These are complicated but also very interesting times for the Xbox ecosystem. The current generational war in terms of position in the console market has been won by Sony with the PlayStation 5, and this is something that even Microsoft itself publicly admitted last year. And of course, this threatened its position in the market to the point that we told you last week that both distributors and developers were considering parting ways.

On the other hand, and contrary to the rumors that Redmond was thinking about giving up, Phil Spencer confirmed that the next generation Xbox will have a technological leap, which according to rumors and leaks will be based on Intel and NVIDIA. We’ll still have to wait a few years, but if everything that’s been announced so far comes to pass, there’s no doubt that the outlook is more than promising.

Except, Rumors and leaks regarding a portable Xbox have also been reactivated, a device that also focuses on more than decent performance, and which can therefore be ahead of Sony’s weak contribution in this market, with the disappointment of the PlayStation Portal. Actually, I didn’t understand the move because we are talking about the same company that gave us such good moments of mobile entertainment with PSP and PS Vita.

Redmond must be a hotbed when it comes to “reimagining” the Xbox, and while much of the conversation will focus on hardware, software and games also play an important role. On the gaming front, we recently learned that Spencer wants to open up Xbox to third-party stores. What about the software? We can read about it today in The Verge Microsoft is working on a chatbot for Xbox.

This is of course in line with Microsoft’s strategy, which includes taking AI to the frontiers of (its) universe, but also it aims to be the next value proposition… which it may or may not be. Let me explain, according to the source, the tests that are being conducted are focused on technical support and customer service inquiries. And that’s important of course, but also very, very precise in use. However, if Redmond aimed higher, so that the chatbot is able to answer all kinds of questions about games, then it would be a very interesting plus for gamers.