Microsoft’s next Xbox will run Windows, a report says, blurring the line between PCs and consoles and making the latest Xbox Ally X the model of what Microsoft hopes to achieve in gaming.

Windows Central, which has established some good sources inside the console space, claims that the next Xbox will run Windows, with an Xbox Full Screen Experience layered on top. Given that Microsoft has already established a close working relationship with AMD, those chips should be inside the console as well, with backwards-compatibility going all the way back to the Xbox 360, the site says.

Microsoft hasn’t explicitly said that the next Xbox would run Windows, though the company hasn’t really tried to hide it, either. In June, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that the Xbox team was working closely with the Windows team “to ensure that Windows is the number-one platform in gaming.”

“It is almost two years to the day since I became the president of Xbox, and one of the first things that I observed was that Windows is the No. 1 platform for AAA gaming, but there was so much more that we could be doing as Xbox with Windows that was completely untapped around the world,” Bond added in October, joined by Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s president of Windows and devices, in a joint interview recorded by Yahoo Finance.

Think of the next Xbox as Microsoft’s answer to the Steam Deck. Valve’s handheld device runs on Linux, with a game overlay; the next Xbox will run on Windows, with its own Xbox Full Screen Experience layered on top. Microsoft buries Windows far beneath, but the company has also said that it only loads a stripped-down version of Windows with many of the productivity aspects of Windows simply cut out of the gaming experience.

Nevertheless, Windows Central’s sources seem to believe that you might able to tap that full-fledged Windows if you so choose. “Similarly, the Xbox Full Screen Experience will allow you to exit out to full Windows if you want to, and run competing stores like Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft’s own Battle.net, the Riot Client, and indeed anything else you want,” the site said. “Indeed, you could run Adobe CC or Microsoft Office on the next Xbox, if you so choose.”

As far the actual hardware, that’s up in the air as well. Microsoft has spent big trying to convince people that “This is an Xbox” — a slogan applied to consoles, TVs, phones, the ROG Xbox Ally X, and other devices. The implication is that games can be played on a variety of hardware, as long as Microsoft’s cloud gaming feature is enabled.

Of course, there’s a difference: gamers can play games in the cloud, but many prefer running their own games locally, minimizing input lag and latency.

Right now, the ROG Xbox Ally appears to be model for the next Xbox, based upon our own hands-on tests of the handheld, what Bond continues to say in subsequent interviews, and Windows Central’s own reporting. Last week Bond spoke to Mashable, characterizing the next Xbox as a premium experience and pooh-poohing the need for exclusive titles which are locked to a specific console. So far, no one has been able to say or even speculate what the next-gen Xbox will cost, including Windows Central.

Naturally, features like Auto Super Resolution and whatever frame-generation technologies AMD can bring to the table will almost certainly be utilized as well, Windows Central points out.

When we will see the next Xbox? Windows Central thinks 2027, which seems reasonable. A 2027 launch would allow Microsoft a slow rollout of the name, the console’s capabilities, the price, and so on — the drip-drip-drip of news that consumers detest, but keeps interest focused in on the next Xbox.

We’ve continually wondered when Microsoft would release its own branded gaming PC. Maybe it will, sort of.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld