Yesterday, news broke out that Microsoft visual designer had worked on something called the Xbox NeXt, which was specifically specified in addition to the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, leading many to believe that it may be referring to the next generation of Xbox consoles. It sounded exciting – new hardware always is – and it led to loads of speculation on just exactly what this Xbox NeXt may be: could it be referring to the rumored Xbox 1.5/Xbox One Elite, the incremental upgrade for the Xbox One that Phil Spencer had discussed a while back? Or could it be referring to an all new console altogether?
According to Microsoft, it is neither of them- Xbox NeXt was just the internal name for the Xbox One when it was being developed, they told IGN.
“Xbox neXt was an old internal team name for a group that worked on releasing Xbox One and is not related to a future console,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “We have nothing further to share.”
Which makes sense- but then why specify it in addition to Xbox One separately? Or could it simply have been a mistake, one that I am reading too much into?