Phil Spencer Teases 'Exciting' Long-Term Plans for Xbox

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The release of the Xbox Series X in late 2020 gave the Xbox team a console launch it needed to deliver on years of long-term planning. While the launch itself was stifled somewhat due to the delay of Halo Infinite and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xbox's plans continue to move forward. The Xbox Series X launch was just one part of those plans and, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently explained, there's a lot to be excited about coming soon.

Spencer recently sat in on Xbox PR guru Major Nelson's podcast. He spent some time talking about what comes next for Xbox, though not in any specific terms. Rather, Spencer instead described how Xbox approaches its major plans, saying that the team already has a roadmap for not just the next year, but the next two-to-three years. In Spencer's words, he's "incredibly excited" about what's coming to Xbox within the next year or two.

Breaking down Xbox's plans into two "horizons," Spencer describes the next year as "horizon zero;" with no relation to the popular PC and PS4 game. He then calls the next few years "horizon one," which would be the schedule for Xbox's firm roadmap of plans. Again, Spencer doesn't clarify any of Xbox's plans during either of these windows, he only wants to clarify for fans exactly what kind of timeframe Xbox is looking at.

There's also another horizon that's between three and ten years out, which Spencer said is for ideas that mostly "won't work." He provides an example of the kind of idea in this horizon, with backward compatibility being an idea the team initially admitted "probably won't work," but that it wanted to try for. Due to that, Xbox has been able to retain backward compatibility in its consoles since Spencer took the lead at Xbox.

Spencer describes how the job of the team at Xbox is to be focused on the roadmap ahead, which would be the company's big plans for the next few years going by his earlier comments. However, the team's job is also to experiment with certain things that can be "real changers" that have their own risk in the long-term.

Xbox fans can likely use their imaginations with regards to what the Xbox team is currently working on. Whether it be new additions to Xbox Game Pass, game releases like Halo Infinite, or bigger things like more studio acquisitions or its oft-rumored end to Xbox Live Gold. Hopefully, fans can expect the Xbox Series X generation to be the best for Xbox yet.