Xbox CVP Kareem Choudhry Set To Leave Microsoft After 26 Years

But everything is fine.

Wishing him the best!

"the Gaming AI division at Xbox is now being moved into the "general Xbox hardware org[anisation]"

But the internet told me Microsoft is going to stop making hardware.

"a new organisation has apparently been set up to "polish the overall Xbox experience across Windows and Xbox consoles"

Sounds like more hints that the merging of console and PC is future!

That's interesting that he was a big part of cloud but them moved into the dedicated AI group. Who's been leading cloud, then?

Finally the big heads are rolling. Instead of firing 2000 grunts that only made what they were told to make.
Good luck to him and others leaving, but fresh perspective is very much needed on Team Green.

An OEM expert promoted to CVP is interesting...

Honestly I'm not feeling comfortable with direction and future of Xbox last 6 months or so.

Microsoft seems on course to bottom out as a whole in few years. Putting lot of eggs in single baskets. Losing Panos was first sign at least for me something is not Kosher.

@NEStalgia I'm really believing they are going to stop making consoles soon. Wish extremely concerns and bothers me.

The hardware buzzword keep hearing may just be only for controllers, headsets, mice, etc.

Game pass is hurting Xbox in more ways than people think and perceive. Within next few years we will see it. Many will disagree. But that is my forecast and I'm sticking to it.

@GuyinPA75 My theory remains less absolute but more extreme in some ways: That they intend to kill/change the concept of what a console is and how the console ecosystem works. I.E. replace console with PC and replace the console business model with paying more to buy hardware outright.

IMO Phil has been subtlety clear on this and it fits their overall direction, model, and needs. The push of Deck, Ally, Legion. The focus on PC, PC, PC. The fact that MS is PC, and Xbox was originally intended to bridge console and PC. Phil talking about the end of hardware subsidies/cost, talking about handheld and needing to de-Windows the Ally experience. This restructuring above hints at that too.

If you want to be pro-Xbox and look at this favorably the view is "MS is adapting to the market, recognizing their strengths and unique abilities, and realizing the original goal of the Xbox of bringing PC gaming into the console space and vice versa, and with PC hardware in a console package and user experience they can streamline development and better align their platform for the needs of developers and publishers as they struggle with modern development costs and multiplatoform challenges. Hardware will cost more but it's a net win for consumers and developers alike."

If you want to be cynical about MS and anti-Xbox: "MS is waging scorched earth. If they can't win the console market they'll leverage Xbox implode the entire console model completely and replace it with PC, because they can, and it's what they really wanted when they started Xbox to begin with."

Either way I think it's a very, very safe bet that they're not going to stop selling gaming boxes, but that those gaming boxes are going to be running stock Windows 11 with an Xbox launcher on the inside. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on how you look at it. But I happen to think it's generally a net win. Consoles have already been halfway there for 2 gens now and it's stagnated the value of "consoles" being consoles. Might as well go all the way, make "gaming laptops but cube shaped" and get the benefits of a PC environment.

I think in 2 gens or even 1, you're still going to be able to buy an "Xbox", it's still going to have your dashboard. What it's really going to be is a Surface Gamebook(TM) running Win11 with a default launcher that looks exactly like your Xbox S running the custom launcher already looks. It'll run your owned library through a translation layer, and the future games will just be Play Anywhere plain old normal PC games with a Deck style "certified to run" program and default settings.

So basically nothing changes from what we're used to other than price, but on the inside and for devs it changes everything for the better. And we may (or may not (but likely will)) get access to Steam and/or EGS and/or GoG. And you can run Excel on your Xbox. Or Play master of Orion. Which is basically the same thing with pictures of spaceships.

That ones my theory, and I'm sticking to it, too!

The thing is if MS just drops hardware entirely Sony can feast with gouging publishers becuse there's literally no other option. And publishers will then gravitate heavily toward PC. Which brings us right back to the same vision of Xbox.

