Microsoft has been linked with making a shock reveal during E3 2019, an event that Sony PlayStation will not be attending.
It’s been well-documented that the maker of the PS4 and PS4 Pro will be skipping this year’s LA expo.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has made it clear that they will be there with some big news for Xbox One fans.
And new reports out this week go as far as to say that the company’s next console will be the star of the show.
Microsoft has made references to their next console over the past 12 months but has yet to share firm details on what it will be like.
Rumours suggest that they will be looking to replicate the success of the Xbox One X by offering two consoles.
One will be more powerful and have a higher price tag, while the other will be more in the shape of the Xbox One S.
Both will have access to the same games library and could be joined by another streaming-only option in the future.
And now a new report claims that Microsoft will be announcing some of this news during E3 2019.
French publication Jeuxvideo believes there will be two consoles announced during the expo, one, code-named Anaconda, and the other, called Xbox Lockhart.
Anaconda will be the beefier of the two and boast more ram than the Lockhart, which is reported to not include a disc drive.
And any new console announcement during 2019 is expected to have a direct effect on console sales for both the PS4 and Xbox One.
Anaconda will reportedly cost $500 at launch, with both machines featuring the same CPU and 1TB storage.
What’s more exciting is that Microsoft will confirm both consoles for release in 2020, with the next Halo game being a launch title.
It should be noted that this remains a report at this time and has not been confirmed by Microsoft. So, as always, it should be taken with a big pinch of salt.
If it does prove correct it will be interesting to see how this will affect Sony’s plans for its PS5 announcement.
This is also expected to happen in 2019 but is certain not to appear during E3 2019.
Does this mean that Sony is planning its own secret reveal weeks before? The tech giant has yet to announce its plans for the future.
But whatever they are, they will need to match whatever Microsoft has planned to avoid being left behind with their current high-flying PS4 console.
Another big project expected to be revealed fully by Microsoft during E3 2019 is Project xCloud, the new streaming service that will be available on a number of devices.
Xbox’s Phil Spencer recently spoke more about the company’s plans for E3 2019, telling Larry Hryb there was plenty to look forward to.
“This is going to be a fun E3 for us,” Spencer said.
“Obviously there was some news about E3 in the fall, and we had a discussion internally of, ‘Should we go big? Should we save some money?’ We decided, no, we’re going to do our thing.
“And we’re gonna go and be as big at E3 as we’ve ever been and I love that opportunity. I love the opportunity to be with our fans in the industry.”
Speaking about xCloud, Spencer added: “We want to make sure we get it as right as we can.
“It’ll be years before this is the primary way people are playing … but let’s think about our future; we should also have these five to ten-year views on where things can go.”