Xbox 2042 video from Microsoft stars a tiny super-console that beams onto your contacts

Xbox 2042 concept
(Image credit: Microsoft)

A new Xbox 2042 video imagines what gaming could look like on Xbox 21 years from now - and it's even more ambitious than assuming you can actually buy a new-gen console.

The video is ultimately meant to be a futuristic tie-in to Battlefield 2042 rather than a grounded rundown of whatever Microsoft's distant-future plans for a flagship console may be. Regardless, it still presents one exciting concept for what gaming may look like in the future. "Imagine a gaming experience indistinguishable from reality, powered by quantum technology," the video teases.

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Between scenes of extremely high-tech looking circuitry, the video shows scenes of modern (as in 2021) military combat and historical warriors interspersed with bits and pieces of Battlefield 2042 footage. Even the fine print gets in on the fun, saying that it's "Gameplay Imagined" and asking "What if it could be compatible with smart optical appliances and neural interfaces? The possibilities are endless," instead of the usual disclaimers.

Perhaps the most out-there postulation of all is in the YouTube description, which states that Xbox 2042 will "feature more than 70 titles available at launch." Can you imagine a brand new console launching with 70 games, not counting backwards compatible titles or other technicalities like that? We can barely keep up with all the new games as is, and we're all hoping for the best with Xbox Series X stock as Black Friday approaches.

Xbox will have just finished celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2042 - but here in the present you can get decked out for the Xbox 20th anniversary with a slick new controller and headset. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.