- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
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Microsoft: we’ve given up on consoles and exclusives. But don’t tell our investors that we have become a publisher.
I think that’s plain to see by now, even for the investors. They still hold on to saying they’re going to release 10th gen hardware but that could be a PC by then. There are upsides to this for gamers potentially though as I doubt they’ll leave legacy Xbox games stranded and more people will get access to them.
And the dirt finally starts getting thrown onto the casket. RIP XBOX, You really weren’t the same after J Allard left.
That was so grim 💀
DirectX was always about displacing consoles. Alex St. John was talking about it in 1994.
The task is mostly complete. Software has won. The surprise is that Microsoft really hasn’t. They assumed they’d dominate whatever computer-ified market emerged… and that assumption is getting shakier every year. Windows suuucks. Linux is already a better way to run most programs and games. Even x86 is not a sure bet, and whatever ARM does to unseat it, that’ll transfer smoothly to RISC-V.
Everything old is new again. “The best Macintosh is an Amiga.” The best WinTel box might be your phone.
Funny with ARM finally starting to rise beyond just mobile devices, accurate but very early
It’s already serious business in laptops and desktops. Just exclusively for Apple’s awful little incompatible fiefdom.
Yeah, it’s just Apple actually pushing it forward and Microsoft sorta half assing it lol.
Microsoft does not make processors.
I obviously mean with software support, though also https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23960345/microsoft-cpu-gpu-ai-chips-azure-maia-cobalt-specifications-cloud-infrastructure
Broadly speaking, what are Xbox looking to do here?
They optimise Windows for gaming and open up the console for other storefronts, then is it just a Steam device? They won’t make money from Steam sales.
Is this a cloud streaming device? Can you cloud stream games from other storefronts? It’s all incredibly vague to me.
So imagine an Xbox Series X that’s also as open as a Steam Deck. Or, to put it simply, imagine a gaming PC with a comfortable couch layout, sold at a much cheaper price point than it’d be as a laptop/desktop because Microsoft can afford to sell it at (or below) cost of parts to push Gamepass subs and adherence to the Windows ecosystem. Mods, your existing Steam / Epic / GOG / pirated libraries. Assuming it’s not locked down, it’s the first time I’ve considered owning an Xbox product since the 360.
Don’t forget, an Xbox that’s just a PC is an Xbox that gets all of Sony’s cutscene hallways too. And all of Nintendo’s games through emulation. And the entire Steam library, and hell since it’s Windows (and thus plays nice with rootkit DRM) it’s a console that runs League of Legends. A console that runs world of warcraft if you want. A console that gets day zero access to those cool indie games on Itch. A console that’s immune to port beggars every time something like Balatro drops PC-first. That’s a console someone’s gonna buy, unlike the XSX which is a console with no exclusives (vs PC) and also doesn’t have the PC’s multiple storefronts and compatibility with your existing libraries and mods.
“why do you have a playstation instead of just a gaming pc in your living room?” Has very legitimate answers other than “i like sony exclusives”. More technical setup. Worse controller UI. More expensive. Bigger. Bulkier. Needs research to determine best parts. Doesn’t have the seamless ability to boot the system from the couch with a controller. All of these could be handled by an MS-backed PC-in-Xbox-Clothing. Yes, they could also (except price point) be handled by a well-researched custom build, but bringing PC to the living room for the kind of person that doesn’t know what an OS is would be a pretty big deal.
That could be compelling. I think they would want to design the OS in a way that strongly incentivises you to buy games through the Microsoft store, like SteamOS with the steam store. If they make it too flexible, they’ve just sold hardware at a loss to be someone’s steam machine as well as making the OS potentially too complicated for a normal person to figure out.
If they can make a windows machine that can play all of the old Xbox games, run other storefronts, and do quick resume/hibernate properly, I’m interested. I was kind of waiting out for SteamOS on desktop to get a console like experience on a PC.
Yeah, all they need to rake in direct profits from the MS store and especially gamepass lock-in is to make it easier to do that than install software through other means. Don’t forget though, even if it’s possible to buy this WinXbox and completely remove Windows from it for SteamOS or Bazzite (unlikely), MS still gets to sell controllers and accessories for the thing. And also, just like installing Linux on a laptop or ad-ridden Smart TV homepages, most users are going to use it out of the box. Anything that’ll require plugging in a keyboard will immediately gate out any chance of a majority of users not using xbox storefront/gamepass/etc on this thing.
It’s also Microsoft. Their video games division is tiny compared to their business sector and other arms. Taking losses in video games just to push the concept of “windows is good and open!” harder to normies (you and i on fucking lemmy know that “more open than a nintendo switch” is a low bar to clear and Windows is far from “freedom”) might be worth it to the shareholders. After all, they spend how many billions on advertising every year and that’s a direct loss in exchange for more consumer awareness of their products. It could also be a targeted tactic to just obliterate Sony as a competitor in the console space. Sell something cheaper and stronger, with more games including your already-paid-for Steam games on it and compare that to vendor lock-in for the PS6? Where the PS6 only has timed exclusivity on most first-party games and the occasional Astro Bot style exclusive? Can’t even be open to anti-trust if they do nuke Sony, because they can just point at Nintendo selling a donkey kongillion Switch 2s in the same exact market space.
