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Surfaced patent shows what an Xbox streaming console would’ve looked like

The top of the Keystone as listed in the patent. It's a square with a large circle, and the Xbox logo in the top left corner.
Microsoft

There have been a few Xbox devices that have never come to fruition, one of which was Keystone, a prototype for an affordable game streaming device you could hook up to your TV or monitor. Thanks to a surfaced patent, we’ve gotten an even closer look at what it would’ve potentially looked like.

The patent, first spotted by Windows Central, gives us a more complete view of the device. We’ve previously seen the Keystone in the flesh. Microsoft Gaming head Phil Spencer is known for hiding teases and interesting collectibles on the shelf in his office. In a 2022 X (formerly Twitter) post congratulating Bethesda on Fallout’s 25th anniversary, you can see a small white device on the top shelf that’s actually a Keystone prototype. Xbox told Digital Trends that it was a version of the device made before it decided to “refocus our efforts on a new approach.”

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So we knew that the Keystone looked a lot like a miniature Xbox Series S from the front, but we get a more 360-degree view from diagrams in the patent. The front has the signature Xbox power button along with a USB-A port. The back has HDMI, Ethernet, and power ports, while there appears to be a pairing button on the right.

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Instead of a rectangle, the overall design is a square with a circle on top and a stand on the underside. It’s a pretty compact package, which makes sense considering it was supposed to be an HDMI streaming device mostly for Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Streaming.

The front of the Keystone, which looks like an Xbox Series S, with an Xbox logo on the left and a port on the right.
Microsoft

The company has invested a lot into its Game Pass subscription service. The Ultimate tier comes with Cloud Streaming, allowing you to stream from a huge gaming library on almost any device. While the discless Xbox Series S was one iteration of a digital-only gaming console, it still let you buy and download games from the store. The Keystone would’ve been closer to a streaming stick that was portable and was only used for streaming. However, in an interview with The Verge, Spencer revealed that the project was discontinued because of pricing.

“It was more expensive than we wanted it to be when we actually built it out with the hardware that we had inside,” he said. “We decided to focus that team’s effort on delivering the smart TV streaming app.”

And with announcements like the Xbox app coming to Fire TV devices like streaming sticks, it’s unlikely we’ll see a dedicated device from Xbox like this again any time soon.

Carli Velocci
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
Xbox confirms Phil Spencer shared an old prototype of streaming device
Xbox Series S placed on a white table with the controller just in front of it

Xbox chief Phil Spencer seemed to reveal the design of Xbox's upcoming cloud-focused game-streaming device in a tweet celebrating Fallout's 25th anniversary, but a Microsoft spokesperson explained in a tweet to Digital Trends that this is just an old prototype.
“The device on Phil’s shelf was an old prototype of Keystone," the Xbox representative explained. "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 tweet, Spencer congratulated Bethesda and its Fallout team for hitting this milestone and included a picture of his shelf that contains some Fallout merch. Spencer's followers quickly spotted a small, never-before-seen white Xbox device on the top shelf underneath a large sword. This small piece of technology is the old version of a game-streaming device Microsoft was developing code-named Keystone.
https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1579495370786496512
Microsoft affirmed that Keystone was in development to Windows Central earlier this year, but also mentioned that Xbox decided to "pivot away from the current iteration" of the device. "We've been working on a game-streaming device, code name Keystone, that could be connected to any TV or monitor without the need for a console," a spokesperson told Windows Central in May 2022. "As part of any technical journey, we are constantly evaluating our efforts, reviewing our learnings, and ensuring we are bringing value to our customers. We have made the decision to pivot away from the current iteration of the Keystone device."
According to Microsoft, the device in Phil Spencer's photo is what Xbox planned on releasing before deciding to "refocus our efforts on a new approach." It's not a surprise that people thought this was going to actually be what Microsoft released, as Spencer also teased the Xbox Series S and Kojima Productions collaboration by hiding them on his shelf. For now, we'll just have to wait until Microsoft decides to share more about its new approach. 

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