Microsoft has reiterated its intention to remain in the first-party console business, despite rumors swirling recently that the company may be contemplating an exit from that side of its operations.
In a statement provided to Windows Central, Microsoft says it is “actively investing in [its] future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered, and built by Xbox”, which is a pretty definitive rebuttal of rumors to the contrary.
The company also suggested that those who want to see proof of its commitment to the console business can remind themselves of the agreement Xbox made with AMD back in June, which will see the tech company creating chips for new Xbox devices.
Recent rumors appear to have started with leaker SneakersSO (who was previously apparently responsible for leaking the news that Xbox would port its games to other hardware, including erstwhile rival PlayStation).
The leaker said over the weekend that Xbox’s future lay in software rather than hardware, and that previously “concrete” plans for new Xbox hardware had become “up in the air”. Evidently, that’s not the case, or at least that isn’t the image Microsoft wants to publicly project.
If Microsoft were to pull out of the console race, it wouldn’t necessarily be an entirely ridiculous decision. According to Aldora Intelligence’s sales data (via Forbes), Xbox Series X|S sales are sitting at under half of the PlayStation 5’s numbers, having failed to break 30 million between the two available machines.
These are not, however, official figures; Microsoft is, unlike Sony, fairly reticent about regularly announcing how many Xbox Series consoles it’s managed to sell. Still, it’s fair to say Xbox is almost certainly trailing Sony quite significantly in terms of hardware sales.
Microsoft’s statement comes after Xbox introduced new tiers for its Game Pass subscription service last week, with Ultimate now costing an eye-watering $30 per month. That move itself came after Xbox revealed that this year marked its “largest investment” in the service to date.
