The current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles is now more than five years old, making it well past the time we would start hearing about what the next generation of consoles will look like. We’ve seen several rumours on what the next-generation Xbox hardware will include, and on top of comments from Xbox president Sarah Bond, a picture of Xbox’s next console is starting to form. Now, a new report from Windows Central seems to piece it together a bit more clearly, framing the next Microsoft console as a best of both worlds between the PC and console experience.

The report leans both on comments from Microsoft executives like Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer and sources who spoke to Windows Central, so understand that nothing about this is finalized, but it does paint a picture that makes sense as to what the next console from Microsoft will look like.

Both Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond have alluded to the recently released ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds as a peek at Microsoft’s thinking for its next generation of hardware, with the Xbox Play Anywhere becoming more of the focus with all Xbox games being playable on the Xbox PC app and Xbox consoles moving forward.

According to Windows Central’s report, what those allusions mean is that the next-generation Xbox console will provide a console experience with its UI and the ability to natively play console games, though its foundation will be that of “a curated Windows gaming PC.”

Basically, you’ll be able to access your Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, and Battle.net games just like you’re able to on a PC, with the Xbox Full-Screen Experience that’s currently live on the ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Ally handhelds acting as the home base for the device. On top of all those libraries, you’ll also be able to access and play all the games currently playable on your Xbox Series X/S consoles, including original Xbox titles, Xbox 360 games, and your full catalogue of backwards compatible titles already available on Series X/S.

Another part of what’ll make this device a ‘best of both worlds’ between console and PC is that the paywall for playing online multiplayer games will be removed for the next generation. Since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 days, console players have had to pay for the ability to play multiplayer games online, whereas that has never been the case for PC players. That paywall will finally be removed with Microsoft’s next console, according to this report, to further align itself with the PC gaming experience this new device is allegedly trying to provide.

Of course, this will also come with more changes to the structure of Microsoft’s Game Pass service, though those details aren’t clear, and likely won’t be until we’re much closer to the actual release of next-generation hardware.

It’s an interesting proposal, to say the least, that we’ll finally see a combination of PC perks like having access to multiple gaming libraries and not having to pay for online multiplayer on top of the ease-of-use that consoles provide. If Microsoft can execute on it all, that is.

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