Phil Spencer: I fully expect that you’ll see another console from us

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/10/9880594/microsoft-xbox-games-2016-interview-crackdown-3-quantum-break-recore

As televisions, computers, and smart devices become the all-in-one-devices that seek to displace consoles, does Xbox just become an app or a storefront or a brand?

"No," Spencer says, "I fully expect that you’ll see another console from us […] Our best customers are Xbox console customers, and I want to keep those people engaged both on the Xbox One and anything we might do in the future. I’m 100 percent committed to that."

"I don’t want to dilute what the Xbox console customer feels," says Spencer. "I want to expand what we’re able to do for more customers."

Great News !!!

Well, that's nice and all, but they have to say that. Every company does.

PR statements are about inciting consumer confidence in the brand. Right now they have Xbones to move off shelves. The holiday season is upon us and they aren't going to deliberately compromise their brand or image. Sh!t happens, but it's not deliberate.

While I believe there will be another Xbox (completely different reasons), I don't care what a company says today. These companies change their mind on the fly constantly (lest we forget that Kinect wasn't ever going to be removed.)

Here's an adamant statement from 2013, only two years ago:

Microsoft refuses to sell Xbox One without Kinect - will win the motion gaming space as a result

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-refuses-to-sell-xbox-one-without-kinect

Also:

Speaking with Eurogamer yesterday ahead of the announcement of the first Xbox One price cut, Xbox UK marketing chief Harvey Eagle said Microsoft was sticking with Kinect because the company feels it's "integral to the Xbox One experience".

"[A Kinect-less Xbox One] is not in our plans at all," he stressed.

It's all about the ""now" and moving products out now. The future is up for grabs. As a rule, I don't believe any PR from a company without sizing up the angles first, but future statements don't mean much. Hell, the people in charge today might be gone tomorrow as we saw with the Xbox, 360, and now Xbone.

Good. But not thinking about next gen yet...

@SolidTy: It's 2015 not 2013, let it go and join us in the present.

You must have misunderstood my message.

My message was about the nature of PR; I simply gave one example of a possible 1000+ examples to illustrate the point that the future is not set in stone. For instance, if (hypothetically) they were not planning another Xbox, they wouldn't talk about that right now in Dec 11th, 2015 during the middle of a holiday season. There is no benefit to instilling fear into consumers regarding the brand at this time. It's not like they would reveal right now that they are in fact not making another Xbox, and even if they did, they could change their mind tomorrow. Making this PR statement pointless either way. Whatever is in the company's best interest, that is what the PR of the day will sing. Tomorrow's message could be a stark 180 degrees, but my point is, we shouldn't pay such silly PR much attention. Especially when the intention is obvious. Simply using historical precedent and knowledge of PR actually is tells us enough about this particular message.

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I'm thinking the next generation Xbox will be capable of graphics like this, at launch (in 4K Ultra HD) and have this very game as well!

@SolidTy Is damned COW and his Gamerscore and trophies were all falsely added upon and he cant even read or write in all reality!!!

We can see where AMD is headed in terms of next generation APUs.

Multi TFLOP APUs with 16 'Zen' CPU cores, next gen Greenland GPU from the Arctic Islands family and High Bandwidth Memory (HMB2).

The next gen console APUs will be *derived* from this APU roadmap, no matter what the precise specs AMD's customers (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) want for their individual platforms (future iterations of NX beyond 2016/2017, the next Xbox, and PS5). If Nintendo goes with ARM CPU cores instead of x86, that's fine too, AMD has it covered in terms of roadmap / architecture.

Note: The above next generation APU is not an actual product. It's an example of what AMD thinks it can do in 2017 for the professional high performance computing market. AMD is able to develop semi custom chips for its customers. So for example, a next gen console APU for Microsoft / Sony might have 8, 10, 12 CPU cores and whatever GPU architecture is available, to fit the specs its customers want for their products.

just wait till MS adds Hololense to there next console then they will kick Sony ass. with the next console you wont even need a TV you just need the hololense.

I am glad that eventually there will be a fourth Xbox console. As long as Microsoft has learned from their mistakes with the Xbox one.

"I fully expect that you'll see another console from us."

Just one or more?

Also, I don't want an all in one device, I want a facking console. And this comes from a new generation kid. The X1 does more than one thing and I use its YouTube app exactly as much as I play games, but it can get much worse than the X1, know what I mean?

And also, I expect physical copies of games to remain forever. I'm having a hard time picturing all the CoDs , Fallouts, Forza Motorsports, GTAs and other AAA beauties as digital only games. It would be like cutting off one's dick voluntarily and making it digital. Besides, all the sales they would lose from all the casuals who like to do a lot of random shopping or buy gifts for familiy members.

@jim1174:

"with the next console you wont even need a TV you just need the hololense."

Well, I want a TV.

I want a true successor to Xbox 360. Whenever the next Xbox is released (i.e. 2018, 2019) it should be as close to top of the line hardware as possible that retails for $400, even if Microsoft has to sell it at somewhat of a loss. When Xbox 360 released in November 2005, the only PCs that could match it were high-end configurations, and Xbox 360's GPU was still more efficient with unified shaders that PC GPUs did not have until 2006. I am not saying that Xbox 360 blew high-end PCs of late 2005 away, I'm saying Xbox 360 was able to provide roughly the same experience as a high-end PC, at much lower cost.

That was completely different to 2013 when the PS4 and Xbox One launched. Even though both current gen consoles were a significant leap from Xbox 360 and PS3, both the PS4 and Xbox One were equivalent to mid-range laptop PC hardware, at best. The CPU was low-end and the GPUs were barely mid-range. Of course the PS4 has a somewhat more powerful GPU than Xbox One. It's not an insignificant difference, but not a massive difference either. But with that said, even PS4's GPU was just midrange laptop class, in 2013. Now 2 years later, both consoles are definitely low-end compared to even modest gaming PCs. Yes I know, consoles are consoles, they are closed-box systems that developers target for 5, 6 even 7 years. That said, its really obvious that neither PS4 nor Xbox One were intended to last 7-8 years like the last-gen was. It doesn't mean they won't be supported beyond 2018/2019, but it's pretty clear their successors should arrive before the decade is over.