If the reports are to be believed Microsoft is now working on four different variants of the new Xbox hardware. Out of those four two of them are just an emendation of the current Xbox One with some great cloud streaming features, the other two are totally different variants of the next-gen Xbox.
Recently Michael Pachter the industry analyst sat with GamingBolt over a chat where he said, “I expect a dumbed down console, like the Steam console, where it’s download only, and there’s no hard drive or disc drive, So I think there will be a streaming device, like a $100 Xbox console that doesn’t run in 4K or 240 frames per second. And then I think there will be a more expensive $400 console that supports 4K, 240 FPS, virtual reality. I don’t know if there will be ‘models’. I don’t think you’re going to get completely different devices.
After that coming to the topic of Sony Pachter did not look too confident about the different variants of the same system is what they are going to have for the PS5 and then he stated that “Whether Sony does it, I think they will probably have that 4K and 240 FPS device that’ll support PSVR, whether they have a PlayStation Now device that is streaming only, I don’t know. Maybe there will be two each for PlayStation and Xbox, but I would be surprised if there were more than two, and I’m not sure whether Sony is committed to doing that.”
According to Pachter the infrastructure that Microsoft is setting up with the xCloud will surely put them in a better position than of its rivals and will have a very well business too. What he mentioned is that though Sony has a PlayStation that can only be played if you own a PlayStation but in the case of Microsoft, you can play anywhere, as they are offering games without a console. This is going to be a huge advantage for the company as well as the customers as the customers will not have to pay a huge amount they will opt for it.
The next two variants releasing by Microsoft are focused more on cloud gaming, one of them will be focusing on streaming. The reports also suggest that there are few works being done on those lines too.
