Xbox president Sarah Bond has been speaking with Fortune Magazine as part of a lengthy interview for YouTube today, where she's provided a few extra hints about what to expect from the next Xbox console and future Xbox hardware.
Sarah was questioned during the interview about how important hardware remains to Xbox in a future that's all about playing anywhere, and she insisted that it remains "absolutely core" to what the brand is doing right now:
"Hardware is absolutely core to everything we do at Xbox, because we know that our most valuable players, the people who love Xbox, love the hardware experience. And so that is why we're working on our next-generation hardware, it's going to be a powerful experience and one that also enables people to take their library with them."
The Xbox president then went on to highlight the value of playing your Xbox library across multiple devices, suggesting that the next generation of hardware will lean into this in even greater fashion:
"We know that while people want to play their library absolutely on console, they also want to be able to play it on PC or stream it around the cloud. And so the Xbox experience starts with the console, but then gives something to people that they can experience across all screens if they choose to, bringing their library, their community, their identity and the store with them everywhere they go."
Of course, we've heard similar statements from Xbox in the past, but it's nice to see Sarah Bond doubling-down on how important Xbox hardware remains — both to the company and its "most valuable players".
We're still waiting to see how true the rumours are about the next Xbox console allowing access to the likes of Steam and the Epic Games Store, but for now, we can at least rest assured that Xbox is very committed to hardware for the next generation of consoles and whatever else the word "hardware" entails for Microsoft.