If you want to comprehend all the implications of it, let us look into what this announcement means for the Xbox’s hopes and plans of becoming the next generation open ecosystem. Consoles will never have a single store or be walled to a single device. They are also pushing hard that Windows be the number one platform for gaming. Crazy, no?
What does it mean, then? Well, it means that this new Xbox will be a real open ecosystem with the walled gardens of the past disappearing and the choice of purchasing games from their store or any other like Steam or Epic opening to the gamers. By proclaiming Windows to be coming to be the number one platform for gaming, it may literally imply that an Xbox console is just a disguised Windows computer.
The online reaction got a bit spicy, strong with a gamer contradiction. Some got very happy: One user, KorruptedBoss, tweeted that “Xbox will be eating good with Game Pass plus Steam & PlayStation games. No need for PlayStation’s anymore.” On the other hand, some doubted: Shadow_820 just wrote “Xbox hardware is dead” and threw a skull emoji for his point.
So begins the console war: MAGAJacob01 went in hot with “Xbox and PlayStation are both worthless now,” labeling Nintendo as the only console manufacturer not currently committing “suicide.” Ouch! Meanwhile, Aizendagoat13 fired back, “If Xbox puts steam on next Xbox PlayStation will no longer have exclusives either.” These fan wars keep raging.
Some talk about pricing…
Snarked: “Great. So I buy the steam version which will now be more expensive because MS will charge additional license fees.”
And that quite clearly may be the concern – that Microsoft starts licking its chops just a little-bit as they take cuts from games otherwise sold through Steam or whoever on Windows.
Hardware?
Thrillakkuma: “Swapable GPU upgrades for the next Xbox?”
Sounds good. Then there is Shonnieb2: “Xbox series consoles are is the last one, no more Xbox just pc now.”
That would be a BIG change were it true.
Interesting, too-how the push for Windows gaming turns out.
KingBaah6 says, “Windows on Xbox won’t be the same as regular windows,” so basically there’s a hope to see a watered-down, customized version of full-blown Windows 11.
Productmanesis: “There’s an intern showing Microsoft that they already dominate the gaming world through Windows.”
It’s really just the icing on an already baked cake in that Xbox is throwing themselves even harder into the “play anywhere” slogan. For years they’ve blurred the lines between console and PC through Play Anywhere titles and Game Pass across both platforms. Now they’re set to tear those walls down completely.
Is it really going to work? It means more options to offer to players, yet competition for the Xbox store itself. Does the next gen Xbox define a console-exclusive title? It is shaping, for one thing, very differently than the console exclusive incarnations we’ve come to recognize.
Microsoft, it seems, is keen to lead gaming toward openness and accessibility, even if that means eating away at their own hardware sales. So, is this genius or madness? That question may well be answered one day. But at least by that time, someone can finally put Steam on an Xbox console. Ain’t that something?
