Microsoft to launch new "hybrid" cloud and AI-based gaming platform in 2028, according to leaked docs

rockpapershotgun.com:

As you've hopefully read elsewhere on here, there's been an overnight windfall of insider info about Microsoft's long-term gaming biz objectives, thanks to documents accidentally released by the US Federal Trading Commission during its court case against Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard acquisition. We've learned that Microsoft are still rather keen on buying Nintendo (and Valve), and that the company had planned out the release of Dishonored 3, an Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remaster and a Ghostwire: Tokyo sequel during the run-up to its acquisition of ZeniMax.

The leaked documents also include extensive internal pitch and presentation materials regarding Microsoft's first-party gaming operations all the way to 2030. We can apparently expect a mid-generation Xbox console refresh, code-named Brooklin, in 2024; more intriguing, from a PC gaming perspective, is the promise of a 2028-bound "hybrid" Xbox platform, which will centre on a "thin client" OS that runs cloud-based games on “< $99”, "consumer or handheld" devices. Oh no, it's the power of the cloud all over again.

"Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences," reads one set of presentation slides concerning Microsoft's longer-term gaming objectives, which appear to date from May 2022. "Optimized for real time game play and creators, we will enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone."

If the presentation is an accurate description of Microsoft's current endeavours, the new Xbox platform will call upon present-day investments in "forward compatible" CPU and GPU