New Xbox & AI CEO announced via Twitter ( not calling it x) the new “hybrid” console that will play Xbox and PC games.
In other words you know just a PC. Thus far it seems the system will use the exact same Xbox desktop experience as the “rog ally”.
While we all saw it coming and there isn’t much surprise. This to me says Xbox is dead as a platform.
It’s going to be expensive, it’s going to have Windows. It’s going to have co-pilot it’s going to have the same pop ups.
At least we get an Ally ROG desktop at most a Surface Gaming Desktop. Either honestly is a terrible idea. There will be most affordable options not tied to windows there will be mode powerful options at the same price. Even if you like the idea of going all in PC gaming this won’t be your best option.
If you want to stay a console gamer you’re going to have to switch teams …
RIP Xbox.
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I think Xbox is shutting its console side to compete directly with the PC market. Head-to-head with valve. Good luck. And by that I mean eat shit Microslop
You need log into your microsoft account and give us your goverment ID to start using your Windows Computer, powered by Copilot. Would you like to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass with Copilot? Would you like CoPilot to play games for you? Copilot is very helpful, it can take screenshots of your whole screen every few seconds to help remind you of what you were doing 3 months ago. Copilot is very helpful, it can work your browser, manage your files, write your letters, use your computer for you! All you need to do is say, Hey Copilot, because Copilot is always ready to listen to you! You want to install a software? Downloading software from sites can lead to malicious spyware! Use the Windows store instead! You need to log in to your microslop account and give us your goverment ID to browse the Windows Store. Windows is so useful, it can give you weather updates, remind you of that thing you were looking to buy, things you were looking for, straight from your Start menu and task bar! You want to install Steam? I’m sorry that’s not available in the Windows Store, consider Subscribing to Xbox Game pass instead! You want to run something outside of our guardrails? Don’t worry, if something goes wrong, you can use Recall to see whatever it is you were doing before you did something you regret!
Ok, I can’t keep this up. I cannot fathom why the fuck anyone would tolerate Windows… No game, no software, no nothing, is worth keeping literal bloated spyware that wants to drain your wallet, safety, and privacy. – I will continue to say this;
Just Switch to Linux. If you really need a guidance, just use Linux Mint or Zorin. Explore and try other things, don’t be afraid of making the wrong choice, just pick a flavor, learn it, and own your stuff back.
If I’m going to buy a PC type console, it’ll be the steam machine. No idea why anyone would go for something that has windows on it at this point. I guess some will buy it because it has the Xbox name but the value of that is waning.
Tiny caveat: If the “windows tax” is less than the cost of building the device by parts – which it might be – then buying a new XBox Series X 360 Box X Box 360 One and installing linux on it might be a cost savings for a consumer… assuming no signed OS fuckery.
Good idea, but I 100% expect the bios to be locked down and force secure boot. Hopefully there would at least be a work around to enroll new keys, but don’t count on it.
Maybe the online features of Xbox like multiplayer and such are going to be a factor in people wanting to stay. Network effect …
Consoles were just weird very restricted PCs for decades now, it’s nothing new really. If anything, making it more open will be better, there is no other need to keep it restricted other than making it unupgradable so you have to pay for a new one every generation.
In other ways, good, now do the same with PS.Let’s agree to disagree then.
It’s not a like for like experience no matter how you slice it.
I know this is going out to an audience who regularly self hosts and runs Linux.
But not everyone has the same technical skill level and the experiences are not ideal for everyone.
Consoles are literally just computers. Install game -> play game. There’s no magic “technical skill” required to do the same thing on a less locked down computer instead.
I think the steamdeck is the closest to a console-like experience, but yeah consoles have been PCs for a long time they just make it very simple to install/load games because it is a closed platform where they control every aspect of distribution
I understand the frustration with Xbox slowly dying, but this is all microslop’s fault.
How much you wanna bet it’ll just be a pc you can’t uninstall windows from?
It just sounds like a Steam Box that also steals your data.
And then feeds it into the actual orphan crushing machine
…and likely has better compatibility with more Windows games, which are most games.
