The pair have inked a multi-year strategic deal which confirms that AMD’s chips will power not just the next-gen Xbox boxes but any Xbox-branded handhelds too. Nothing new there, since the Xbox Series X/S already runs on AMD, and so does Sony’s PlayStation 5. Nintendo's still mucking about with Nvidia silicon, but they’re on their own little trip.

The spicy bit came from a video announcement featuring Xbox boss Sarah Bond, full of marketing fluff but with a few tasty clues hidden inside. Bond hinted that the new Xbox will once again be backwards compatible, which no one would complain about. More eyebrow-raising was her comment that Xbox is “not committed to a single store.”

That’s already playing out with the Xbox Ally handheld, which runs Windows and gives access to not just Microsoft’s store but Steam. It even flirts with the Epic Games Store if you’re that desperate.

Bond went a step further by calling Windows the “number 1 platform for gaming,” which has now fuelled speculation that the next Xbox might just be running Windows proper, not a console-friendly wrapper. If true, it would be a game-changer in every sense.

It would open the Xbox up to full Windows apps, Steam, Epic, GOG, and every PC game Microsoft never bothered to port to console. It would also drive a bus through Sony’s walled garden and finally pay off Microsoft’s long-touted “Play Anywhere” fantasy.

Of course, the clip didn’t flat-out say any of this, and there’s still a big divide between what the Xbox and a PC can run natively. The Xbox Ally, for instance, can’t run native Xbox games without streaming or leaning on a PC version. That might be the final hurdle before Microsoft goes full Frankenstein and stitches console and PC into one machine.