Former Xbox Europe VP Phil Harrison’s new company has licensed some as-yet unannounced hardware from his former employer.

Speaking with Gamesindustry.biz, Harrison said that his new company, a start-up called Alloy Platform Industries, has partnered with Microsoft to investigate new technologies.

"Alloy has licensed some technology from Microsoft which will form the basis of our initial investigations and explorations,” Harrison said.

“But I'm not going to say any more than that. It's unannounced technology that nobody outside of Microsoft knows about.

"We're in stealth mode at the moment, we'll stay in stealth mode for a while. It's very exciting, and something I've been planning for a little over a year, in full consultation and collaboration with Microsoft, specifically with [Xbox boss] Phil Spencer.”

The tech in question is game-adjacent, if not game-related, Harrison added.

"We're definitely in the same neighbourhood, probably on the same street, but probably not the next door house, if that makes any sense. But clearly related.

“You know, the things that interest me and stimulate me are how technology and entertainment and people intersect. Think of those as three circles with a Venn diagram with an intersection in the middle.”

Harrison said his main areas of interest are mobile devices, the “ambient computing intelligence that you get from a cloud”, and new technology developments in low-power, low-cost hardware.

Harrison's departure from Microsoft was confirmed by the company yesterday.