Microsoft has the existing expertise and access to source to build a very effective and basically seamless compatibility layer, akin to how 32-bit apps run on x64 windows using WoW64 (Windows on Windows 64). I guess the real question is if it will be running real windows with an Xbox compatibility layer or a version of the Xbox modified windows with a regular windows compatibility layer.
They have the expertise, just not the desire. Which explains why in 2026, proton and wine manage to run more Windows apps (well) than Windows.
Proton consistently shows better performance results than running the same game natively on Windows. Despite having a bunch of experience, Microsoft consistently shows that there is always a way to make a thing worse.
Will they call it Xbox copilot? I can not and will not own any device that runs on software from Microsoft. Never again.
This is just the needle pushing more towards subscription models for all the things.
In a few years you won’t own games or game systems, you will have a controller to the side of your monitor and all your PC functions will be outsourced to a microsoft server and your games will be streamed to you according to whatever subscription tier you’re on.
If you all want to stop this, STOP BUYING NEW GAMES. Just put the stupid fucking companies out of business, we can “acquire” plenty of PC games for our PC’s and there are vast numbers of used games out there, alongside whatever is kicking around in our steam libraries that we didn’t have the attention span to even try. Let’s go on a spending diet and enjoy the lives we have for a little while until the oligarchs all starve.
Bold of you to assume the oligarchs will starve when they can always print money out of thin air while the rest of us pay for it in inflation.
Well, to be more correct, if they see a venture or tactic of theirs isn’t paying off as their delusional AI’s told them it would, we can at least get them to scrap that direction and try something else. We’ll never actually “stop” them, but we can use the thing we have, that they want, to at least direct them away from the places that they are causing harm to things we want to preserve.
I am under no expectation of this happening at all, we have hundreds of millions of families who will throw whatever new, shiny, mainstream tech-toys and “blockbuster” releases at their kids as a babysitter, those are the breadbasket of the tech and entertainment companies.
I’m confused by the pessimistic reactions, though.
Companies converging towards the semi-open platform is a good thing. The locked down hardware and exclusives are not something we as customers asked for. It was something the cartel just shoved down our throats.
What bothers me is the backwards compatibility that microsoft has always just hand-waved in regards to the sunsetting of the xbox HW. A clear yes or no would be nice.
In emulation and retro gaming forums I frequent the reactions seem mostly positive. Lots of questions surrounding backwards compatibility of course.
Microsoft was already releasing games on PC. All this does is removes any dedicated hardware. Officially forcing windows down Xbox gamers throats. One less option in the space not really one more.
Windows is not the future for gaming. Windows shouldn’t be anyone’s future
You realize PC is not just Windows, right? It’s Windows, Linux, Mac.
Windows might be the most used PC platform but game developer are well aware attaching their success to Windows is not the right move. And that’s exactly the kind of freedom PC gives that consoles do not.
I’m not sure if you understand the point of my post. Yes PC is not just Windows. But the whole point of this product will be the “Xbox experience” which is installed on WINDOWS. Sure you can buy this box and then just install Bazzite or whatever. But why wait for this “box” to do it ? Just build a custom PC which is guaranteed to be better value and something you can do right now ?
I’m not attacking PC gaming. I love PC gaming. But this is in the context of an dedicated gaming console. Which for Xbox is going away.
My point is I see little value in the move. My point is I believe it’s the wrong approach. Valves approach with their baked in software is much better.
I mean, your post says “Forcing windows down Xbox gamers throats”. So people that are already in the locked down Xbox ecosystem, not people that already know that and avoid Xbox. Xbox is just Windows but locked down. It’s both Microsoft.
I completely agree people should just go for a PC, but if someone was buying Xbox already, they aren’t in the mindset. So if they’re going to buy Xbox anyways, having a device that’s not locked down to some console OS means they can switch at any time and rid themselves of Xbox, since it’s your device. To me that’s definitely an improvement over the status quo, even if other better options were already available.
But think of the AI agents that need to work on it!!!
