Alongside the ROG Xbox Ally, we know that Team Green is working with AMD on next-generation Xbox hardware, and Series X|S architect Jason Ronald has been talking on a new podcast about three of Microsoft's core aims for its next console.
In the latest Official Xbox Podcast episode, Ronald was quizzed about future console hardware and what that looks like for Microsoft. While the team clearly has big plans relating to PC and Cloud Gaming, console is still a core focus, and Ronald has touched on three major aspects of the next-gen Xbox: compatibility across devices, 'neural rendering' and of course, AI.
Here's what the Xbox exec had to say:
"So last month, we announced a multi-year strategic partnership that spans multiple products across console, cloud, PC, and handheld, and we're deeply focused on hardware and silicon innovation and how we can push the boundaries beyond the current generation of devices. But this is really all grounded in the work we're doing to create a unified platform that allows players to play across devices and in entirely new ways [...] So together with AMD, we're designing dedicated silicon and hardware to enable the next generation of gaming experiences, and so that means we're investing deeply in the next generation of rendering technologies, such as neural rendering, which will bring a new level of fidelity to the quality of the games that you're having, and it's really about deepening the immersion between you and the gameplay experience that you have.
We're also investing in dedicated silicon to enable the next generation of AI capabilities that will be transformative in how you actually experience your gameplay and also provides a new surface that developers can actually take advantage of and deliver new kinds of experiences that they've never been able to deliver before."
Ronald actually goes on to say that the work on AI silicon starts with this year's ROG Xbox Ally. The upgraded ROG Xbox Ally X has "a dedicated NPU" that allows Microsoft to "start experimenting and trying some of these AI-powered experiences well before we get to our next-generation console". It'll be interesting to see what comes of that and how the more powerful handheld influences Xbox's next home console.
We're also intrigued to see how Microsoft manages to translate its new multi-store approach to console gaming. In this podcast, Ronald says "it's really about ensuring that gameplay is not locked to an individual device or an individual storefront" - and it's certainly going to be interesting seeing this all unfold and evolve as we march on to next-gen!