So at present, rumors started to swirl throughout the web that Xbox is planning to exit {hardware}, and transfer totally to Xbox Cloud Gaming as the first solution to entry content material. I can affirm through very trusted sources that this is not true. Not less than for now.
UPDATE (Oct 5, 2025): Microsoft has supplied the next assertion, echoing our earlier report: “We’re actively investing in our future first-party consoles and units designed, engineered and constructed by Xbox. For extra particulars, the group can revisit our settlement announcement with AMD.”
However that, “at the very least for now” qualifier is an actual drawback. How can we all know what shall be true subsequent quarter? Let’s put apart for a minute the truth that Xbox Sport Cross stays a main driver of income, and is most prolific on Xbox console {hardware} — and that is the place the majority of the customers are proper now. Let’s put apart the truth that Xbox Cloud Gaming is restricted by location and is pricey to run.
Mix that with the truth that with the identical silicon, you would give individuals their very own “cloud” natively of their home — and get them to make use of their very own electrical energy to energy it. You understand, like a console. It does not make loads of sense on paper. However regardless, that is the place we’re at.
UPDATE: Microsoft has at the very least confirmed that, for now, that the rumors are false, as famous within the assertion above. However how did we get right here? The unique report continues beneath.
All of those rumors emerged within the wake of Microsoft’s barely-explicable 50% value rise in Xbox Sport Cross Final, and the bizarre tone-deaf means through which they tried to current it as a “good factor” throwing in Fortnite Crew and stuff individuals did not actually ask for.
The actual fact these newest {hardware} exit rumors proceed to look believable is an actual drawback, regardless of the supply of the rumors. It showcases, to me, a really deep disconnect between Microsoft and the way its viewers and the group at giant views gaming on the whole.
Microsoft’s multi-year partnership with AMD for next-gen Xbox {hardware} remains to be the current plan
I may simply be simply as random a supply claiming that Xbox {hardware} remains to be on the desk, however it was our sources that confirmed the existence of the Xbox Collection X|S, their specs, their value, along with experiences on the cancelled cloud “Keystone” console, the shelved first-party Xbox handheld, and extra lately, the Xbox Ally. Codenamed Kennan and comprised of Omni (Xbox Ally) and Horseman (Xbox Ally X), the Xbox Ally vary is a part of Microsoft’s multi-year partnership with AMD, which can embrace tailored units from first get together.
I’ve requested a number of trusted sources, lots of whom spoke to me on the above units beforehand which turned out to be true, about what Xbox’s current {hardware} posture is. And with Microsoft’s affirmation, there is no cause to suppose something is altering.
Microsoft publicly confirmed that it is nonetheless dedicated to first-party Xbox {hardware} over the summer season, with feedback from each President Sarah Bond and AMD CEO Lisa Su on silicon that might energy next-gen Xbox units — each from third and first-party. The assertion reiterates this dedication.
The unique feedback got here from a gaming discussion board, and urged that Xbox’s focus can be on its core mega franchises like World of Warcraft, Name of Obligation, Forza Horizon, and so forth, and that {hardware} plans had been “up within the air,” not really cancelled. These feedback morphed into “Xbox {hardware} is cancelled” from varied commentators, and have now taken on a lifetime of their very own on social media as individuals speculate on the way forward for the Xbox platform. From what I have been informed, the {hardware} plans aren’t even “up within the air,” and stay firmly Xbox’s path ahead. Xbox Collection X|S {hardware} manufacturing has not ceased, and new inventory will exit to retailers at its ordinary cadence.
However even when Microsoft did come out to squash the rumors themselves, it is laborious to have any religion. Microsoft has been extremely fickle over the previous few years, crushed below AI hype, calls for from CFO Amy Hood, and a whole dereliction of fan suggestions.
The deliberate restructuring of Xbox Sport Cross was months within the making and, past their obvious macroeconomic “want” to make even extra cash, it is primarily based on consumer habits and the need to spice up the content material fund for the cohort almost certainly to unsubscribe with out new content material. Codenames showing for the brand new tiers over the summer season, and isn’t the results of a quarterly knee-jerk response. But it surely does not matter.
Mixed with enormous value hikes, retailers like Costco and others eradicating Xbox {hardware}, and Microsoft’s huge layoffs over the summer season — it isn’t unsurprising persons are speculating on Xbox’s demise. Microsoft is completely terrible at managing religion in its client merchandise, and I’ve written beforehand about how the telemetry driving its selections and its diffuse focus is resulting in a collapse in morale within the model.
Gaming just isn’t a necessity, or a utility — it is pushed by sentiment and “enjoyable” feeling. individuals have to additionally really feel good about the place they play, and Microsoft is making it extremely laborious to really feel good about Xbox proper now. It is clearly reaching a disaster level.
Xbox the pariah
I have been masking Xbox for over ten years at this level, and I began when Microsoft’s bombed Xbox One reveal led to a groundswell of hate for the model and its future. It was fostered by a way of betrayal in what Xbox had been and represented, and led to an enormous climb down that successfully dismantled the Xbox One platform — and put Xbox firmly in “third-place” ceaselessly. Recently, it seems like we’re again in 2013 once more.
The business seems very totally different in 2025, as maturing audiences and an absence of significant new participant development has firms breaking the foundations to search out new income streams. We have seen Xbox video games flood onto PlayStation, we have even seen PlayStation deliver video games to Xbox. Microsoft is licensing out the Xbox model to OEMs with the Xbox Ally (and I am informed extra OEM {hardware} ought to seem in 2026, too).
The inconsistency is exhausting for followers, and in a sentiment-driven enterprise, probably untenable.
The one fixed that Xbox followers may level to amongst all of this was the clear worth of Xbox Sport Cross. “Xbox Sport Cross is the very best worth in gaming,” or so the meme goes. Regardless of some value rises over the previous couple of years, it was laborious to miss what a stellar yr it had up to now, with video games like Expedition 33, Blue Prince, DOOM, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake, and others. However with an unprecedented 50% value enhance on the tier that truly will get day one video games, the unfavourable response has been extremely robust.
All of it simply seems like one other betrayal, significantly given President Sarah Bond’s feedback that Xbox Sport Cross is worthwhile, and likewise hitting $5 billion in revenues. The way in which Xbox offered the “modifications” as a “good factor” got here throughout as tone deaf, particularly given how different firms are pushing up costs whereas additionally concurrently reporting document income.
So, it is hardly stunning that these rumors gained a lot traction, as a result of even when they don’t seem to be true at present, they might positively be true tomorrow. It is laborious to take something what at present’s Xbox says or does on religion, as a result of they’re apparently keen to throw something and every part on the fireplace if it means a quarterly enhance.
The inconsistency is exhausting for followers, almost certainly regarding for builders — and in a sentiment-driven enterprise, probably untenable.
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