Microsoft is hunting for Nintendo and is already planning a new generation of Xbox. Company plans leaked!

The refreshed Xbox Series X and the new Microsoft controller are not all the revelations for today. The company’s massive email leak gives us a glimpse into a slew of plans – including potential acquisitions and a new generation of consoles!

A refreshed Xbox Series X and a new pad are coming

As Piotr Kurek reported this morning, a refreshed version of Xbox Series X is being prepared. Most importantly, we know a number of information related to it – from appearance, through functions, to the release date. From the shared documents published by The Verge, we also learned that a new controller for Xbox consoles, computers and cloud gaming is being prepared. What do we know about the refreshed Xbox Series X and the new pad? Check out the article This is what the refreshed Xbox Series X may look like. When is the premiere?

Microsoft still sighs at Nintendo. Will it be a love story with a happy ending?

Not only information about the “half-generation” of Xbox and the new pad was leaked. In fact, much more has been leaked – so much that both Phil Spencer and the entire Microsoft team dealing with Xbox and gaming in general probably have a big headache. These include a series of emails that were exchanged in 2020 between Phil Spencer, chief marketing officer Chris Capossela, and chief commercial officer Takeshi Numoto, focusing on a possible future acquisition of Nintendo.

Numoto mainly pointed out that Nintendo has an extremely rich collection of its own IPs, and Spencer stated that if any American company had a chance with Nintendo, Microsoft is probably in the best position. Still, he pointed out that the Japanese giant has a “big pile of cash” that would make a takeover difficult. One of Spencer’s messages was as follows:

I completely agree that Nintendo is a major asset in the gaming industry, and gaming is currently our most likely path to making a difference to consumers.

The Xbox CEO’s message ends with: “Acquiring Nintendo would be a career-defining moment, and I truly believe it’s a good move for both companies. Nintendo needs a long time to convince themselves that their future lies in their own hardware. A lot of time”. Spencer also added that the company has no intention of rushing and will “play this game for the long haul” — but does this mission have any chance of success? For now, we have to answer this question ourselves.

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There were no official contacts with Nintendo, but definitely with Sega

Although Nintendo has cooperated with Microsoft in several situations, for example regarding the availability of Cuphead on the Japanese company’s hybrid console or signing an agreement regarding the availability of Call of Duty on Nintendo, the leaked documents do not indicate that there were any official contacts between the companies in regarding the takeover. It was different with Sega.

The leak confirms that Microsoft approached Sega with a potential acquisition proposal in 2020. The Japanese company emerged as the most attractive target among the 46 companies assessed – and this also included Bandai Namco, Capcom, Konami, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Valve and a number of mobile studios. Sega’s usefulness was assessed mainly on the basis of a catalog of recognizable brands, such as Sonic, Persona or Yakuza, as well as a strong catalog on PCs, such as Football Manager or Total War. Additionally, Microsoft’s presence in Asia was also important.

Next-generation Xbox – what do we know about the successor to Xbox Series X?

The leaked documents also outline plans for the next Xbox console, which the company expects to be released in five years and is called the “next generation of gaming at Microsoft.” The presentation slide reads:

Our vision: to develop a next-generation hybrid gaming platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and an entirely new class of gaming experience. […] Optimized for real-time gaming and creators, we will enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of hardware alone.

The slides included information about the console such as “forward compatibility”, information about the ARM64 processor and AMD graphics card, as well as “next-generation DirectX ray-tracing”. Another graphic showing the design process roadmap provides detailed hardware design information, revealing plans to start work in 2024. The first development kits are scheduled to appear in 2027, so the console itself is expected to appear in stores in 2028.

In addition, the documents contained information about refreshed versions of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Fallout 3, as well as a new game from the Doom series and Dishonored 3. Well, as you can see, a lot has happened.

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