Microsoft’s Xbox One was originally announced and launched back in 2013, which means that the console is about 6 years old now and is ripe to be replaced by a newer console, at least based on previous console release patterns in the past. It seems that time could be now, or at least at E3 this year.
This is according to French gaming website JeuxVideoi (via VG247) who claims that Microsoft could debut two of their next-gen Xbox consoles at E3 this year. Dubbed “Lockhard” and “Anaconda”, this is actually not the first time we’re hearing about them where based on rumors from last year, Lockhart will be a cheaper Xbox without a disc drive and will instead rely on streaming.
The report claims that the new Xbox consoles will debut at E3 2019, but it will only be in 2020 that they are expected to be made available for purchase. What’s interesting about the Lockhart console is that more recently, there was a rumor that Xbox Game Pass could be launching on the Nintendo Switch and will rely on Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming platform to stream games to the console, so it’s not surprising that Lockhart could utilize similar technology as well.
Take this report with a grain of salt for now, but if it is true, we should find out soon enough as E3 will be taking place in the next few months in June. In the meantime Sony is also expected to launch the PS5, but there are conflicting reports as to whether or not it will arrive in 2019 or 2020.