Next year, Xbox celebrates its 25th anniversary. Although Microsoft is the youngest of the three major console options today (Nintendo launched Famicom in 1985 and Sony launched PlayStation in 1994), they have been around long enough that there are plenty of gamers who weren't even born when Xbox was released, but are now old enough to have families of their own.
They will, of course, be marking this in several different ways, not least through new games in their biggest franchises: Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Gears of War: E-Day, and Halo: Campaign Evolved. But it will also be celebrated in other ways, and in a BBC interview, Microsoft's VP Next Generation, Jason Ronald, comments on what we can expect and says this about possible extended backward compatibility:
"I can't announce anything today, but what I will say is 2026 is the 25th anniversary of Xbox. And we want to celebrate the great legacy and history of Xbox, as well as defining the future of where the Xbox ecosystem is going. So, I can't confirm or deny what you are asking, but stay tuned we have a lot of exciting things to share next year."
<social>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wl8G4k6FoQ</social>
In short, it sounds like we may learn more about the next generation of Xbox consoles in 2026. At present, we know that it will be wildly powerful, and it also appears that it will be some kind of hybrid console with both PC and Xbox functionality.