This article is entirely speculative, from the thoughts of the author and a guy who does not currently work for Microsoft or at Xbox.
Add another one to the pile of “typical games “journalism” (its really just fanfic at this point) anti-Xbox drivel with zero credibility.”
Also Phil Spencer literally confirmed that they’re already developing the next Xbox console… I thought the rumors would end there but these websites keep trying to act like Xbox is dead.
They just bought Activision Blizzard. Can’t see them not making consoles.
I can only really see it happening once something like the Steam Deck becomes mainstream and people have access to the entire Xbox library through GamePass. As much as I can’t stand Xbox, I hope it sticks aroung because who knows what shenanigans Sony will get up to if there’s no real competition.
I think things like the steam deck are their real competition at this point. If it were not for exclusives, why would you get a PlayStation over a pc/steamdeck?
I love my steam deck, but it is not consumer friendly in the slightest. It needs massive improvement from the UX front, especially switching between handheld and desktop mode. And don’t even get me started on how updates work out the box. If you are not on your home network and aren’t prepared for an update it can make it unusable.
It’s a great device but it is for a slightly higher floor of tech savvy users who are willing to tolerate jank and somewhat enjoy problem solving.
The steam deck isn’t competing with consoles. It isn’t even competing with the switch. It’s enticing to people who are already in the steam ecosystem and want a handheld PC to constantly tinker with.
I think it’s pretty comparable to consoles. They don’t even have a desktop mode and most often they need an update when you take it out of the box.
If you treat it like a console and just buy from the Steam store, then it’s exactly like a console.
Of course if you want to do more, sure there is a little effort, but then it would not be a good comparison to a console.
It plays half as well as a console and compatibility is pretty impressive but far from consistent. Each game requires research just to see if it’s worth playing on it and will always look worse/play worse than on console by a large margin unless it’s an older or incredibly stripped down indie game.
Anybody who chooses it over a console wasn’t seriously considering a console in the first place. They don’t fill the same gap. The same way even switch and Wii owners often still got a PlayStation or Xbox. The libraries and the entire play experience are wildly different.
I really really like the deck but I don’t recommend it to most people because it’s fun like having Linux on your personal computer is fun. You like to tinker and see what it can do, you like a specific kind of ecosystem, and you like that the restrictions on it are few and far between (aside from performance). But this comes at a cost of UX. The fact that you need to reboot it 50% of the time you swap between handheld and desktop mode is emblematic of the entire experience. If I’m on a switch and dock it, I press a button on a controller and I’m instantly going. Deck? Controller might need to be reconnected to Bluetooth from scratch, the aspect ratio might be completely wrong, the game might panic with the change, lots can go wrong and often does.
Again the fact that a simple update can soft lock your deck until you connect to home wifi is terrible. You have to deal with a lot of little frustrations that no other system has and it just isn’t seamless like other experiences.
Ease of use. More and more people only use a phone as their main device so I don’t see those people finding a PC to use.
I think that ignores the fact that things like Big picture mode already exist and make the experience, well basically the same as playing on console for games that have controller support or a default controller mapping (which of vast majority already do).
If Microsoft were to shift their model to PCs and PC handhelds it’s likely they would bring their own big picture dashboard, maybe even just port the Xbox dashboard itself. So the experience would be the same, with the exception that you could jump to a Desktop mode if you wanted to (not that you actually have to, or would want to if you want that clean console experience).
Evil shenanigans.
As an ABK employee, I would be genuinely shocked if they killed xbox consoles.
Edit: this is just my opinion, I’m not speaking based any special knowledge.
I honestly hope they stop. We would benefit more from an increase in manufacturers making entry level standardized prebuilt gaming computers like the steam deck and similar. Those with the aptitude and shopping sense can continue building or buying computers normally.
