Microsoft revealed today that it will continue to use AMD chips in its Xbox consoles. The announcement is delightfully vague, but there are big hints in there too.

“At Xbox, we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories,” Xbox president Sarah Bond says in the video announcement. “I am thrilled to share we’ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room, and in your hands.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift! “*” indicates required fields Email * Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Δ

This suggests three things: There will be one or more next-generation Xbox consoles, there will be a first-party Xbox gaming handheld, and both will be powered by AMD processors. What’s not clear here is whether Arm plays a role, as Microsoft had originally wanted for its next consoles. AMD makes the best x64 processors now, and its PC-like chips power the current-generation Xbox Series X|S as well as their predecessors in the Xbox One series. But AMD is also rumored to be working on Arm-based processor designs.

“Together with AMD, we’re advancing the state-of-the-art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games,” Bond’s short announcement continues. “This is all about building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.”

This, too, is interesting. It suggests that Windows and the PC really is the future of the Xbox platform, including on console, as we’ve speculated. In fact…

“That’s why we’re working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming,” she concludes. “The next generation of Xbox is coming to life, and this is just the beginning. We can’t wait to show you what’s next.”

If the Xbox console was going to be a different platform than Windows, Bond would never have described Windows as the number one platform for gaming. So I will take that as a confirmation.