With Sony deciding to opt out of this year’s E3 conference, all eyes will be on its major competitor, Microsoft, and what it has in store for the next generation of gaming hardware. According to French gaming publication, JeuxVideo, the company is planning on dropping some details about its Xbox One successor.
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Don’t expect a full reveal, though, Microsoft probably won’t wanna give too much away, but we should at least see some kind of confirmation that it’s working on two new gaming consoles, both of which are likely to be released in 2020.
Like its current lineup featuring the One S and One X, the company is expected to have a baseline and top-tier option. What we do know is the codenames for these devices, with Anaconda being the high-end deal, and Lockheart sitting at the base, which will likely be a cheaper means for tapping into Microsoft’s upcoming xCloud service.
Announced at 2018’s E3, xCloud is the company’s game streaming service, which it claims will let you run titles on almost any device, including smartphones, tablets, etc. Industry experts reckon the Lockheart will be a diskless variant, whereas the Anaconda will be a traditional console with incredible processing power and could even contain a solid state hard drive.
There’s also the disk-to-digital service which converts any old physical games into a digital download, which fits pretty well in the context of a console without a disk drive, and adds weight to whispers that the next-gen hardware will be completely backwards compatible from the beginning.
It’s certainly a different approach compared to Sony’s, but it makes sense for them to get the upper hand given the latter has bowed out of the event, even if all we do get is a few small details. It should be a pretty exciting E3, folks.
