Xbox is at its lowest point since the brand first came on the scene nearly 24 years ago. After several rounds of price hikes, Xbox consoles cost more than ever. Microsoft just put Game Pass through a price-gouging scheme that is sending fans racing to cancel their subscriptions. Xbox has ensured few once-exclusive games on the platform are available pretty much everywhere. The next generation of Xbox may not be around for a while yet, but leaks show it could be one of the most powerful consoles ever. Hell, it may basically just be a PC.
Notorious silicon leaker Moore’s Law is Dead on YouTube shared the first renderings of the supposed “Magnus” APU, or accelerated processing unit, that AMD is reportedly developing for Xbox. This chip, which the leaker dubbed “Magnus” in previous reports, is a big sucker. It’s apparently 46% larger than the die—aka the block where you can find the most important processing bits—on the supposed next-gen PlayStation 6 console codenamed “Orion.”
The next-gen Xbox could look more like a PC
If the leaks are true, the next-gen Xbox is going to be a lot more powerful than competing consoles. More power means a higher cost. Xbox could be gearing up to tease us with a gaming device that costs $800 to $1,000, or even more. The PlayStation 5 Pro is currently the most expensive console at $750. How players react to that price could shape the future of console gaming. Xbox had already subsidized the Series X at $500, and anything more than that encroaches on PC gaming’s domain. Moore’s Law is Dead claims the Magnus APU isn’t as big as AMD’s current leading chips with both strong CPU and GPU capabilities, namely Strix Halo and chips like the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395.
The next-gen Magnus APU will likely have bridge dies, like the ones Intel is using with its newly announced Panther Lake microarchitecture, to expand the size of its graphics processor. Moore’s Law is Dead claims the next-gen Magnus APU will have 11 Zen 6 cores, using AMD’s still-unreleased CPU architecture on a 3nm process. It could also use AMD’s RDNA 5 GPU. This would give it access to AMD’s latest version of FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR 4, for AI upscaling. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. AI upscaling—which enhances performance by boosting frames at a lower resolution to a higher resolution—makes more sense on more limited consoles than it does on expensive PCs.
If you want a sense for what all this talk about upscaling does for games, check out PlayStation’s lead architect Mark Cerny talking with AMD general manager Jack Huynh about what the next generation of upscaling will look like on Sony’s console. For the first time, Cerny confirmed Sony is working on a new console. They’ve dubbed it “Project Amethyst,” but based on the short video, new compression techniques will be prominent on whatever “next-gen” PlayStation console hits the scene.
After Microsoft hiked Xbox Game Pass Ultimate prices to $30 a month, fans flooded the internet with speculation that the next Xbox console was kaput. In a statement to Windows Central, Microsoft stated it was “actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox.” It then referred to its big announcement earlier this year, where it confirmed it was working on a next-gen console. Microsoft confirmed it was beholden to AMD for its future devices. That’s despite unconfirmed rumors that the company completely nixed its first-party handheld console due to AMD demanding it ship a certain number of units.
Everything ‘Xbox’ is getting more expensive
Xbox’s first novel non-controller gaming hardware in five years isn’t technically made by Microsoft. The $1,000 Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is a handheld PC built with the Xbox app front and center. Microsoft is referring to its new handheld-friendly version of Windows, the “full screen experience,” or FSE. It’s the kind of name to make most Xbox gamers yawn, though it’s likely a precursor to how Microsoft’s gaming brand expects players to navigate their next-gen console. Imagine your Xbox had the regular Xbox app for accessing games, but it would also allow you to peruse your Steam game library as well.
A next-gen Xbox console could still be two years out, and a lot could change in that time. Xbox has to go into survival mode for that time. The brand won’t hit the 100 million subscriber count on Xbox Game Pass that it had hoped for anytime soon, especially not after the recent price hikes. I can’t help but imagine that without a cheap alternative, gamers without deep pockets will have to look elsewhere for greener pastures. Xbox seems set to take on Valve’s rumored “Fremont” Steam Box—a supposed console-like PC running Linux-based SteamOS—more than it is ready to take on PlayStation or Nintendo’s Switch 2. Either way, the gaming landscape will look very different in just a few years.