Sarah Bond on Xbox’s Focus on Next-Gen Hardware

Sarah Bond, the president of Xbox, recently shared her main focus at Xbox, emphasizing the importance of “engineering and building that next-generation hardware experience.”

In an interview with Bloomberg, Bond elaborated on Microsoft’s goal with Xbox, aiming to deliver “the biggest leap ever” for its next-gen hardware in terms of “power and performance.” This vision aligns with Bond’s previous statements about Xbox’s next-gen hardware aiming to achieve “the biggest technological leap ever in a generation.”

During the interview, Bond also discussed Xbox’s commitment to backward compatibility in its next-gen hardware.

“It’s also about the ability to be able to play all of the games. I mean, we have people who’ve been playing on Xbox for decades and invested thousands and thousands of dollars and hours with us. And [we want to enable them] to take all those games with them into the hardware of the future,” she explained.

Upon becoming president of Xbox late last year, Bond established a dedicated team for backward compatibility, highlighting Xbox’s commitment to allowing players to enjoy their games across different devices.

“So our long-term commitment to cross-play is part of that and our commitment to cross-progression and cloud saves. So you can pick up on one device and you can play on another is a part of that,” Bond added.

While Xbox’s focus on next-gen hardware has been clear, the company faced criticism for shutting down four studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, leading to a defense of its decisions.