Late last year, we reported on the rumor that Microsoft is launching their next generation of Xbox in 2026. Now, we have more information those potential rumors.
Over the weekend, Twitter user GhostofHope shared this message:
“Hearing from trusted sources that the next Xbox is planned to be released in late 2026.
Very likely that COD2026 is a day one release for it.”
We will also point out that IdleSloth, AKA Alan Feely, shared the original rumor, that came from Kep1er, and he also shared this rumor, quoting it with the eyes emoji.
There are certainly quite a few things that have changed since that original rumor, that warrants a reexamination of what this rumor could possibly mean. The big one is Take-Two revealing in their latest financial report that Grand Theft Auto 6 is now scheduled for Fall 2025.
Investors and analysts pushed their own speculation that Grand Theft Auto 6 would release earlier in 2025, and that Sony would release a PlayStation 5 Pro close to it. That would invigorate sales for both the console and the game, and in theory, revitalize the video game industry.
In hindsight, of course, it is just as irresponsible and harmful for financial analysts to play with the same kind of baseless speculation that gamers do in their free time. They pushed this idea around, when it’s clear they didn’t really know how far along Grand Theft Auto 6 was in development. For that matter, Sony has yet to confirm if the PlayStation 5 Pro is even real.
But at least it was good that Take-Two broke that idea up this early. If investors made this bet for a full year, literally betting the farm on Sony and Rockstar ‘saving’ the industry, the repercussions would have been disastrous.
The other big change is, of course, another correction on speculation. After rumors spread that Nintendo internally delayed the release of the Switch 2 to 2025, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa announced on Twitter that they will reveal their next console between now to the end of the financial year, which will be on March 31, 2025. Nintendo never made an announcement before this to delay now, so once again, this speculation could adversely affect a video game platform, over nothing.
Now, we obviously don’t know if this rumor about Xbox and Call of Duty is true, and we won’t pretend that we know any better. But we are looking at an interesting potential scenario.
Assuming nothing changes from what we know at this point, the next Xbox will release a year after Nintendo’s next console, and the release of Grand Theft Auto 6. Microsoft may find themselves competing with Nintendo in this short period of time, but also benefiting from the immediate release of Take-Two’s title, instead of Sony. They will have a lot of curious gamers choosing to pair the latest Grand Theft Auto with the latest Call of Duty, whether Grand Theft Auto 6 has a 10th generation upgrade ready or not.
We already know that Microsoft will be bringing Call of Duty to Game Pass, and it’s likely those games are Day One Game Pass. We don’t know the details quite yet, but if every annual Call of Duty game is Day One Game Pass moving forward, that will be a compelling selling point for the launch of the next generation Xbox.
If Microsoft did choose to cancel those leaked plans to make their own mid-generation Xbox Series Pro in favor of a new console generation, that was a very good choice and a smart bet on their part. The tenth generation of consoles will be very fascinating to watch.
