It's been over a year since Xbox first launched the Xbox Series X/S. In that time, both next-gen systems have cultivated massive amounts of success, such as crushing sales records previously held by former Xbox consoles, and even now, both consoles struggle to remain in stock due to the high demand. However, it appears that Xbox could be working on something new.
As with previous console generations, publishers tend to release newer iterations of pre-established consoles and Xbox is no exception to this. Following the release of the Xbox One, Microsoft would later release more optimized versions of the same hardware in the form of the Xbox One X and the Xbox One S. This most recent find alludes to either something similar or something entirely new.
Over on Twitter, a user named Tero Alhonen identified a new keyword for an upcoming Xbox project, with the codename being Xbox Keystone. This is incredibly significant, considering that Xbox has used similar codenames in the past to hide the identity of upcoming hardware. During E3 2019, Xbox announced Project Scarlett, which ended up being the codename for the console the gaming community now knows as the Xbox Series X.
As of right now, it's impossible to know what Xbox Keystone could potentially signify. Given how recently the Xbox Series X/S was released, it's unlikely that this is a completely new Xbox console. It's probable that this could be yet a new iteration of the Xbox Series X, similar to the aforementioned Xbox One X and Xbox One S.
Although, it's important to bear in mind that Microsoft has had a litany of new ideas and directions that Xbox could go in. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has discussed various new innovations that Xbox could potentially pursue, such as cloud gaming services and Xbox's presence on mobile devices. Considering how generalized the term "Keystone" really is, it makes pinning down the exact nature of the project quite the difficult task.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what ultimately comes of Xbox Keystone. One possibility is that this codename could be in reference to a console compatible VR headset for the Xbox Series X/S. Last year, there were rumors of an Xbox Series X VR headset, which Xbox promptly shut down. All of this is just speculation at this time, though, and fans should treat any information about Xbox Keystone with a grain of salt unless it comes from Xbox itself. With any luck, Xbox fans will have a better idea of what to expect from the project in the coming months.