Report: The rumored second next-gen Xbox model likely won't see the light of day

Earlier reports suggested that Microsoft had plans to make the next generation of Xbox a family of systems rather than a single box. Following E3 and the official Project Scarlett reveal, one of the originators behind those rumors explains why those internal plans appear to have changed.

An article posted to tech journalist Paul Thurrott’s website says that Microsoft has seemingly backed away from its plans to welcome the next console generation with the launch of multiple systems, a step that would have offered next-gen entry points with different prices and hardware specifications.

The site reports that previously documented mentions of that other console, Lockhart, have been “scrubbed clean.” Following the publication’s conversations with “people inside and outside of Microsoft,” the decision likely follows developer-level difficulty with creating games for two systems of varying power at once, and fears that doing so would give Sony's next PlayStation an advantage. The report also suggests that the development of Microsoft’s xCloud streaming service might have rendered the lower-powered console unnecessary in the long run.