Previously during the week of E3 2018, Microsoft and Xbox have mentioned that they are hard at work building the next Xbox consoles. Turns out the plural aspects are on the mark, according to insider Brad Sams.

Here’s what we know; take it all with a grain of salt while you’re at it:

• Microsoft is building a traditional console together with another console that is “lower-powered” and is designed for game streaming.
• The streaming service that will be the main basis of the second console is called Scarlett Cloud. Microsoft showed off a demo game streaming during one of its all-hands meeting back in 2013.
• While the cloud console will have a limited amount of power for controller inputs, image processing, and collision detection, it will cost significantly less than next-gen console prices at launch. We’re looking at US$125 or less, and will come with a hard drive that will deal with the aforementioned latency issues
• Microsoft’s main challenge for the latter console is figuring out how to handle the latency sensitive aspects of gaming and streaming.
• The consoles will launch at the same time, presumably in 2020.
• All next-gen Scarlettgames will run on both consoles, so there’s none of that “first-class citizen” stigma that comes with this sort of tech.

Our Take On This

With Xbox’s Game Pass going on steadily with a bunch of new titles still being added in over time while its Xbox One exclusives are still due for 2019, we think Xbox’s future-proofing plans sound solid and on point with their current gaming service direction. Of course, this could mean that the titles announced last June, at least the ones without a release year, might be exclusively for the Scarlett line. Hope you like waiting, Xbox fans.