Oh God I know this will go over many people’s heads but I was listening to a podcast where they where talking about the renewal of CUSMA (or USMCA for you Americans) and a senator said “I’m half included to think Donald Trump is ready to make a decision” to which Rob Russo, a journalist, rightly pointed out that was not clarity it is infact the absence of clarity. He then said, and this is why I laugh and the yes/no comment is so true.
“If I told my wife ‘Im half inclined to take the garbage out today’ she would not say that is a clear answer as to if I was going to do it”
Political and Business language needs to fuck off.
Dumb marketing speak aside, the general thrust of just turning Xbox into a brand for Microsoft games Studios to release games on Windows and maybe other platforms one day doesn’t seem like all that bad of an idea to me.
I want more easy access to more open and flexible platforms in my everyday life, not less. If the traditional console has to go away for us to get the proliferation of “PC games” as the default in ways the average person can easily use that seems like a win for the gaming market overall.
Consoles aren’t going anywhere. I understand this crowd isn’t going to understand why. As half of you this morning for funsies decided to self host an instance of a discord clone on a toaster you found on the side of the road. Using Arch Linux of course !!
But the majority of people that aren’t on here the majority of people you know Microsoft is actually salivating to take money from aren’t. And I can tell from Xbox one to Kinnect those are the people they want !!
Steam deck over its 4 years has sold roughly around 5 million world wide. Switch 2 in less than a year has sold nearly 17 million !
The goal of this “new” Xbox is to get Windows for more normies into their living room. And Microsoft going to recoup share they lost overtime to smartphones and others. And to me I don’t see that working like at all …
Xbox is dead as a platform and this new strategy will be dead on arrival.
My SeXbox Series SeX has sat in the corner, unplugged, since a few months after the OG Legion Go came out. At first, it was because I preferred the experience on my LeGo. But that’s now turned into me not wanting to receive updates, in case someone finally figures out how to install Linux on the thing and that it requires an older firmware.
All xbox series s and x consoles are made to die. Microsoft put the hardware key in a 1 gb partition on the SSD that is encrypted and in XFBS format nothing can read. All those consoles will be trash in less than 10 years. So until we get the full schematics and a microsoft ex employee to tell us how to get around the partition, they are all going to break and be unrepairable.
…XFBS format nothing can read… for now. At the rate Microsoft recycles their staff, we will have some of them out in the wild one day with the full work around to reformat this abomination.
The console has potential if we can fix the heat issues and the stupid SSD failing issue.
Watch it not even be able to play native 360 titles due to the architecture. Gears of War 2 and 3 will be locked to consoles forever if that happens.
Reminds me of all the posts that say “but can it run crysis?”
Some games are just really difficult to emulate without original hardware.
Xbox 360 emulation is getting better, so it would be playable on pc.
The Xbone and Xbox SeX can play 360 games just fine, and they are essentially PCs running modified Windows.
Right, but you cannot play those two games on PC. So if the new console PC hybrid uses Windows, I don’t forsee those games running. I may be missing something though.
The newer Xboxes already run Windows. MS could distribute their 360 emulator on regular Windows.
I wouldn’t worry to much about that. Microsoft can build out additional emulation to support those games. Now how much of they can pull from what’s been done with Xbox One / Series that remains unclear.
They can always “borrow” from the foss community and just use their emulators.
I wouldn’t expect the same upgrades you saw with the old back compat catalogue. But hopefully it’s as functional as it was on its OG hardware.
But whatever they do I know the community will be able to improve upon for the whole PC space to utilize without needing to pay Shitsoft for it …
Don’t be silly, they’ll be happy to make a vibe coded remaster for it and charge $80 a piece.
$119 a piece, don’t forget about those poor shareholders.
With Steam Machine being announced and price about to be released, new xbox is dead even before arrival. I will be totally bemused if gamers will chose new xbox/pc over Steam Machines.
With the inability to obtain hardware for new PCs and other computing devices (for reference see how hard it is to get a hold of a steam deck these days). I’m not sure if the steam machine is ever going to come to fruition while the AI boom continues to fuck up the market.
