‘We’ll definitely do more consoles’, Xbox boss Spencer says

There will be more Xbox consoles in the future, Microsoft‘s gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said.

In an interview with Rolling Stone following the launch of the company’s new This is an Xbox marketing campaign, Spencer explained that the shift to a multi-platform strategy doesn’t mean the Xbox Series X and Series S will be the final Xbox consoles.

“We’ll definitely do more consoles in the future,” Spencer confirmed, “and other devices”.

“Other devices” may refer to the oft-reported Xbox handheld, which Spencer said earlier this week was in the pipeline but was likely still years away.

When asked by Rolling Stone if Xbox would release a mid-generation console upgrade similar to the PS5 Pro, Spencer was less definitive, appearing to suggest he didn’t think the difference in performance was worth it.

“We think about hardware that can create unique value for our players or creators on our platform,” he explained. “We don’t need to do incremental hardware for our own benefit.

“Does a new device really give you a unique experience on screen in some way? [It’s] less like the old days, going from the original Xbox to 360 – that was standard definition to high definition. Now [it’s] harder to show the benefits.”

Spencer confirmed earlier to Bloomberg that Microsoft is working on handheld gaming prototypes, saying that the “expectation is that we would do something” in the category.

“Longer term, I love us building devices,” he explained. “And I think our team could do some real innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what’s happening now.”