Microsoft is reportedly aiming to launch its next-gen Xbox Sequence X/S successor in 2027, with a much-rumoured handheld Xbox arriving later this 12 months.
That is in accordance with Home windows Central, which stories an Xbox Sequence X/S successor has been greenlit “all the best way as much as [Microsoft] CEO Satya Nadella” and is now “totally in manufacturing”. The publication does not have a lot to share in the best way of specifics, nevertheless it claims the brand new console is a “premium successor to the highly effective Xbox Sequence X”, and is at present slated for a 2027 launch.
Microsoft has, in fact, already confirmed it is engaged on an Sequence X/S successor, with Xbox president Sarah Bond final 12 months saying – amid fan fears the corporate could also be seeking to abandon the console market – it was “invested in [its] next-generation street map” and “centered on… delivering the biggest technical leap that you’ll have ever seen in a {hardware} technology.”
Whereas 2027 is clearly nonetheless some appreciable means off, Home windows Central says Microsoft has different Xbox {hardware} plans resulting from attain fruition a lot sooner. The corporate is reportedly at present working alongside an unspecified “PC gaming OEM” to launch an Xbox-branded gaming handheld later this 12 months. It is claimed the gadget is being developed below the codename Keenan, and can – in accordance with Home windows Central’s sources – look “unmistakably ‘Xbox'”, sporting acquainted design sensibilities and even an Xbox information button.
The concept of an Xbox handheld is nothing new. Again in 2017, Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed Microsoft had “roughly designed an Xbox handheld” previously. Nonetheless, he is repeatedly returned to the topic over the past 12 months, fuelling hypothesis the undertaking had been revived. When questioned a couple of potential Xbox handheld final November, Spencer instructed any such gadgets would nonetheless be a couple of years away, however with Swap 2 looming, and stories suggesting Sony can also be working by itself handheld gadget within the type of transportable PS5, it is likely to be Microsoft felt the necessity to speed up its plans.
Curiously, Home windows Central claims Microsoft is additionally internally growing its personal Xbox gaming handheld, separate from this 12 months’s associate machine, which is because of launch alongside its Sequence X/S successor and “a number of new controller choices” in 2027.
All this comes after a 2024 that noticed Microsoft’s continued dedication to the console market repeatedly questioned, significantly following its determination to deliver choose first-party Xbox video games to different platforms. And whereas that multiplatform technique is accelerating in 2025, the corporate has been eager to reiterate its dedication to the Xbox {hardware} enterprise – final 12 months saying three new Xbox console variants alongside discuss of its next-gen plans.