Evolve console into PC? Implode the console market in scorched earth? Same plan, different angles, benefits MS either way.

Plus they'd sell a boatload of Windows OEM licenses to themselves on Xbox, which are down 30% and would really bolster that Windows division on paper for shareholders too

@NEStalgia over on Push they have a article that says leaks are saying that if Sea of Thieves does well on PS5 , MS will be bringing over more game to the PS5 including possibly Gears of War and Starfield. Well if they are going to do that than i am not sure why they would even make more hardware as PS would be the console version of a PC, that runs all games from all companies. The only games Sony and PC would be missing is Nintendo as i see world peace before Nintendo brings Mario Kart to other consoles.

@NEStalgia Meanwhile Apple will be leading still in games revenue on Mobile as not even the PC out gain’s mobile gaming. I still think the future in 1-2 gens is Mobile, PC and cloud with consoles being a niche thing for people that prefer it or need it due to cloud infrastructure being an issue. No one under the age of 25 hardly wants to buy a $500 dollar box that only plays games. 80’s-90’s and some early 2000’s kids are keeping consoles going. Kid’s born after 2005 or so are not into consoles like we were as kids and Phil has lightly touched on this. Apple and Google products are just way more desirable to kids and young adults than MS products.

@armondo36 Twenty-six years at one company, dude.

@HonestHick Because Microsoft has to give Sony a 30% cut of their games, and Microsoft can't get a 30% cut of every other game currently sold on Xbox hardware including GTA and fortnite battle passes, and if Sony is the only hardware, 30% won't stay 30%? Plus half of game passes subscribers go bye bye? Lots of reasons to sell hardware....

@HonestHick and I agree on PC, cloud, and mobile, but I still think cloud will be limited in working availability, and the PCs will exist in very console like from factor meaning little changes. Meanwhile those kids that don't want to buy a $500 box to play games will buy an $800 card to play games

Thing is the world you describe also means the end of aaa gaming in general. Which to be fair is about at collapse anyway. A world of only candy crush is terrifying though. But hey, it's still Xbox

@NEStalgia I’ll do my best to tackle your well made points. One i don’t think Sony would raise the 30%, cause they were built on mostly good relations with 3rd party. To do that would surely damage relationships. Yes MS has a few bones to chew on to stay in the console market. But it’s seeming more and more like table scraps at this point in time than the meat and potatoes they are chasing. Sure kids will buy expensive graphics cards cause they can stream and work and play and do all sorts of things with it that they can’t do on a console. Outside of Apple closed walled gardens are being left behind for do it all devices. As for AAA gaming i think it will live on for years to come but become less risky and of course much slower to market. Sure PS and Xbox want a few AAA games at launch or console end to start and end on high notes. But i am not sure we will see a ton of AAA as MS once said 4 a year. This year is already at the 1/4th mark and we have seen nothing of sorts from MS. This industry changes all the time as any other tech industry. But for as much as it changes it stays the same. Gamers want to be where the games are and they flock to the most golden egg games. It’s no longer Mario vs Sonic or Halo vs Killzone. Mascot’s no longer lead the platforms. It’s where do i get my best bang for the buck and what does my neighbors and friends play on. At the moment that is Mobile, PS and PC. Xbox needs to figure a way to become that next golden egg that people seek after. HellBlade and Avowed aren’t the games that move that needle. Put Gears of War and Halo on PS5 and there’s no turning it around. Unless they want to be the masters of turning table scraps into 5 course meals. Funny how beer makes me use analogies that i feel we have built a friendship into understanding. 😀🍺

@HonestHick I think the beer also makes you make arguments that defeat your own point

By your points, PlayStation is on borrowed time, mobile is really all that matters to the zoomers, and the rest of the slack is on PC. Which is exactly my point about why an Xbox branded PC is the future.