The contracts for the Steam Machine were already locked in before RAM and GPU shortage even started, which means they will (like other consoles) be able to provide a reserved amount of devices at a fixed and lower price. But likewise, this also means that for any console that did not have contracts locked in before shit went down, will suffer massively from this. Thus looking at current prices for hardware isn’t indicative of how much prices will rise. Steam Machine could be the most affordable gaming device of the next decade.
But Valve also isn’t stupid. PC has the unique position where it has one of the longest backlogs of backwards compatible games and applications. Which means you don’t need top of the line hardware. People are still gaming on 10 year old PCs, so the hardware for those will be much more affordable and still be able to play most games. Especially indie games with their insane price to performance to quality ratios. If top line gaming on PC becomes economically unviable, it will simply move down a notch.
Yep, and I wager the steam machine is probably going to be, at minimum, 50% more expensive than valve planned it to be, which more than likely will kill it on arrival as far as price/performance goes.
Will there be die hards who buy it no matter the price? yeah… but i wager it’ll see a fraction of sales that the deck did, due to ram and storage price bullshit thanks to AI fucking everything up.
I will concede that it will be more expensive, but so will all computing devices. There will be some people who just can’t afford it, but I don’t think people will specifically avoid it due to price. Since a new computer will also have that same increase in price.
I can agree on AI being bullshit though.
You think the average person will buy a more expensive box that doesn’t play COD, FIFA, etc?
No prices for both new xbox and Steam Machines has been announced. How do you know which would be more expensive?
Because MS will throw any amount of losses at this to keep themselves in the game.
Plus making games deliberately incompatible with the GabeCube will be trivial if it comes to that.
Valve can throw a lot of resources behind what they’re doing, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what MS can spend. At the end of the day Valve can only really match current consumer pricing, and even with 16GB RAM and 8GB GPU, that isn’t cheap.
If it’s allowed to run Linux, it’ll be better than the Steam Machine.
Microslop, for their faults, actually does get custom hardware from AMD - Valve uses repurposed parts which is much cheaper for their smaller runs.
I think it’ll be fully locked down though, but if it’s not - i’d wager it’ll make a better Steam Machine than Steam Machine.
Probably not so much as “better” as it would be “almost as good for cheaper”.
The bespoke AMD part is an exercise in cost management. iGPU is more affordable but usually pretty low end. The bespoke AMD solution is an iGPU bumped up to a nearly on par with a mid tier discrete GPU.
If released with same generation of tech, I would expect the steam machine to have higher performance but at a disproportional higher price.
Oh we do have a lot of Microsuckers in this world who will choose this over the Steam Machine because “It is well integrated into the system” bullshit.
Better integrated than Steam? I’d be curious to hear how.
“XBOX game pass is heaps better than Steam” - said no one ever
Have they said they are ready to commit to a price somewhere? The timing of the steam machine and the ballooning price of disk space and RAM is comically tragic.
Not that I know of. They supposed to announce prices in the first quarter of 2026 but due to memory shortage they have postponed it. As for shipping, they have claimed that they are still planning to launch shipping by the end of first half of 2026. Price is estimated at $800-$1000. Shortage might increase it.
I didn’t even knew it was sick
So, will I be able to play Halo 5 on PC?
Halo hasn’t been Halo since 3, ODST was fun for a short run but it went downhill fast with 4 and anything after.
You’re not missing much bud …
Halo 5 has great gunplay and multiplayer. Plus elements of the campaign like the Guardians were cool.
Finally.
It’s something I’ve wanted since the Xbox One X was announced 8 years ago.
There’s no reason for these powerful machines to be single purpose devices anymore.
My only concern is that this might be coming in too late. I don’t know if this is enough to save the Xbox brand.
If this is what people truly wanted steam Decks would of sold over 30 million or so. They’ve sold around 5 million.
There is a place for dedicated game consoles. If there wasn’t the Nintendo Switch wouldn’t have sold 150 million units …
Yeah, if the Series S could have run my Steam library, I’d have got one years ago when it was cheap.
