It's no secret that Microsoft and Sony are planning to release the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles in the next couple of years, likely as soon as 2020, and a new batch of rumors may have given us the codenames of the upcoming Xbox consoles.
The premium Xbox One X model looks set to be replaced by something called 'Anaconda', which may ship with a solid state hard drive to improve frame rate performance, and is likely to see a boost in graphics and all-round performance.
The Xbox One S successor, on the other hand, is likely to bump up its processing power to that of the current Xbox One X; it's reportedly being called the 'Lockhart', and will offering a cheaper alternative to the Anaconda console.
According to Windows Central, both of these models are expected to arrive alongside an additional 'Scarlett Cloud' Xbox console, which would launch without a disc-drive and would be used exclusively for video game streaming using Xbox Games Pass or an updated equivalent service.
Details are thin on the ground, and it's unlikely we'd see all three consoles released simultaneously. We may see the lesser-powered Lockhart Xbox launched first, followed some time later by the Anaconda as a kind of mid-cycle upgrade, similar to what happened with the Xbox One X.
4K ready
That was the console generation that saw both Microsoft and Sony gear up for 4K gaming, with the Xbox One X able to play games in native 4K, and the PS4 Pro able to upscale HD / 1080p output to something approximating 4K resolution.
The next-gen consoles are almost certain to offer native 4K out of the box, given the market's push for higher-fidelity graphics, and the huge number of 4K TVs now in people's homes.
As VR gaming gets more advanced it may also be wise to have home consoles powerful enough to run power-intensive simulations and games in VR – especially as Xbox currently has no equivalent of PlayStation VR.
- Xbox Series X: everything we know so far about the next Xbox