This very article talks about merging games ai INTO the hardware division, AND homogenizing the Xbox dashboard experience into Windows right after Phil talked about that being the bottleneck for the Ally and the need to improve it while they prototype their own handheld. How everyone looks at that and says there done hardware, I don't know. Maybe Microsoft doesn't mfr hardware and has a certified Xbox boxed off program for Asus and Dell. Doesn't matter if it's a pc that runs the Xbox dashboard and plays my library. Dgaf who built it. Even if it's MS, foxconn made it anyway.

Thing is, consoles don't make money. Never did. 1stn party games don't make money, the were meant to be loss Leaders to sell unprofitable hardware so you not buy sports games on their hardware at a profit. Then they started making money first party. Now even Sony can't. But it's the licensing. The STORE that pulls in the money. It was true for Nintendo in the 80s, it's true for PlayStation and Apple today.

Microsoft needs hardware and PC to sell the store. If they just publish software they're leaving the real money, the store, on the table. Meta with quest, Sony with ps, Xbox, steam with deck. The hardware exists to run the store. That's the real money.

A year ago the Internet thought Microsoft was going to be a gaming monopoly. Now the Internet thinks Microsoft is done with hardware. Surface has bled money for ages. They still make it. It strengthens their other products. Apple is never going to make a dime on the absurd ar Device but it strengths their catalog.

I'd disagree about young people preferring multi use devices thus PC. Yes every high school and college kid tells their parents that liquid cooled 4090 isn't a waste because they can use it to tell GPT to write homework for them. Unless they're graphics design majors they'd have been fine with onboard graphics. Buying a card that costs more than a console isn't multi use. It's console you put in your Instagram machine.

The real problem is gaming itself. It's not mainstream. It never was. It never will be. Is not a mass market product. It's still toys for nerds. The mainstream part is the market that buys mobile games. They don't want to play 90 hr RPGs. They don't want to play 8 hour cinematics. They just want 10 minute arcade games while they wait for their avocado toast. That's all they ever wanted. Gaming, "real" gaming is a niche. And worse a nice of niches. And worse an expensive one.

As you say that's an older age group. Nintendo can go to Mobile and forget hardware. Microsoft can bolt Xbox into surface and Windows and OEM PC makers and cover more markers. Sony is stuck. The need to sell vcrs because that's who Sony is. They'll adapt but it won't be comfortable. If only they still had vaio.

Xbox needs to fix their pr though. It's like reliving the wiiu all over again. Not a single ad in sight. While the market assumes they're abandoning ship for some reason. If anything kills them it's that.

@NEStalgia ok Beer goggles off and my mind is still thinking the same way, only had a few. Haha let’s dive in. I want to say first that MS has done such a poor job with their messaging that every week a leak or a game release rumor on PS5 is making it harder and harder to see the road forward for a Xbox Console. I get what you are saying they can just rebrand Xbox as a PC but that would just lump them into the crowded PC market where Steam is king and still having MS fighting for table scraps. Something i think that is true is the console market isn’t growing but it’s not shrinking yet either. PS5 will still hit over 100 million and likely so will switch 2. The only market shrinking is MS’s cause of no games at launch. Then a messy release of Halo. Then a dud with Redfall and since then i feel like it’s been swimming up river. Down almost 50% in Europe. PS is 5.7 million ahead in USA and while i do like the whole play games anywhere. Gamers like us think thats great but 7 out of 10 gamers see that as weakness and MS needing PS to succeed going forward so why not just stick to PS. I even seem some on this site say if such and such games go to PS5 they are selling their Xbox and just playing on PS. At what point does MS look at Xbox and say we are out of toes to shoot off? Let’s say the future of PS shrinks some and it’s only 75-90 million consoles worldwide plus PC day and date. That would be enough with smart budgeting to make it more than worth sticking around. I agree with a lot of your points but a lot of good things would have to happen for MS to make that even worth it and for gamers to care. Steam on Xbox would be cool, not sure the legal implications to make that work. Would that be a court case as well? I don’t see Nintendo going mobile only cause of how much Nintendo values making their hardware a certain why that impacts the characters they develop and how the games are played. Plus Nintendo sells loads of consoles at a profit. Think that is safe for a long while for them. Throw in the extra money they are getting with the movies and theme parks and they seem to be the last one standing if i had to bet. I get what you mean about the hardware runs the store but spitting store money with steam seems odd if they go the windows PC Xbox. I guess i am just confused on this change coming to the industry. Normally i can understand the industry changes better. This one just seems like MS trying to hang on and of course i want them to right the ship and find their groove. But the market just seems to cast them aside outside of the 35-40 million hardcore fans like ourselves. Which at the moment would have Series consoles performing worse than Xbox One. Which i never seen coming. I’m just babbling now, but overall i am just confused as to how this is going to look, work and go over with players. If we see Halo, Gears and Forza on PS5, i am not sure any PC skin looking to be a Xbox moves the needle for them that much. Keeps them in the hardware game sure. Just trying to think if I’d support that or not. Probably.

