An official rumor has circulated in recent days regarding the possibility that Microsoft may add a crypto wallet to its Xbox.
Although this is only a rumor, and not a certainty, the source is official, so the news should be taken very seriously.
The story
This story begins with the lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Microsoft over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
As part of that lawsuit, Microsoft was required to submit official documentation regarding the Xbox and its development plans.
Among the documents submitted by the company was the roadmap of Xbox’s future developments in the medium/short term, and this roadmap by mistake was published.
It was later removed and replaced with a single document with some parts blacked out, but not in time to go unnoticed.
In particular, an excerpt of this documentation was posted on the online gaming forum ResetEra.
The Xmob roadmap was dated May 2022, and apparently explicitly included the integration of a crypto wallet.
Microsoft: the Xbox crypto wallet
Therefore, this is only an intention expressed by Microsoft in an internal document, but it is indeed an official document in which this intention is written in black and white.
However, an important clarification should be made.
That roadmap dated back to May 2022, which is before the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem, and before the failure of Celsius, BlockFi, and especially FTX.
In other words, the intention to add a crypto wallet to the Xbox was definitely there before the crypto scenario changed because of these major scandals that resonated globally. However, it is not known if it is still there.
Microsoft and crypto: an entry into the new Xbox?
It must be said that Microsoft has been interested in the crypto world for several years now.
Even as early as 2020, news circulated that Starbucks had launched a new initiative to track its products on blockchain precisely thanks to Microsoft, and in 2021 it became known that it was precisely with Xbox that Microsoft was also jumping into the metaverse.
In 2022 even it was Microsoft itself that published an article on its official website dedicated to an Azure solution for NFTs.
In fact, it is possible that the company’s interest in crypto technologies began even earlier, with some experiments dating back as far as 2018.
All of this makes the intention to include a crypto wallet within the Xbox extremely plausible, not least because only in this way could the native integration of the gaming platform with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse actually take place.
It should not be forgotten that gaming is certainly the single area of greatest potential for, for example, the metaverse itself, and one of the absolute leading areas for NFTs as well.
The potential of Xbox
Xbox is a leading digital game console in this market.
The first version, launched in 2001, sold over 24 million units, but the second, launched only four years later, reached 86 million. The third was launched in 2013 and sold another 58 million units.
The fourth line was launched in 2020, and includes Xbox, Xbox Series X and Series S.
By now Xbox is a brand under which Microsoft markets not only game consoles, but also applications, streaming services, online services, and so on.
So integrating a crypto wallet within the new console would mean giving millions of people the opportunity to use this new technology, and in particular cryptocurrencies and NFTs. It should not be forgotten that cryptocurrency fees must be paid to transfer NFTs.
The new console is scheduled to be launched at the end of next year, and perhaps only then will we find out whether it will actually have a crypto wallet integrated or not. However, the big talk about it these days may force Microsoft to release official news about it well before the end of 2024.
It must be said that not only is the hypothesis of an integrated crypto wallet in the next Xbox plausible, but it might even in some ways seem strange that they would not integrate it.
In fact, Microsoft might even collect a portion of transaction fees, and natively integrating NFT and metaverse on blockchain would allow them to offer new games that are extremely competitive with the competition.
At this time, however, there is nothing to do but wait for confirmation (or denial).