Devs using the systems like steam deck as a base level target for optimization has led to enjoyable experience in titles I have tried so far that have taken this path. Theoretically you should be able to use better hardware for a better experience, and the better optimized the more you should get per hardware tier. Like how things were back in the day. I’ve heard about a lot of weird arguments about dev costs for multiple optimization targets but m$ already did this by having multiple Xbox models in the same generation. I’m also on team optimize for known entry level hardware and blame GPU makers for writing shitty closed source drivers if the game can’t run on the absolute latest card, which seems to happen fairly regularly with AAA titles at launch. AAA titles issues you can probably blame dev company shareholders tmore often than not though.
I feel like if the headline was about PlayStation that a lot of people who share your view would suddenly be singing a different tune. Purely a “feeling” though. Not based on any concrete data lol
Worth noting that Peter Moore does not currently have any insight into what conversations are happening at Microsoft right now, but there are some interesting bits in here.
And why do you need a bespoke piece of hardware that costs us, Microsoft, billions upon billions of dollars to install, and you hope to hell you get an attach rate of software and something out of your Xbox Live, your connected service, that would justify the losses, the hemorrhaging of cash that hardware costs you?
That is way more risk for them than it is to just make Game Pass available on more open platforms, and it makes plenty of sense. Sony had something like a $600M profit margin on a $7B investment, IIRC, so those margins are getting slimmer even when you’re in a market dominating position like they are.
Somebody gave me a DVD the other day, I have nowhere to actually look at this.
This does reflect what the average consumer is doing, but it’s stupid. The movie industry, even more than the gaming industry, are doing their damnedest to make sure I can’t ever legally own a copy of the movies I enjoy, and it’s doing more to make me stop watching movies than it is to pay them perpetual revenue forever. Perhaps the downward trend in theater attendance is tied to that too, but I’m no analyst. There’s certainly no GOG for DRM-free movie purchases, so if there’s no Blu Ray copy of it, you’re just buying a pass that lets you stream it from someone else’s machine that will disappear one day, as Discovery customers on PlayStation just realized.
Gen Z is coming through and they’re going, why do I need to spend four or 500 bucks on a bespoke piece of gaming hardware when I’ve got my smartphone, or I got my PC or my Mac, and I can do things there with a pretty decent controller?
And when consoles aren’t so streamlined anymore and the price gap between a console and a half-decent PC keeps shrinking. Because development budgets have gotten so expensive, the most popular games are rarely the most demanding ones out there anymore either, so it’s not like there’s a lot of pressure on the consumer to get a super expensive PC if they want to play games.
Honestly… they don’t. I think Microsoft will eventually go to a PC pre-built with a OS on it. “But isn’t that a Console?” I mean I had an alpha, On my alpha I had a versions of windows that immediately booted into the Alpha program for ease of use. I stopped the alpha program and my wife uses it as a work computer (a weak one so she can pull up documents).
I don’t see a future where Microsoft makes a different OS than Windows, makes a hardware setup that isn’t off the shelve parts. MAYBE a specialized motherboard with a chip set. But ultimately, I think IF they make a “Console” it’s going to be a Windows machine with set specs that don’t change, and an OS that is just for gaming, maybe with some way to dockerize the software so you always get the same experience every time you run it.
Sony and Nintendo will keep making Consoles, for sure, but Microsoft has no benefit in making a console. And before someone says what I described is a console, Xbox can’t play PC games, what I’m describing is a windows machine playing windows software. When you make Xbox software currently you make software that ONLY can run on an Xbox… but why? You already are making a Windows build so you can ship a Windows version, so why not only make the windows version and have your console just be a windows machine in an OS that will giver players a consistent experience.
Not sure why the downvote, this is almost exactly my take as well. “Big Picture Mode” but for windows. Streaming apps and video management software for local titles. Desktop mode. Containers to run services for your household (like a NAS, or HomeAssistant).
Devs target Windows, and the specs of this media PC; no more need to make a special console version.
What can a console do that a PC doesn’t? Even the things that made the PS5 special when it came out can all be done by a PC now, which is way more useful in the home media center (and therefore can sell more than games).