@HonestHick There's a few fallacies with all that. First console units sold does but equal money. Ms sells at a loss. Every box they sell they lose more money. Ps sells aa few bucks profit. Break even basically. Nadella reported last meeting that engagement hours on console, not PC and mobile, were actually way up. Engagement hours means mtx, subs and game purchases happening. Money.

The problem with the traditional market is most of the people that bought PS2 360 etc didn't buy too paly"real"games they bought to play little time waters occasionally. Lots of people bought a console because it was a $300 to play some little games on. That market has phones now and they're never coming back, not to PC either. They don't need to pay money to get what they want. PlayStation still has that market that buys hardware to play exclusives only. They do not make money from those customers, really. Makes hardware sales look good, but they don't make margin.

Your take on ms I half agreed with with that podcast in Feb. Until 1 week later Sony with double install base announced the house of cards had fallen. Where I right MS was floundering, I realized they were actually ahead of the crisis. Everything changed with that Sony bombshell that the media conveniently just ignores. Yeah they can fix their budgets but the underlying problem is severe and industry wide. It's over. The old model is simply over. Yeah it's surviving but not well even for Sony. The industry made too many left turns over 20 years.

For Microsoft, are scraps a bad thing with no hardware subsidy losses, when scraps are a lot of money? Do they need a matched install base to make money selling games? Does most of the profitable market really care about Sony first party games? No.

The only really scraps are a problem is getting developers to make special builds for hardware. That's why making it a PC is important. Then there IS no special build. They can sell 5 million boxes. That's 5 million customers making money on the Xbox service. By your thinking Deck shouldn't exist. It's not matching switch. Or ps. It even Xbox. Not even close. Yet Gabe isn't screaming failure. It exists. It makes money. Steam is still a semi monopoly. Everything is fine. Why couldn't an Xbox Deck also be fine?

And that brings us to steam. Thinking about it, no steam on Xbox which is why Phil said EGS. Steam is the monopoly in PC. But they're lots of under dogs. Steam importantly is also the hardware competitor. I can see Xbox being the ALTERNATIVE PC environment with a brand name, certified program, game pass, cloud, and access to all those stores that aren't steam. Valve becomes their Only Real competition. And modders will have steam in it in days anyway lol.

I think you're still thinking walled garden. I think MS is ahead of that. If they go pc they sell the Xbox dashboard PC experience. It costs them peanuts and there's most importantly virtually no development outreach needed it's just pc games they just need publishers on their store nothing else.

Here's the thing. Developers would LOOOOOVE that environment. PS would become a gorilla around their necks. By ps7 developers would demand PlayStation also become a PC. Like after PS 3. I think Ms is planning what devs want. Not what fanzine pundits want.

