The future of Xbox will be revealed on February 15th
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/12/24070445/microsoft-xbox-business-update-event-future-february-15
The future of Xbox will be revealed on February 15th
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/12/24070445/microsoft-xbox-business-update-event-future-february-15
The Xbox 12 will run on Windows 12 and is basically a locked down PC that runs another Xbox DRM layer on top of Windows 12 that makes it so you cant actually use it as a PC.
That’s exactly what microsoft would do
It’s kinda what they already did
But now Xbox games just need to target windows and that minimum hardware of the “console” that Microsoft sells. Then if a game is released on Xbox it’s already on PC.
Of course, it’ll be in the Microsoft Store and not on Steam. M$ coming for Valve’s lunch; thinking they can push them off Windows and onto Linux, which will then not be supported because every AAA game will have a Windows-kernel anticheat and not run on Proton/SteamDeck.
They’re coming for the gold, boys.
Ooh how about this, you can subscribe to Windows as a service on your Xbox for only $9.99 /month? Also, if you want access to the games store you need the full Windows experience on your Xbox.
See, yes, exactly.
I guarantee you their upper and middle management would convince themselves this makes sense.
I used to work for them. The management is basically all fucking delusional, out of touch psychopaths.
And also the games are running via wine cuz Steam is doing what Microsoft couldn’t for decades.
That’s basically what xboxes have been for the past two generations already, despite the snark that kind of makes them more open than other consoles just because the games are basically already PC games
Except that you cant actually use it as a computer without DRM without a ton of fucking work, nor as a gaming device without DRM without a ton of work.
MSFTs development notes and such for the Pluton CPU architecture heavily draws from wanting to be able to stop people hard-modding existing Xboxes.
A separate, physical security co processor doesnt work because people figure out how do basically flash an Xbox, or do some kind of software stun lock, then physically remove the anti piracy doohickey, then finish flashing the thing into a hackDbox.
Thankfully the linux community appears to have neutralized that threat for PCs running Linux, at least.
People spent lots of effort on Xbox 360 hacking just because microsoft spent so much effort making it as unhackable as possible. Fortunately, console gaming is so much less relevant today that it’s not even worth remembering what the latest consoles are. Sure, there are some shitty AAA titles that lock things down or are so demanding they need a $100k pc but between the few ethical worthwhile ones and the expansive library of actually good indie games on steam, consoles just aren’t worth fucking with anymore.
I know that from an actual standpoint of generally speaking most bang for your buck, pc’s have made more sense for over a decade.
But, console gaming is still a huge part of marketshare. Yes, it doesnt really make sense. But literally millions of people still haven’t got the memo.
Only people I know who still use consoles basically just have them for that /one/ exclusive they can’t wait to play.
The wider gaming landscape is not like us though.
Basically, there are still a ton of kids and/or casuals. We are likely inundated and affected by literally decades of following industry news and learning at least a decent amount of the technical hardware and software capabilities and principles… a huge amount of people still basically just view games with very little of that background knowledge.