Once again, the Xbox boss has done it again by leaving something in the background that hasn’t been adequately announced yet.

 

Previously, Phil Spencer put an Xbox Series S on the shelf in his office, which ended up being its first official appearance. Still, he also hinted at a collaboration with Hideo Kojima by having Ludens, the character from the Kojima Productions logo, on the shelf and then the announcement of the Xbox project (the game is supposedly called Overdose). So it’s a bit of a tradition for him.

Spencer has published a new photo on Twitter, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Fallout, so he’s put his Vault Boy character on the shelf… but let’s take a closer look at the top shelf! There’s a new Xbox hardware. That little white box is suspicious, and we’re not alone because Windows Central’s Tom Warren has identified it: he thinks it’s the Keystone streaming box we’ve written about before (and reported on its redesign).

The joke is that Microsoft has taken this on board! Xbox’s Twitter jokingly wrote, “Now what did we say about putting old prototypes on your shelf, boss?” Let’s recall what Microsoft said when it redesigned Keystone: “As part of any technical journey, we are constantly evaluating our efforts, reviewing our learnings, and ensuring we bring value to our customers. We have decided to pivot away from the current iteration of the Keystone device. We will take our learnings and refocus our efforts on a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players worldwide in the future.” So the new version might look different… and something Microsoft could reveal shortly.

Tweaktown has noticed that Xbox Game Pass generated $2.9 billion in revenue in 2021. The official figure is that Xbox grossed 16.28 billion last year, so the subscription service could account for approximately 18% of annual sales and roughly 30% of games and services. And that’s just taking into account the console sector.

Tweaktown’s Derek Strickland estimates that between August last year and March this year, the Xbox Game Pass subscriber base grew from 15 million to 18 million, but that’s not official. Still, that’s not a bad figure.

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech

Vault Boy left the shelter and stopped by my office to celebrate the #Fallout25 Anniversary. Congratulations to the @Fallout @Bethesda teams on this major milestone for an iconic franchise. pic.twitter.com/hGoN1sAQRK

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) October 10, 2022

I spy with my little 👁️

the Xbox “Keystone” streaming console 👀 https://t.co/9hxHg5KBVJ pic.twitter.com/1DBZqKh0Qd

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 10, 2022