Microsoft: Xbox Streaming Box on Phil Spencer’s Shelf Was an “Old Prototype”

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming made headlines yesterday after tweeting a picture of his shelf that showed an unknown Xbox device. Multiple reports confirmed that this picture was our first look at Keystone, the Xbox streaming box that Microsoft confirmed to be in active development back in May.

Microsoft has since released a statement to Eurogamer to confirm that the device in Phil Spencer’s picture was actually an old Keystone prototype. While the statement doesn’t say it explicitly, Phil Spencer apparently made a mistake by sharing a picture of the prototype, and the final product may look quite different.

Here’s the full statement Microsoft shared with Eurogamer:

“The device on Phil’s shelf was an old prototype of Keystone. Earlier this year, we announced that we made the decision to pivot away from the current iteration of Keystone and are taking our learnings to refocus our efforts on a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players around the world in the future. We have nothing more to share today.”

In the past couple of years, Phil Spencer has been playing a game with the media, hiding some clues about upcoming partnerships or new products on his shelf. The exec went as far as hiding an Xbox Series S unit in his room during an interview before the console was officially announced.

If it looks like Phil Spencer did end up beaten by his own, dangerous game, the Xbox team did handle the situation by doing what was possibly the best thing to do: have some fun with all this.

Instead of having Phil Spencer delete his picture, the official Xbox Twitter account did call him out on the social network. “Now what did we say about putting old prototypes on your shelf boss,” the Xbox team tweeted yesterday.

Now what did we say about putting old prototypes on your shelf boss

— Xbox (@Xbox) October 10, 2022

That’s certainly not a bad way to handle a communication slip-up. While Microsoft’s Keystone device may not be ready to launch in the coming months, Xbox Cloud Gaming is already showing up in new places: The service is now available on Samsung’s 2022 Smart TVs and monitors, and Bing users can also launch Xbox cloud-enabled games right from search results