The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S may only be just over seven months old, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about whether Microsoft might be working on a mid-gen refresh like we saw with the Xbox One X.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has dismissed the imminent arrival of any new hardware, however, and does not expect an Xbox Series X model refresh in the near future.
Speaking on the 500th episode of Podcast Unlocked, Spencer said: “There’s nothing that’s going to come out next year that’s going to make you feel like, oh, I should have waited. These are the consoles that [we will] have in the markets for years. And we built them with that in mind, and I love the tech that's in there and that capability, and that’s where our focus is going.”
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The Xbox One X and PS4 Pro represented the first time we’d seen mid-gen refreshes in a console generation, ones that added significantly more technical horsepower to both the Xbox One and PS4.
Slim models or console refreshes have been much more commonplace, and Microsoft refreshed the Xbox One with the Xbox One S model after three years on sale in 2016. The Xbox One X released one year later, and added 4K gaming to Microsoft’s home console. Microsoft also released an Xbox One S All-Digital Edition in 2019.
Spencer made it clear that if any new hardware is announced, it won't just be done for the sake of it.
"We don't have to go do hardware just to go do it. We want to do hardware because it actually creates new opportunities," Spencer states regarding the Xbox Series X/S. "And I've said before, it could be at the lower end that we find more immediate opportunities."
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But does that mean we won’t see any new Xbox hardware moving forward? Not necessarily. We already know that Microsoft is working on future Xbox hardware, and that a streaming stick for Xbox Cloud Gaming is in the works.
Spencer also confirmed that we will see special edition consoles when there are "certain moments that are going to be special that we'll want to celebrate" but noted that the "chip shortage will be with us for a while", so the focus is on increasing Xbox Series X and S supply first and foremost.
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