Rumor has it that Microsoft will launch the successor to the Xbox Series in two versions!

Well, it’s not quite time yet, as it’s been just over three years since the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were launched, but Microsoft (and certainly Sony) are already looking at the next generation of hardware. Rumors have it that Redmond is planning two SKUs, meaning that two different consoles will be released. But for the cheaper model, it won’t be what we saw with the Xbox Series S: reportedly, the budget version of the hardware will be a Nintendo Switch-like handheld that supports cloud gaming and… It can run games locally! (So compared to the PlayStation Portal, this sounds more promising already…)

During the Xbox News Cast podcast, Middleagegameguy talked about the next Microsoft console. According to him, it’s still planned to be released in 2026. The more expensive console will be a traditional console (like the Xbox Series X or Xbox One), and the cheaper version will be a dockable handheld created by Microsoft’s Surface team with built-in controls and touchscreen (so you don’t just get a tablet, you get analog sticks and buttons, tpp).

But it’s important to remember that Microsoft’s strategy has changed significantly over the last few console generations (there was no talk of games coming to PC at the start of the Xbox One), and we’ll probably hear next week that the Xbox expects multiplatform releases. (We’ve also mentioned in the news that games like Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could appear on PlayStation 5 (but in the case of Tango Gameworks’ game, Nintendo Switch would also be a logical choice).

None of this is official yet, but it looks like the rumors could be true this time (we’ve seen this many times before…).

Source: WCCFTech