Xbox 1.5 News And Updates: Chief Phil Spencer Shuts Down The Idea Of Partial Console Upgrades

By Samir Ghanmi

Apr 07, 2016 03:00 AM EDT

Last week, chief of Xbox Phil Spencer was faced to discuss the implementation to partial console upgrades of an Xbox 1.5, since it was rumored that Sony might release a PlayStation 4.5.

According to GameSpot, Spencer clarified that he wasn't aware of Sony's plans to upgrade its PlayStation to a more powerful console. Last Wednesday, Spencer told the press, "I'm not a big fan of Xbox One and a half. If we're going to move forward, I want to move forward in big numbers."

While he also mentioned that Xbox's current state has been doing well for the company, saying, "It performs, it's reliable, the servers are doing well. If we're going to go forward with anything, like I said, I want it to be a really substantial change for people with an upgrade."

Meanwhile, the Xbox chief openly talked about Microsoft, and its plans to integrate the Xbox with Cortana and the HoloLens. Spencer pointed out that the HoloLens can offer a promising initiative for both entertainment and large-scale TV platform with a lot of app developers showing interest to its appeal.

In the case of integrating Cortana into an Xbox One, it shows that implementing an intelligent personal assistant into a console can be fairly reliable. This will enable people to continuously use the same hardware, where voice interaction comes in handy.

"The way to think about Cortana - the microphone is the same. The device is the same," Spence told Venture Beat. "Cortana is basically an input layer for voice, natural language. 'Cortana, order me a pizza.' All of the analytics on the backend figuring out the intent of what you say, we don't have that on Xbox today. You say, 'Xbox on,' it literally does a string match, and we trigger the power switch. Our dictionary is fairly closed as far as voice interaction on Xbox."

Bringing in Cortana, you'll have the same mic, the same ability to parse what you say, but the opportunity to get a broader hit base. 'Hey, Cortana, what's the weather?' Xbox today doesn't even know what weather is," he added.