The battle for the next generation consoles seems to have already begun, without any official announcement. A leak relayed on October 8 by leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead reveals the first technical details of the next Xbox, called Magnus. The most significant information? Its performance could greatly exceed that of the future PS6… at the cost of a stratospheric price.
Microsoft remains silent on the subject for the moment, while confirming that new hardware is under development. AMD’s participation is confirmed, as is a partnership with ASUS for a separate portable console. But until now, no figures had leaked. Now, the rumors are based on a technical document evoking a new APU, capable of pushing the limits of what a console can offer.
Xbox Magnus: a console with a high-end PC profile
According to Moore’s Law Is Dead, Magnus is a power monster destined to play in another court. He claims that “Magnus would be the largest APU ever designed for a gaming console and, most importantly, would feature 68 RDNA 5 compute units, up to 11 CPU cores and up to 48 GB of GDDR7 RAM.” A configuration which, on paper, clearly outperforms the PlayStation 6, which would integrate only 48 computing units and eight cores.
In terms of performance, the difference could however remain minimal in use. The leaker qualifies: “Moore’s Law Is Dead said to expect slightly better performance, but that the difference might be imperceptible on large televisions rather than on a monitor.”
There remains the question of price. And that’s where the problem lies.
A price worthy of a PC, for an extraordinary console
According to the same source, Microsoft would consider positioning closer to the gaming PC than the family console. “The video also suggests that the next Xbox’s substantial hardware will be expensive, estimating that Magnus could push the next-gen console above $800, or even as high as $1,200.”
An amount that could deter the most loyal buyers, especially since the brand has already recently increased the prices of the Xbox Series X/S and the Game Pass Ultimate subscription. An assumed strategy? Maybe. Because as the leaker adds: “Moore’s Law Is Dead hypothesized that the new Xbox could be more of a competitor to PCs than a direct alternative to the PlayStation 6”. The release would not be expected before 2027, according to the latest projections. Until then, many things can still change.