Possible Xbox One hardware upgrade in the pipeline, says Phil Spencer - CNET

Microsoft has said it is building toward a future where its games consoles will be upgradable, allowing the company to keep hardware viable by incrementally increasing its power instead of replacing it with an entirely new device.

Speaking at a recent media event, as reported by Polygon, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he believes that Windows 10 could be used as a ubiquitous operating system that unifies all its devices, while the various hardware it runs on evolves, similar to the way PCs are upgraded.

"We see on other platforms, whether it be mobile or PC, that you get continuous innovation that you rarely see on console," he said. "Consoles lock the hardware and the software platform together at the beginning of the generation. Then you ride the generation out for seven or so years, while other ecosystems are getting better, faster and stronger. And then you wait for the next big step function."

He continued: "When you look at the console space, I believe we will see more hardware innovation in the console space than we've ever seen. You'll actually see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation allowing the same games to run backward- and forward-compatible."

Since Microsoft has "a Universal Windows Application running on top of the Universal Windows Platform," it will be able to improve hardware "without invalidating the games that run on that platform."