the next Xbox (Xbox Two? Xbox 720? Xbox 4? NextBox? Let’s stick with Next Xbox for now), but it took people by surprise anyway, because the general consensus among people seems to be that the current generation of consoles still have plenty of life left in them, so even mentioning a next generation seems a bit premature.
Industry analyst Michael Pachter of the analysis firm Wedbush Securities, though, feels like the shadow-mention made plenty of sense. We recently spoke with Pachter about a number of things, and one of the issues we quizzed him on was the next Xbox, and he was of the opinion that though current Xbox One X owners (a system that launched only one year ago) might feel a little slighted by the “announcement”, Microsoft are definitely going to launch their next system before Sony launches the PS5, citing 2020 as the most likely release year.
“I’m sure Microsoft intends to launch first, and I am equally certain that the new Xbox will be backwards compatible with any Xbox One X software,” Pachter said while speaking with GamingBolt. “I agree that it’s hard for Xbox One X purchasers, but they should know 4 years into a cycle that there is another one coming. My guess is that Microsoft intends to launch in 2020, but if they think Sony is going [to launch the PS5] then, they will launch early.”
Microsoft’s next Xbox system has been in conversations a lot lately. Recently, GamingBolt spoke on the matter with NPD analyst Mat Piscatella as well, who was firmly of the opinion that the next console’s “announcement” isn’t going to have much of an impact on the sales of the Xbox One. Meanwhile, Microsoft themselves have been speaking about the next Xbox as well, with Phil Spencer talking about the frame-rate and resolution goals they wish to achieve with the system, and with Mike Ybarra chiming in as well.
