Qualcomm Job Advert Alludes to Snapdragon-powered “Xbox Adjacent” Products

Late last week, tech news headlines were generated by a curious Qualcomm/NUVIA job advertisement. The presence of Xbox-related activities—at the US firm’s Redmond, Washington office—has set off watchdog alarm bells. Microsoft’s HQ is also located in this Seattle Metropolitan Area business hub. The job description outlined a sales director position—including interesting tidbits: “support sell-in activities for the next generation of Surface and Xbox products built on Snapdragon solutions” and “help define the next generation Surface and Xbox portfolios.” Older leaks have suggested Microsoft’s weighing up of ARM64 processor architecture, with next-gen Xbox designs in mind. Since the publication of widespread reportage, Qualcomm has edited out any mention of Xbox from the offending job ad. Given the latest evidence, fresh speculation has emerged from online media outlets. In theory, the company’s hardware engineers could be formulating a next-gen Arm-based handheld—not directly related to “Project Kennan.”

Jez Corden, executive editor of Windows Central, has dismissed many next-gen “handheld” or “home console” projections. Insiders believe that in-progress first-party development centers around AMD (x86) solutions. Similarly, Sony is reportedly collaborating with Team Red. The speculated PlayStation 6 (and a handheld offshoot) has been linked to Zen 6 and UDNA/RDNA 5 IPs. In response to initial claims, Corden reached out to shadowy industry figures. As disclosed in his opinion piece: “sources confirmed to me this morning that the next Xbox systems are not based on Qualcomm chips. There might be some third-party “Designed for Xbox” Arm-based offerings, like the Logitech G Cloud. But, the main plan from Microsoft, at least for now, is for the next-gen Xbox systems to have as much compatibility with your current library as possible. The overheads required to emulate games built for Microsoft’s AMD-based systems are beyond what the Snapdragon line up is currently capable of.” Today, Digital Foundry pointed out that Microsoft’s “Xbox Play Anywhere” marketing campaign has created a looser categorization of related hardware. Thus providing extra scope for adjacent and supplemental devices (in the near future).

Corden’s article has dampened expectations: “what this job listing is more likely referring to is ensuring that Microsoft’s Surface devices based on Snapdragon, like the new Surface Pro 12-inch, have better compatibility with Xbox’s PC apps, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Play Anywhere titles. As of writing, Microsoft straight up blocks your ability to download many Xbox PC games from the Microsoft Store on its Copilot+ PC range, which are based on Snapdragon chips…In my view, throwing next-gen hardware in the deep end on compatibility issues across thousands of games Xbox users already own is simply not a winning business proposition—at least for now. But as new technology arrives and the processors get more powerful, emulation and compatibility layer technology should improve too.”