We’ve already got mini consoles from Sega and Nintendo, but could Microsoft be planning an Xbox classic mini console?
Until now, the reaction to this would invariably be “no chance” but a recent interview with Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley on Time Extension reveals there is almost certainly an idea for such a device, regardless of whether is comes to pass.
The original Xbox was launched in North America on November 15, 2001, then in the UK and Europe on March 14, 2002, ceasing production in 2006. 24 million units were sold, with around 1000+ games. That alone should give any team with an Xbox classic mini device in mind plenty to think about.
Speaking to Time Extension (via PureXbox), Blackey exclaimed:
“It would have been brilliant! I thought okay, we could do this just like the Duke, but then a couple of people internal to the Xbox team said, ‘No, no, we want to do it internally’ and I haven’t heard anything since. So there you have that.”
Could Microsoft be working on a nice, compact, portable Xbox? Could it be a system that is built into yet another release of the Duke controller?
Or is this degree of mining the classics beyond the scope of the Xbox division? Time will tell, but we can see from the release of first gen Xbox games on Xbox Live and Game Pass that many don’t stand up as well 20 years on as contemporary titles on Sega, Sony, and Nintendo devices.
And given many were simultaneously released on PC, that might be a bit of a problem.
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