Steam deck changed EVERYTHING. that's what Broke console. It proved the pc only future is here now. I think that's when Ms started changing up. They can't let valve beat them in the console space too. And right now it's 3 million decks to 20 or 30 million Xbox. Now is the time to move.ABK broke things. But I'm wondering if they already planned to break those things before that anyway. Lack of focus on the console may be because internally the old format console is already dead for the PC console future on terms of developer relations.

@HonestHick also a TLDR factor is this and part of how Deck changed everything. Console exists because PC was to expensive, large, loud, hot and inefficient to be viable for customer gaming.

In a world where consumers left gaming to mobile, leaving only enthusiast gamers where PC now runs on a battery In a game boy body (deck, ally, rog), why do consoles exist? Consoles were budget mini gaming computers. Now we have budget mini real computers that play games. Console outlived it's era the day deck launched.

But we still need someone selling the mini PCs and ways to set themselves apart.

Xbox isn't "leaving hardware" but they're having a Nintendo moment and changing what market hardware actually means.

Reminds me of the people that said switch would fail and Nintendo left consoles. 😂.

@NEStalgia i agree with some of that. My push back would be if Sony can still sell close to 100 million units and we don’t know yet if they can or not or for how long. They will be making good money and have plenty of support for the console from dev’s. Same with Nintendo, another 100 million switch 2’s and they will get some kind of support. MS selling launcher skins on PC might work but only if it has Steam of course cause thats where that player base has 100’s of games at. Hence the Steam Deck was a good idea. I do agree that the time is now for MS to bring out a handheld, i actually think it could do fairly well for them. But in the console space or PC with a Xbox skin over the Ui, i am just not sure about that. I guess i like the idea so i want to say yes to it. But i am not sure the console experience purists won’t just go to PS or an actually PC running Steam. You are talking from the business side of it and i largely agree, i am more coming from the consumer side and i have questions on that strategy. Hope it works out. I like Xbox and would hate to see them not pushing something forward in the industry. I know the CEO wants no exclusives and to stop losing so much on console unit sales. So this approach seems to fit that.

@NEStalgia the moment i seen Switch i was like this works cause i think it’s what they sort of had in mind for Wii U but there were some limits in tech or they just didn’t have the idea and vision fully ironed out. Now i won’t say i knew it would sell 140 million. I expected upper 80’s to 90’s seeing as it plays into their strengths with handheld. Plus not having to develop separate games.

It’s going to be up to the dev’s to make sure games like the last of Us don’t launch on PC in a bad state. They need to stop thinking the brute power of PC will iron out the lack of optimization consoles need. Plus games like GTA6 in the future need to be there day one and not locked to a PS console. That game is going to be such an attraction for consoles as it will be the only place it’s at. I said it once and i repeat i am just a little confused how all this is going to look. I like the sound of it, i think it makes sense from what i can get my head around. But i want to see what consumers think. What dev’s do to make sure games are running well across the board. I mean the Series S upset so many dev’s, yet PC has 100’s of configurations if not a 1000. Maybe i am just getting old and tech is starting to take a turn on me that i need to see and feel to say yeah thats the one i want and like. As always i enjoy our chats, your knowledge and insight. I always learn something talking with you. Sorry i am out on a limb on this at the moment. I guess i just need to see more of what MS has in store. If the Xbox Deck is real, i buy that day one but the rumor was they would also have a under the Tv console to go alongside it. That is what i want to see what it is.

@HonestHick First, forget about 20m vs 100m consoles sold the question if revenue generated. Is Xbox making revenue on console? Absolutely. But not all publishers do as well on it as others. That's where PC drinks the development. It's no longer a small install base, it's just another PC store packaged as console.

Sony isn't making enough either. 100m consoles isn't worth much if the company is still one failure away from the red.

Remember, there's a handheld being developed. There's "the biggest technological leap" "console" coming. They just merged AI into hardware team. Sarah Bond just reported the have a new team dedicated to ensuring bc for all prior gens into the future.