I’m not even saying “Xbox is dead” I’m saying “Xbox won’t run a unique OS”. Even if there is a “Xbox approved version” it’s just a game optimized for the specific hardware that the Xbox console will have (and maybe ship with a somewhat specialized container too). I doubt you’ll see Steam on this hypothetical system, but it’s still possible.
I wonder if that would help or hurt the licensing for games. Like this is made for Xbox, but is not on PC, or it is on PC but only on epic store.
How I wish for a gaming PC that can run games at console level and doesn’t cost $2k. I hate PC gaming cause for the price it just doesn’t make sense, just to make the graphics slightly better, I’m paying like triple the cost of a ps5 or Xbox. And then the games may or may not run well, run into issues. I will always prefer a console cause I can pop a game in and know it’ll work.
If PC can do this, a baseline where I know my PC will run all the new games at a decent rate and I won’t be outdated in a year, I’d go for PC.
the reason it wont happen is because the components of a pc is a conglomerate of different companies selling parts for profit. virtually none of these companies can take a loss because they get 0 sales in the aftersales market, because PC isnt a closed garden where the company can arbitrarily sell you a service or subscription because you basically dont have a choice, else receive limited functionality (on a device that already on its own has limited functionality vs a pc)
for instance, its completely silly that console users have to PAY for a sub to get online service for paid games, invluding for games the console company doesnt even pay server hosting for.
I bought a Alienware Alpha for around 500 bucks, it was a great investment and lasted me a decent amount of time.
Kind of sad that idea and the idea of a steambox died because it made it possible to have a great experience on a budge. STill my 1000 dollar computer is holding up after 8 years or so, I feel like people overvalue FPS performance to the point they over spend on PC hardware.
I think they’ll make a video game streaming machine.
That feels out of place. We already have those, any computer laptop phone and many tvs already do that. I don’t see a reason for them to make their own device… After all Chromecasts and Fire sticks exist. But you might be right.
Knowing how far ahead R&D needs to be to get a product out the door…I’m sure MS has already made this decision. Is there any indication that the Xbox series is actually unprofitable? It being third in market share is not necessarily an indication that they’re losing money this generation.
Aside from the general understanding that consoles are sold at a loss for the first few years, no I don’t know of any direct evidence that they’re unprofitable.
My guess is that they’ll be pushing cloud gaming, as it would be more profitable than hardware sales.
For an incredibly long time, it was their biggest money maker. Iirc only recently, M365/Azure has taken that spot.
Xbox debates this constantly, famously (unconfirmed). The CEO wanted to end xbox after the xbox One Failure, with Spencer convincing him based on the merits of gamepass. After the original Xbox wasn’t a success, they had to consider then too, as well as when the red ring of death forced their hand on either abandoning the platform or investing billions into replacements for every single xbox 360 console sold thus far.
Every single xbox console has had some moment that Microsoft has had to decide if they should continue, and if it was a normal company that has to be profitable and balance its books, it would have folded a long time ago.
Oh is it Sunday again? Drum up the usual “Xbox is shutting down” headline
They just did that podcast a couple of weeks ago after the third party game leaks to officially state they aren’t stopping console production
The Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X were the best console hardware I ever owned, so please Microsoft don’t stop making great Xbox consoles.
Series X is amazing hardware wise, but since they keep releasing games without physical copies, I haven’t turned mine on and likely won’t for some time. The console also doesn’t really work right without internet connection. As in, it is literally impossible to set up an Xbox without internet. It’s also literally impossible to install any games without internet, which is fucking bonkers.
If they stopped would they move to trying to push pre-built PCs and PC handhelds? They already got the laptops.
That is very likely what they would do, though I imagine that they would start doing PCs and PC handhelds before killing off Xbox, if they even actually killed off Xbox, and didn’t just transition the brand to that model, either way it’s more of a smooth transition rather than just up and moving on to something else.
