Nah, it needs to be someone who knows gaming inside and out, MS and Valve doing a combined thing would be perfection. Steam Deck is close to perfection already but the hardware is too weak for a docked device and too much fiddling to access Gamepass.
I doubt Valve would be wanting to do something hardware-related with Microsoft if it involves Windows over Steam OS. That's part of the entire point of Steam Deck and any future Valve hardware: to siphon PC gamers away from Windows and over to Linux (via Steam OS), and of course keep them locked in the Steam ecosystem.
If MS want to add something Game Pass-related to Steam, I can see Valve maybe entertaining that idea, but not without some type of revenue sharing model. Like Valve getting a 15% cut on each active subscriber for the month through Steam, while Microsoft gets the other 85%. I think that'd be more than fair.
However, Microsoft's push for mobile has been trying to sidestep the platform owners and set up shop without paying them a cut whatsoever, something they might have to give up on and play by the platform holder's rules, at least on stuff like iOS. No sane company is really going to want to let other massive companies in that space set up shop on their own systems and not somehow pay them a cut, it's always been a ridiculous notion. Valve wouldn't be any different for something like Game Pass because ultimately, that's a sub which could mean less B2P software revenue through Steam. They have to cover their pockets some way on that.
Did you see how cocky and overpriced Sony was trying to be during the PS3 days? They’ve gotten better. But give them free rein and games will be $90 while consoles are $700. Don’t give them that.
$600 PS3 wasn't about cockiness; that was ambition biting Sony in the ass with costs. Even at $599 they were losing $200 per PS3 sold; cocky would've meant they sold the system at an even higher price to not lose as much upfront.
It's funny I never see these same arguments for PC gaming with Steam, when that launcher basically owns the space for gaming on that platform, yet no one goes "cocky/arrogant Valve". Almost as if having a monopoly doesn't inherently mean cockiness or arrogance, or maybe Valve has fans who turn a blind eye to their flaws but exaggerate Sony's during the PS3 era
?
So about this: the 360 originally wasn't even aiming to beat PS3 to market, it's just that Sony delayed the PS3 by a year due to costs and I guess chip production shortages, so 360 got a free year in there. Even so, the first year was "solid" in terms of sales, but nothing mind-blowing. I guess you could say, if you compared it to Genesis/Megadrive, 360's first year was more like that system's pre-Sonic years: solid, but not crazy amazing.
It wasn't really until Gears of War, combined with the lackluster PS3 launch lineup, that 360 sales really started picking up pace. Once Halo 3 and Mass Effect dropped, the floodgates started to open. So honestly, MS could've delayed 360 by a year and still seen similar trajectory in sales or just skipped the early "slower" sales period and hit with the momentum of Gears of War and other games, and probably still end up with a lead over PS3 in US & UK by the time of Halo 3, albeit maybe a smaller one. They also would've avoided a lot of the early problems with RROD; not that it would've gone away, but hardware failures would've been a lot less, closer to the YLOD rates with PS3 (MS would've had more time to assess the problem and redesign the cooling in launch units).
Anyway WRT what MS could do for the next Xbox: if they're suicidal with the brand and want to Dreamcast it, yeah launch another flat-out console in 2026. It's mainly only going to have multiplats that are also cross-gen titles with PS5, PS5 Pro, Series X, Series S, and Switch 2. They don't really have any massive exclusive coming out from their teams in the next two years; TES VI is still far away likely beyond 2026, and I don't think IP like DOOM or Wolfenstein have that type of pull. So what else is there? ESO, COD, Overwatch...they're all service games and multiplat (consoles & PC). Tango's rumored JRPG? It'll likely be quite good (if it exists), but even if it's exclusive to the next Xbox console that won't be much of a draw. I highly doubt MS try locking down a huge 3P exclusive considering the purchase of Zenimax & ABK was in part to avoid that type of strategy going forward.
So from 2026 to 2028 you've mainly got a more powerful 10th-gen Xbox console that is simply playing the new multiplats with very little in the way of big exclusive draws. "Play your current multiplats but prettier!" won't do much because of PS5 Pro and "Play your last-gen Xbox games but prettier!" won't work because Xbox Series X tried that in 2020 and that clearly hasn't done much for the Series consoles to this day in sales growth.
The only way a new traditional Xbox console could even possibly work is if Microsoft reneged on their PC Day 1 strategy and also reneged on at least a couple of the games they promised to regulators would remain multiplat, the latter of which could get very messy or very costly (or both). Either that, or rush Bethesda to have TES VI ready by launch, which is probably not a great idea because that studio's reputation is blemished and one more Starfield-like disappointment could ruin it altogether.
People just have to give up the idea Microsoft are going to give the console battle another shot with a 10th-gen Xbox console launching 1 or even 2 years ahead of the next PlayStation. There's just
no path where that works long-term. Sure maybe they get some initial strong sales because of the newness factor, but that luster will quickly subside and then actual demand (or lack thereof) will show itself, and they'll be in an even worst spot than what the Series consoles are currently at.
If there's any future for Xbox gaming hardware, it's by moving from the traditional console business model altogether and taking on a much more PC-centric hardware business model while carrying over their experience in R&D'ing & manufacturing console hardware. That's why the OEM rumors actually make some sense, IMO. Tho again, I think MS very much will still be making hardware themselves, and develop a standardized spec they'll build systems from and license out to OEMs to build customized variants of, with some amount of incentives in it for them (Xbox frontend UI licensing w/ customizations, Windows licensing, facilitating some amount of wafer orders/board assembly/distribution/etc. themselves rather than having OEMs do all of that on their own, so on and so forth).
The last completely new one was Half-Life:Alyx. Counterstrike got an update but besides those two that's been it over the last...five years? Valve are in an Apple position with Steam, where there's so many games on their platform and they make so much just taking cuts from everyone else, they really don't have to bother pushing their own 1P software. 
