Xbox has a very solid offering in the cloud gaming segment today thanks to its Game Pass, but Microsoft has intended to go further with this idea by introducing a dedicated console that serves this exact purpose: a low-cost Xbox console that plays games on the cloud while offering similar experiences as the bigger Xbox Series models.
That is when Xbox’s codename “Keystone” came in – it targeted the price tag of $99 to $129 (~RM467 to RM609), but the company has failed to bring the price down for it to be commercially sustainable. Recently, a patent has been revealed and later discovered by Windows Central, depicting the unreleased console’s design.
The Unreleased Xbox “Keystone” Console
For starters, the design of the “Keystone” is instantly recognizable with what looks like a circular-shaped element on top on a tiny, mini-PC-like chassis. At the front, you get the Xbox logo that doubles as the power button, as well as a USB-A port; down the rear, there’s ethernet, HDMI, and power. There’s also what looks like a controller pairing button on the right side of the chassis.
Since the patent only describes the physical appearance of the device, nothing is known regarding the console’s software, nor its operating system. It’s likely for Microsoft to develop a downsized version of its OS used in the regular Xbox to fit within the leaner hardware, but we don’t know what kind of hardware it uses either. That being said, there is at least one prototype that exists, going by this earlier screenshot featuring Xbox CEO Phil Spencer’s shelf full of Xbox-themed products:
While Xbox has cancelled the Keystone project, its cloud gaming ambitions are still going strong today. Notably, Spencer has all but confirmed that a new Xbox gaming handheld is on its way, though it will feature enough compute horsepower to run games locally, just like most other handhelds. Still, this means it’s theoretically capable of playing games on the cloud, so it’s possible that Microsoft is heading towards this direction in their next phase of market expansion.
Pokdepinion: Definitely gives me the mini-PC / NUC vibe from this.
