This intentionally vague video is just tickling us with more confusion about what the future of xbox looks like.
There are no solid statements anywhere saying the Next-Gen Xbox will NATIVELY play PC AND Xbox games, or that PC will NATIVELY play Xbox games, although this is exactly what the video seems to be hinting at.
^^^ This right here is what is causing the most anxiety and confusion amongst Xbox players/fans. Not only because it is difficult to fathom a device that is versatile enough to play PC games in all the ways that people play PC games (different launchers, mods, streaming setups, speedrunning, emulation etc.), but also because of how the restrictions on the xbox library will transfer to a device that is also a “PC”.
Will there be more DRM shoehorned into PC games on this new Xbox device(s)? Will this device only play games from specific storefronts or from specific eras of PC gaming? Will i be able to use this device as more than just a gaming console if it also plays PC games?
Are Streaming and Play Anywhere the only pitiful solutions you actually have to cross-compatibility between Xbox and PC???
The biggest question of all is of course about the money. Not about how much the device(s) will cost either, but…
How will subscriptions work?!?!
Is Xbox going to try to charge me money to play my multiplayer PC games online? Are they going to relinquish their death-grip on Xbox Live Gold(now Gamepass Core) and say goodbye to all of that subscription money? I wont hold my breath. Will they lock EVERYTHING behind a Gamepass Paywall?
I bet they learn alot of lessons and make alot of mistakes along this path, but I am very glad they are at least staring down the barrel and thinking about it.
Hopefully soon they can provide some more clarity about what this process will look like. We want to know how this will benefit us dedicated Xbox console fans, because right now it feels like we are getting the short end of the stick. Paying more and getting less.
Does anyone else have burning questions about the evolution of xbox?
I’m curious about what Xbox will be doing in order to keep the people who use their stuff and improve the hardware/software situation enough that more people will become interested in Xbox again.
Same here,
My concern is how their focus on increasing value for shareholders will get in the way of increasing value for their player base.
If we are lucky they will invest in the future of their brand by making a huge value proposition for the players, and it hopefully wont be centered around streaming or locked behind a subscription…
Microsoft is already doing that with AI, something they are actively hemorrhaging money on…I doubt they’d try doing something too extreme and risk alienating end users again! The reason why Sony has such a leg-up currently is due to Microsoft dropping the ball with that online library BS which seemed legit bad (despite how much they said it would be convenient). I feel like they are going to stay dedicated to providing a better experience than Sony with backwards compatibility and offering other form factors to engage with their ecosystem. In an effort to capture handheld and console enjoyers. Microsoft has seen the success of Steam Deck and SteamOS, I doubt they’ll get it right initially, though. As ironically, they couldn’t get Windows Phone right despite part of their core business being a major OS (I blame bad leadership and poor decision-making lower down the chain).
Their subscription service Game Pass won’t go away, but, they’d probably keep it the same as now. Only Multiplayer and being able to play games that are on the service without additional charge.
Oh and as for the paid multiplayer experience… If microsoft recedes their subscription requirement for xbox games… They will be the heroes of gaming for years to come(even though they are the ones that started the trend in the first place lol)
However I do not see this happening. 12 million gold/core subscribers at ~$5-10/month each. They cant justify giving up that income just for “good PR”
I agree they are aware of what their position should be in the current gaming space, but i also agree they are going to fumble hard on some fronts because their intentions are ultimately motivated by profit.
Chasing immediate profits will distract from what their goal should be in order to succeed in the long run, which is optimizing user experience and value.
The reason Steam/Valve is so successful is because user experience is clearly their #1 focus. Hopefully Microsoft sees that clearly now with SteamOS biting at their heels.
On Multiplayer, I can’t foresee a world where Microsoft gives up on the income generated from this player base anytime soon. They don’t care about PR enough to cease receiving those injections of cash. Microsoft is certainly playing a short term game in most cases, so the lure of profit will get ahead of them and mess up any efforts to realistically succeed at first try. Their engineers likely understand why Valve is so successful, but the bigwigs can’t possibly understand it. As they likely don’t have any connection to the gaming scene. I can see Valve dominating in the handheld space because of their focus on user experience first and knowing that profits will follow after.
Microsoft might get lucky and have someone on that handheld OS team who is passionate and can translate their passion into terms those dollars seeking C-Suites can understand. I won’t hold my breath though, only seeing what happens next will and a postmortem assessment will tell us how successful or how big a fail this effort will be!
In the console space, with luck, they’ll do better as there is a body of experience to draw from in this space at Xbox. Hopefully, they’ll reduce the ads which currently plague Xbox’s home screen and get in the way of players reaching their games (if that is their style of interacting with Xbox). Backward Compatibility will be prioritized so that libraries across console gens are still highly accessible, making Xbox a strong contender for playing older games on modern hardware. It’s not exactly a game preservation dream, but making these older games accessible is a good move.
This is essentially my understanding of the state of things too. The caveat is that compatibility/preservation are stated to be at the forefront of Xbox’s strategy, but implementation and parity with PC system features is a deeeeep rabbit hole of engineering issues they might not be willing to confront in the long haul.
Yeah, time will tell. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
PC Parity would be a hard approach for Xbox, possible if they had been working on it for years to get this parity nailed way before launch of physical hardware…
If they truly believed in Xbox Anywhere, that would be their move; however, I doubt their ability to manifest such an integrated back and frontend. Making it so devs can easily optimize their games for available Xbox hardware. So that games wouldn’t need lengthy dev times on ports, and release riddled with performance problems.
Yeah my hopes arent high for full xbox/pc parity. Xbox Play anywhere would be their best investment youre correct.
What they should do is start integrating games retroactively into the program like they did with 360 backwards compatibility.
This would allow for almost no engineering debt and would increase value for people in the ecosystem just like they did before. Then users would be willing to more fluidly switch between Xbox and PC based hardware, regardless of game compatibility on either device.
I would still kill to play my OG xbox and 360 games on a PC one day though.
With Microsoft as it is, yeah, I doubt they’d try to get Xbox/PC parity going…It’s just a flight of fancy that most gamers would love to see. However, Corporate America has mostly lost sight of their end users and only care about the numbers going up. They aren’t willing to invest more effort into creating an ecosystem that attracts new users; they want it cheap, fast, and constantly. I do agree that it would be a badass thing, to be able to seamlessly switch between PC and Xbox, with the expectation of being able to play any game in your library or in Microsoft’s Gaming Library. I do use Linux, so I wouldn’t necessarily benefit from that type of parity. It would be beneficial to those invested in either ecosystem, regardless.
Dreaming the impossible dream
Thats what i dont get, if i end up having the option between an xbox/pc that charges me money to play multiplayer games that i can play for free on my SteamOS PC or windows PC… Why would I buy that xbox/pc system?
This is already the reason i began divesting in xbox consoles.