Those of you who have been closely following news of the next-gen Xbox console may recall that Microsoft had been working on two versions of the system. The first version was codenamed “Lockhart” and was meant to be a lower cost product intended to appeal to price conscious consumers. The second model was known as “Anaconda” and has been described as a much more powerful version of the system.
Now it seems that Microsoft may have abandoned plans to release the “Lockhart” hardware and will solely be focusing on “Anaconda” as the baseline for the next Xbox console. Check out this tweet from Microsoft insider Brad Sams:
Microsoft Shifts Xbox Focus to One Next-Gen Console https://t.co/LtBjPxPqtg
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) June 20, 2019
It is unclear why Microsoft would suddenly abandon the two-console approach but Sams has some theories why they may have done exactly that. One possible reason is that developers were having difficulties making games that would function across both systems. As Sams puts it, they would use the lower-end console as a baseline and upscale their game for Anaconda. This would put the Anaconda SKU at a disadvantage when compared to a PlayStation 5 running the same game. That is a situation that Microsoft very much wishes to avoid. By focusing on the Anaconda version developers will be able to code games that fully take advantage of the more powerful system’s capabilities.
Another possible reason for canceling the Lockhart version is that xCloud may remove the need for a budget version of the next Xbox. After all, people who resist purchasing even a low cost console can simply play new Xbox games on their own devices via streaming.
The Inner Circle will bring you all of the details about the next-gen Xbox console as they become available.