They have no idea what they’re doing.
My guess is that this device will upsell you on GamePass constantly by making everything else possible but slightly annoying. MS might be the biggest video game publisher these days so there’s still plenty of leverage they have (buying ActiBlizz was huge and EA could be in trouble because FC 25 is not selling as well as FIFA). MS „lost” console war but this allows them to keep foot in the door and still exert some power over the platform.
Yeah, maybe. The OS will be built around Game Pass like how SteamOS heavily incentivises you to use Steam. I think they’ll have a unified game launcher like Armory Crate on the ROG Ally devices.
That way, it’s a PC that you can use steam on, but the choice architecture and UX will be pushing you to the MS store.
No one: Satya Nadella summer 2026: Introducing Microsoft Surface Xbox With Microsoft Co-Pilot laptop and Microsoft Surface Xbox With Microsoft Co-pilot+ X.
Don’t forget about Xbox Co-Pilot Surface 360 Pro Studio Deluxe Edition AI Agent
If you can install SteamOS on it, it’ll probably run better
We are headed for singularity.
Oh, a Steam Machine?
Steam Machines ran Linux so you were limited to Steam and couple of odd ports pretty much. It was definitely too early and most just installed Windows I think. Mine’s a home server to this day, I love that little gamer coffin (Asus GR6).
There’s much more variety on Windows so this is pretty cool. I think the biggest unanswered question is whether Microsoft pulls off running Xbox games on those.
The big problem with windows handhelds is battery, there is a huge difference in consumption. I highly doubt that “most steam deck purchasers installed windows” (if that’s what you meant), you need a high technical level to do so and people are used to being limited to a single store in a console anyway.
Oh, sure. Agreed that at the time the proton Linux ecosystem was pretty under developed.
But to be excited now about a windows handheld is a whole other story, specially because of the battery as stated.
Unless you want to play TFT on the handheld for some god forsake reason I see no point on it being windows. But I ditched widows for all my PCs and I’m very tech savvy so I’m biased.
Microsoft is likely to develop a stripped down version of Windows for those handhelds. Windows isn’t fundamentally incapable of low overhead and Xbox runs something similar.
As to why you’d want to use Windows even if you’re tech savvy there are loads of reasons:
- Native access to other digital storefronts (Valve wants to lock you in with Steam Deck)
- Microsoft treats backwards compatibility and long term support seriously, unlike Valve that has a history of abandoning things when they no longer found them immediately profitable
- There are plenty of games with kernel-level anti-cheat that won’t work with Wine/Proton ever
- Wine/Proton compatibility isn’t good enough to replace Windows
- Valve pushes Proton so heavily that developers stopped creating native Linux ports so the above is unlikely to change anytime soon
But there are also good reasons to go with SD like very very good VRR screen utilisation (Xbox is also good at this so maybe there’s hope for Windows).
Never thought I’d downvote you
Never thought I’d give people a valid reason to.
It’s kinda funny you mention all those points to me, when I’ve been gaming on Linux for about 3 years now. I play on steam, use heroic for gog games, play a lot of modded D2… All in Linux. Saying that Microsoft treats backwards compatibility and support when they are forcing everyone to either pay for win10 support or join the win11 spyware mafia is a ludicrous statement btw.
Games with kernel-level anticheat do work on Linux, if the anticheat provider has done the work. Right now, most don’t and actively stopped supporting Linux so saying that won’t work ever is kind of a stretch.
“Isn’t good enough to replace windows” - here I am playing Modded games, path of exile, ffxiv, other FF games, cyberpunk, all PC monster Hunter games… Your statement is false.
I see nothing wrong with using a compatibility layer, it does the work of retrocompatibility alongside separating game environments, which is good for security.
Saying that Microsoft treats backwards compatibility and support when they are forcing everyone to either pay for win10 support or join the win11 spyware mafia is a ludicrous statement btw.
What are you using as a benchmark? Is there any OS that supports hardware or software this long? Find an original Quake 3 Linux installer and see how that goes. Not sure what spyware has to do with that.
Games with kernel-level anticheat do work on Linux, if the anticheat provider has done the work. Right now, most don’t and actively stopped supporting Linux so saying that won’t work ever is kind of a stretch.
To an end user this is a Linux problem. Like, „Haiku OS can run all the games except developers don’t support it” won’t cut it as an explanation for why your games don’t work.
“Isn’t good enough to replace windows” - here I am playing Modded games, path of exile, ffxiv, other FF games, cyberpunk, all PC monster Hunter games… Your statement is false.
You’re playing some games. Same can be said about Switch yet everybody here acts like it is some huge failure.
I see nothing wrong with using a compatibility layer, it does the work of retrocompatibility alongside separating game environments, which is good for security.
It is reverse engineered and with the level of complexity of Windows and Windows being a moving target it will never get there 100%. You have to make a conscious choice to lose access to some of your games when moving from Windows, and possibly lose access to some games that worked on Linux previously after you moved.
sure it isn’t
Called it.
