Xbox will reportedly hold its next news event ‘in the coming weeks’

Microsoft will hold a ‘What’s Next for Gaming’ event this month, according to a new report.

ZDnet journalist Mary Jo Foley claims that the game-focused virtual event will take place “in the coming weeks”, to supplement Microsoft’s annual Build conference, which is confirmed to take place in May.

Since Build is a developer-focused event, it’s likely any gaming showcase would be focused on the platform itself rather than games, but Foley notes that this is separate from the developer-focused Game Stack even listed for April.

Microsoft has adopted a strategy of holding smaller, more frequent news events so far in 2021. Last month it held an extensive ID@Xbox showcase, and it’s also announced an event dedicated to Age of Empires.

In February, Xbox’s platform development boss teased “exciting” new features coming to Series X and S this year, stating that what had been released so far for the console is “just the beginning.”

Speaking on the official Xbox podcast, director of program management Jason Ronald said that these new platform announcements would be made as early as “over the coming months.”

Director of programming Larry Hryb added that “there’s a lot coming… we can’t really say too much” and teased that, “I think that we’re going to have [Jason Ronald back] on sooner rather than later.”

Ronald said: “As a team, we’re just really excited by this initial response from fans all around the world. At launch, we say it all the time internally, this is really just the beginning. We’ve got a lot of really exciting things that are coming down the pipeline over the coming months and over the coming years.

He added: “We’re also partnering really closely with key game developers from all across the industry to really take full advantage of all the next-gen capabilities that we put in the Xbox Series S and Series X.

“We really are excited as we get further into the year and closer to this holiday to start sharing more of the details about what’s in development, and how you can really take advantage of these next gen platforms.”

further reading

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Xbox development boss teases ‘exciting’ platform updates: ‘This is just the beginning’

Jason Ronald says his team is currently updating Quick Resume, broadcasting and more

Shortly after the podcast comments, Xbox announced the FPS Boost. FPS Boost is a system-level feature that increases performance in select backwards compatible games without requiring changes to the original game code.

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