The next Xbox will be the 'largest technical leap' yet but Microsoft is still planning to release exclusive Xbox games on other platforms

You know all those Xbox rumours? The hot new hardware including a handheld, the idea that Microsoft is giving up on consoles altogether and releasing its exclusive Xbox games on third party platforms. Turns out it's true. Well, most of it.

Microsoft made a fairly comprehensive Xbox data dump yesterday including an official podcast on YouTube and an interview with Microsoft's gaming head honcho Phil Spencer. Takeaway number one is that Microsoft is committed to a full Xbox hardware roadmap that certainly includes a new console that will deliver the «largest technical leap» in the history of Xbox and may include a new handheld. Takeaway number two? Microsoft is indeed going to release some previously Xbox-exclusive titles on other platforms.

Let's deal with the hardware side first. Here's what Xbox president Sarah Bond has to say about that.

«We’ve got more to come. There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday. We’re also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they’re building.»

That is a pretty unambiguous promise to release another generational instalment of its conventional Xbox gaming console, for that console to be a major performance step over the existing Xbox Series X, and also to release a range of other Xbox devices, be that controllers or even a handheld console.

On the latter, Phil Spencer had a few interesting things to say in his interview with the Verge when asked directly if Microsoft is planning a handheld.

«Obviously we’re kind of learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch, they’ve been fantastic with that,» Spencer says. «So when I look at Steam Deck and the ROG and my Legion Go, I’m a big fan of that space.»

But he also sees the challenges of making the handheld experience work.