Microsoft plans to launch the next generation of its consoles in 2028

According to Axios, during a meeting of senior Microsoft executives in May 2022, the planned release date of the next generation Xbox was discussed, among other things, which is expected to be in 2028.

Here's What We Know

Excerpts from this meeting were made public during the court case between Microsoft and the FTC, which tried to prevent Activision's takeover of Blizzard. During this meeting, one of the company's executives asked the game development team whether the next Xbox would be able to abandon fixed hardware characteristics, and received the following answer:

"One of the things consoles have been really great at is giving a very clear platform target for developers, and [Game Development Kit] has been really good at this".

Another topic of discussion was whether the plan for 2028 was to maintain the same fixed specs approach or to adopt a more flexible approach, as is the case with Windows. The answer to this question was given by Kevin Gammill, Corporate Vice President of Gaming Ecosystems:

"We have already started this journey with Xbox One and Xbox One X, furthering it in Series S/X".

Discussing the potential timing of the launch of new hardware in statements provided to the UK Competition and Markets Authority last year, Microsoft lawyers said that "the next new generation of consoles is not expected to be released until autumn 2028 at the earliest".

In June, Xbox chief executive Phill Spencer said that a potential mid-cycle hardware refresh for the Series X was not a priority for Microsoft, and reiterated this in an interview published last month.

Source: VGC with reference to Axios