More Xbox News Coming From Phil Spencer In August

After showcasing several first-party games in July, Xbox plans to keep the ball rolling in August.

Microsoft executive vice-president for Gaming Phil Spencer spoke to the Same Brain podcast, and said he was, “encouraged to be able to talk more” about the Xbox Series X’s backward compatibility features notes Video Games Chronicle. Spencer added, “I think in August we will have more to say on that.”

There were some media reports that previously indicated that Xbox would announce yet another next-gen console, codenamed Lockhart, in August of this year.

Lockhart, or "Xbox Series S" as what it will likely be called, has been touted by several media outlets as a less powerful version of the Xbox Series X targeting budget-conscious gamers.

Lockhart development kits are understood to have been with studios for several months, with next-gen Xbox developers expected to support both Series X and Lockhart in a setup similar to the existing Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles.

Venture Beat notes that Microsoft originally wanted to announce the Xbox Series S in June, but due to social unrest and the Black Lives Matters protests, pushed back its plans by a few months.

Traditionally, August is also the time for pricing and pre-order announcements and could align with a potential announcement regarding the Xbox Series S. The console’s universal selling proposition is likely going to be its cheaper price.

Recently, Microsoft confirmed it would be halting production of the Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition consoles. This move was done likely in anticipation of cheaper next-gen hardware notes Video Games Chronicle.

Originally billed as “the world’s most powerful console,” the Xbox One X was launched in November 2017 while the disc-less All-Digital Edition was launched just last year.

During the same interview, Spencer lamented not having a real-life event like E3 and interacting with fans but praised the Xbox team for coming together to launch the Xbox Games Showcase from their respective homes.

Regarding Game Pass, Spencer called the service “the star of the show.” “Normally when we think about a console launch, it’s just focused on the individual game titles and we clearly want to do that. Especially right now, value in gaming is important.”

“Obviously, there’s a global pandemic going on around us and the economy is where it is. We want to give families and people choice about how they build their libraries and the fact that we could do a whole show with every game on Game Pass, was such a great statement for our service and how it’s grown,” Spencer said.