Shortly following the release of ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft's Sarah Bond has been dropping hints about the team's next-gen plans - and the Xbox President has had some interesting things to say about the next console from Microsoft.
In a new interview with Mashable, Bond was quizzed about rumours that the next-gen Xbox will be more PC-like. In response, the exec basically went along with those rumours - saying that the team's next-gen console will be "a very premium, very high-end curated experience", and that the "thinking" behind it has been informed by the ROG Xbox Ally handheld.
"I can tell you you’re right, that the next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience. You’re starting to see some of the thinking that we have in this handheld, but I don’t want to give it all away."
Of course, that doesn't mean that the next-gen console will necessarily take the same form factor as the ROG Xbox Ally, but it's sounding like Microsoft is leaning into that sort of hardware philosophy going forward. What we're reading into this is that the next-gen console will probably be pretty expensive, more PC-like in nature and open to all of the different storefronts and ways to play that you see on PC.
However, one crucial way the new console will likely differ from ROG Xbox Ally is compatibility with existing Xbox libraries. We're seeing lots of frustration swirling around that the new handheld is just a PC with an Xbox logo due to its lack of console game compatibility - but that should all change with the team's next-gen system. Microsoft has already revealed that it has established a 'Forward Compatibility' team to make sure existing libraries work with future hardware, and we're fully expecting the results of that labour to be on-show next generation.