Qualcomm Job Advert Alludes to Snapdragon-powered "Xbox Adjacent" Products

[T0@st]

Late last week, tech news headlines were generated by a curious Qualcomm/NUVIA job advertisement. The presence of Xbox-related activities—at the US firm's Redmond, Washington office—has set off watchdog alarm bells. Microsoft's HQ is also located in this Seattle Metropolitan Area business hub. The job description outlined a sales director position—including interesting tidbits: "support sell-in activities for the next generation of Surface and Xbox products built on Snapdragon solutions" and "help define the next generation Surface and Xbox portfolios." Older leaks have suggested Microsoft's weighing up of ARM64 processor architecture, with next-gen Xbox designs in mind. Since the publication of widespread reportage, Qualcomm has edited out any mention of Xbox from the offending job ad. Given the latest evidence, fresh speculation has emerged from online media outlets. In theory, the company's hardware engineers could be formulating a next-gen Arm-based handheld—not directly related to "Project Kennan."

Jez Corden, executive editor of Windows Central, has dismissed many next-gen "handheld" or "home console" projections. Insiders believe that in-progress first-party development centers around AMD (x86) solutions. Similarly, Sony is reportedly collaborating with Team Red. The speculated PlayStation 6 (and a handheld offshoot) has been linked to Zen 6 and UDNA/RDNA 5 IPs. In response to initial claims, Corden reached out to shadowy industry figures. As disclosed in his opinion piece: "sources confirmed to me this morning that the next Xbox systems are not based on Qualcomm chips. There might be some third-party "Designed for Xbox" Arm-based offerings, like the Logitech G Cloud. But, the main plan from Microsoft, at least for now, is for the next-gen Xbox systems to have as much compatibility with your current library as possible. The overheads required to emulate games built for Microsoft's AMD-based systems are beyond what the Snapdragon line up is currently capable of." Today, Digital Foundry pointed out that Microsoft's "Xbox Play Anywhere" marketing campaign has created a looser categorization of related hardware. Thus providing extra scope for adjacent and supplemental devices (in the near future).




Corden's article has dampened expectations: "what this job listing is more likely referring to is ensuring that Microsoft's Surface devices based on Snapdragon, like the new Surface Pro 12-inch, have better compatibility with Xbox's PC apps, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Play Anywhere titles. As of writing, Microsoft straight up blocks your ability to download many Xbox PC games from the Microsoft Store on its Copilot+ PC range, which are based on Snapdragon chips...In my view, throwing next-gen hardware in the deep end on compatibility issues across thousands of games Xbox users already own is simply not a winning business proposition—at least for now. But as new technology arrives and the processors get more powerful, emulation and compatibility layer technology should improve too."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[lexluthermiester]

But as new technology arrives and the processors get more powerful, emulation and compatibility layer technology should improve too.

Oh good grief. The XBox is X86/X64. If you're gonna do a handheld, do one that uses that same arch so that recompiles and recodes are minimal. That way emulation and compatibility layers don't need to exist.

I mean really, where are microsoft's brains, in their bum?.. Nevermind, we all know the answer to that.

EDIT: If there's any truth to this at all, at least they're going with a very good option.

 

[esserpain]

If this is what makes gaming on Windows on ARM a thing, I'll eat my shoe.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Oh good grief. The XBox is X86/X64. If you're gonna do a handheld, do one that uses that same arch so that recompiles and recodes are minimal. That way emulation and compatibility layers don't need to exist.

I mean really, where are microsoft's brains, in their bum?.. Nevermind, we all know the answer to that.

EDIT: If there's any truth to this at all, at least they're going with a very good option.

Being on the same arch isn't any sort of guarantee. The original Xbox was x86, yet its emulation state is WAY behind the powerPC equipped Nintendo or custom MIPS III/IV arch PS2.

What matters more for the CPU is being able to have a native analog to things like SSE or AVX instruction sets to handle heavy floating point calculation.

 

[LabRat 891]

I've had the pleasure of selling and servicing MSwin-on-ARM Surface RT and Windows RT, back in the day...

Please, Microsoft

As far as I'm concerned, MSFT has repeatedly proven that they cannot competently develop ARM-based devices (or ecosystems).

 

[kondamin]

Xbox for android?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Xbox for android?

That was my thought. They're daft as a brush.

 

[kondamin]

That was my thought. They're daft as a brush.

if they want to get rid of their hardware divisions that would be a way to do it.
it would probably kill their gaming department to in the long run but that will take a couple of years but Nadella will probably be gone by then.
Soooo who cares.

 

[lexluthermiester]

but Nadella will probably be gone by then.

He needed to be gone years ago..

 

[kondamin]

He needed to be gone years ago..

He made shareholders a lot of money.
Ruined office and windows, but sure made a lot of money.

 

[lexluthermiester]

He made shareholders a lot of money.

Any trained monkey could have done that and likely better. That's not a vote in his favor.

Ruined office and windows

There it is.