This probably doesn’t come as a surprise: Microsoft has officially confirmed that – through a new multi-year partnership – AMD will once again be powering the next-generation Xbox console, along with other future Xbox products (which may includes more handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally we’ve just seen).
Microsoft Continues AMD Partnership
In a short video announcement, Xbox president Sarah Bond says both Microsoft and AMD will “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices,” which includes next-gen Xbox consoles, along with gaming handhelds. AI will be one of the key innovation areas this time around, although it’s unclear how this will be utilized as this wasn’t addressed in the video. Bond further states that game compatibility will continue to be preserved, so any Xbox game released today will work in the next-gen console.
Of course, the information of Microsoft potentially adopting an AMD-based chip for its next-generation console is not new, as the massive leak occurred back in September 2023 has already outlined the kind of hardware it’ll use, which includes AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 architecture for CPU, along with “Navi 5” based GPU – although this may no longer be accurate given the chipmaker’s pivoting to a unified UDNA architecture since the time of this leak.
Beyond consoles, Xbox certainly is looking to expand into the gaming handheld market proper, if Bond’s statement is any indication. The ROG Xbox Ally is likely serving as a “stopgap” until Microsoft’s gaming division can fully develop its own handheld, though there is currently no timeline on when that will happen.
Pokdepinion: AMD’s console reign continues.
