Microsoft will reveal the future of the Xbox business on Thursday, Feb. 15

As previously revealed by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer last week, the company will be offering "updates on the Xbox business" as part of a special episode of the official Xbox podcast. The video podcast will stream starting on Thursday, February 15 at noon Pacific time (3 pm Eastern time).

The event will feature Spencer, Microsoft's president of Game Content and Studios Matt Booty, and president of Xbox Sarah Bond. The podcast episode will be made available on the official Xbox YouTube channel.

There's been a ton of rumors, alleged leaks, and speculation on what might be revealed by Spencer, Booty, and Bond as part of this special presentation. Some have claimed Microsoft will be allowing some of its first-party Xbox and PC games to be made available on other gaming platforms in general, and on Sony's PlayStation 5 console in particular.

One thing that reportedly won't be on the table is Microsoft's exit from the game console hardware business. A recent but unconfirmed report claims Spencer told an Xbox employee town hall last week that it has no plans to stop making consoles.

There's also been a lot of talk and chatter online about the future of Activision Blizzard since Microsoft acquired the game developer and publisher in October 2023. In late January, the company laid off 1,900 employees from its various gaming divisions, and they hit the Activision Blizzard team members and studios particularly hard.

The matter-of-fact tone of the Xbox podcast announcement also seems to suggest this won't be a typical "everything's great" hype session for the Xbox team and that some very serious news could be waiting in the wings.