Phil Spencer Says Xbox Series X Doesn’t Need An Upgrade, Is That True?

Last console generation, it felt like a new tradition had arrived. Midway through the generation we weren’t just getting slimmed-down, cheaper versions of consoles, we were getting mid-gen power upgrades as well.

The PS4 Pro launched in 2016, three years after the PS4, furthering the power edge the console had over the Xbox One.

Then, Microsoft launched the Xbox One X in 2017, four years after the Xbox One, and leapfrogging the Pro to become the most powerful console of that generation.

We are now about to conclude the third year of this current console generation, and while Sony is not about to release a PS5 Pro this fall, the behind-the-scenes rumblings are that they are indeed working on one. But Microsoft? Not so much, says Phil Spencer.

Speaking to Bloomberg, the Microsoft gaming CEO indicates that no Xbox Series X upgrade is coming any time soon. He “doesn’t feel an imperative” to release another Xbox. “That’s not the feedback we’re getting right now. Right now, we’re pretty set on the hardware we have.”

This is in the wake of Microsoft debuting a moderately updated Xbox Series S, its lower spec console, to have a double-size 1 TB SSD, and it’s now black. But no actual power upgrades there and none are planned for the Series X either. One rumor is that Microsoft is not planning a new, powerful console, but instead something in the opposite direction, an Xbox-branded streaming box for its cloud ambitions. Spencer accidentally revealed a prototype of that at one point sitting in his office but had to clarify that wasn’t something that was coming any time soon in that form. And by saying they are “set on the hardware we have,” maybe that idea is dead.

There has been some pushback to all this, given that Spencer was previously championing Xbox as having the most powerful console, an honor it did not have last generation, and if the PS5 Pro does exist and is released, say, next year, it will likely lose that crown.

And yet you can see the rationale here. The Xbox Series X has no shortage of power for its price. The issues with the Xbox brand are not really the actual performance or tech of its Series X/S consoles. The issues with the Xbox brand are… the brand. The idea, no doubt, is that if Microsoft starts producing games that people want, the kind it showed off at that showcase, that more console sales and Game Pass subs will follow. Making a more powerful console when it already launched with the most powerful console, which didn’t come close to outpacing Sony in sales, does not make a ton of sense for Microsoft.

Conversely, it still does make sense for Sony to make a PS5 Pro. Not that it really needs to “reclaim the power edge,” as that’s not very important. But the PS5 is selling so well that eventually, you saturate the market. So then how do you sell a PS5 to people who already own PS5s? Make a new, mildly more powerful PS5 that people think they want. I mean, I’d want one, even if deep down I know it’s probably pointless.

So that’s where we are, and I think both strategies from both companies are pretty logical, given their respective places in the market.

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