Microsoft Offers a Glimpse at Where It's 'Designing, Prototyping and Testing For The Next Generation of Xbox'

Xbox president Sarah Bond has hosted a uncommon circuit of Microsoft's gaming hardware improvement offices, including the briefest of looks astatine wherever the company's next-generation consoles are being built.

In a conception broadcast contiguous connected Good Morning America highlighting this week's motorboat of the Xbox Ally handheld, Bond took ABC News newsman Becky Worley astir an country usually off-limits to each but a prime few.

"This is Microsoft Building 87," Bond says, taking Worley into 1 of the company's astir secretive areas — which, somewhat anticlimactically, is truly conscionable an country filled with a wood of desks and screens. The brace past analyse a ample 3D printer, utilized to make trial versions of Xbox hardware products.

"This is wherever the squad is really designing, prototyping and investigating for the adjacent procreation of Xbox," Bond continues. "It is apical secret. So we very, precise seldom instrumentality radical successful here."

At 1 point, Bond and Worley inexplicably beryllium down successful a replica conception of an airplane that's besides included successful the building, though there's nary mentation fixed for what this abstraction is utilized for. A spot to trial wireless signals wrong a mocked up cabin, oregon conscionable a themed seating area? It's unclear.

(Fun fact: Building 87 erstwhile held the Guinness World Record for being the quietest spot connected Earth, wrong a noise-canceling anechoic enclosure that's truthful quiescent it tin marque occupants statesman to perceive their ain heartbeats.)

Today's sojourn feels good timed, beyond being conscionable a elemental photograph opp for the Xbox Ally handhelds. Earlier this month, aft a bruising summertime of layoffs, terms rises and rumors astir its aboriginal successful the hardware business, Xbox issued a connection that attempted to wide the aerial by re-committing to its plans to physique next-gen console hardware.

"We are actively investing successful our aboriginal first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox," Microsoft said successful a connection to Windows Central. "For much details, the assemblage tin revisit our statement announcement with AMD."

Exactly erstwhile Microsoft volition motorboat its caller console(s) remains unclear, with the anticipation among fans being that the existent Xbox Series X and S volition stay the company's existent offering for a mates of years yet.

As for the Xbox Ally X, IGN's freshly-published Asus ROG Xbox Ally X hardware reappraisal has dubbed the instrumentality arsenic "the caller handheld gaming PC to beat."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social