Xbox squashes rumours that it's pulling out of consoles

Rumours have been swirling over the last few days, that we've seen the end of the Xbox. It has been claimed that Microsoft is going all-in on cloud gaming and getting out of the console-making business.

However, Microsoft has attempted to shut down the speculation with a statement saying firmly that it's still (literally) in the game: "We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox," it said.

The statement also points gamers to its June announcement of a multi-year partnership with silicon supplier AMD. They'll work in partnership to "co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices, including our next-generation Xbox consoles".

So that's the end of that. Or is it?

Why are people predicting the end of the Xbox console?

Although speculation of Microsoft turning its sole attention to the cloud has been simmering for a while, the recent (and major) price hike for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate seems to have brought it to the boil.

Jez Corden at our sister title Windows Central has been investigating the story, and found that the origin appears to be on gaming forums.

What began as chat about Microsoft's hardware plans being "up in the air" morphed into "Xbox hardware is cancelled". And when it hit social media, that was amplified.

But Corden's sources say that the hardware plans are not, in fact, up in the air at all – Microsoft continues to make its current Xboxes, and future home consoles are still planned.

That said, you can understand why gamers may be concerned. This summer we saw retailers including Costco stop stocking Xbox models, then there was that massive price increase to the already very profitable Game Pass. And of course, Microsoft has been porting previously Xbox-exclusive titles to the PS5.

And with the ongoing tariff situation in the US, it's not a great time to be in the hardware manufacturing business. So you can be sure that Microsoft is thinking very carefully about the future of its console.

For now it seems, the future of the Xbox is assured. But gamers still aren't convinced for the longer term.

As one poster on Reddit said in response to the new statement: "Microsoft confirms Xbox’s next-gen console hardware plans aren’t cancelled until Microsoft officially cancels them."