We're not here debating IF they're a next Xbox, we're debating about WHAT it is and if it will succeed. That's a different argument to the doom and gloom that proposes that in about 10 years Sony will stand alone. That's 10 years and another 20 million digital libraries being locked to Xbox. Are you sure there will be a PS 7? Are you REALLY sure? 10 years ago Nintendo would always sell consoles and handhelds and games couldn't run on battery powered PCs. 10 years ago kinekt, TV, and sports was the future.

One thing is certain. Microsoft reiterates over and over and over (and over) that their focus is in digital library preservation. That's their brand. And the reason I built most of my library on xb instead of ps is that, Even before they repeated it over and over. As long as Microsoft is the one dedicating resources to make for I have access to my games years and decades later while you know ps7 will have no bc if there's no Xbox competitor, I know where I want to buy games. I have like 5 things in my cart right now on the sale. That library access is the most important factor to me.

Of course the young people? They aren't buying $70 games. Of course they aren't. Remember ponies mocking those calling out price hikes? Yeah. Of course we can look forward to $100 copies of Redfall remastered: remake: remastered on our PS7 in post Xbox land.. somehow I don't think that'll last long.

Beyond all that, ms is still betting on subscriptions, which young people do buy. Half of game pass numbers are console. And there will be no gp on PlayStation or switch. I don't think Ms is comfortable losing half their gp subs.

@HonestHick Also one thing to add is consoles liked themselves off in the push to digital. Sure it got 40% more margin without the retailer, but the consumable goods presence dominating retailers, even etailers made console different and more public facing than the all digital "you're only in if you're already in the know" nature of pis in the West. By killing that off they killed most of the market reason and incentive to buy consoles.

If course PC is huge bit also consider simplified Chinese is often the top language on steam. That means more than any other country and all English speaking countries in the world and even the rest of Asia, mainland China makes up the plurality of steam users. That puts very big perspective on strams market, pc in general, and why growth numbers look like they do while China cracks down on game hours.

When I think PC gaming I think if Michael's son from gtav first. I think "China" second and "Russia" third. Everyone else second.

Pc is almost "different market", and with console dying of in the West, weirdly is 3 say gaming itself is dying. The idea that only losers and academic failures play games never really went away

@NEStalgia HI.
Something like this variant, as a console and then an interface to match it, see concepts as an example (if only roughly), see below.

Unfortunately there is no option to insert an image here, so I uploaded it via Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/GKaeCTq

@deUnit It looks huge in the first pic, normal in the second with the controller for scale but yeah something like that. Without all the LEDs though, kinda looks very 2004 that way and they still want to sell these things to parents and home theater enthusiasts 😂

You can add images with [imgz] link [/imgz] (but remove the z. I added that so it shows the text overs of trying to add an image)

@NEStalgia i fully agree that i like to hear MS doubling down on backwards compatibility and game preservation. Thats such a strong part of Xbox. I am excited and confused on what their next console looks like. But i hope we get to see that handheld soon. However i really hope the leaked pics of a white digital series X isn’t true. I don’t see that doing anything positive for the brand. Digital foundry ripped it and many others are saying whats the point. However i like Sarah Bond continuing to say big leap next gen, i think that is MS’s way of saying forget about the Pro console we don’t have and other’s do. Next gen is going to be the place to be and if it is coming in 2026 then all the better. Interesting times ahead. I am hoping they nail the June showcase and really start to flex all those studios and show they have loads of games in development.

@HonestHick White things sell better in Asia, so there's that. I think the real purpose of the all-digital is to replace the costly disc drive that few xbox customers probably actually use, with double the SSD space for the same price. Since most X customers probably buy a 1TB drive, that's actually a good value. I don't think it makes a good marketing stance, but I think it actually does represent a better value if you're getting $150 in additional storage built in if you're a digital/GP subscriber, and most XB customers certainly are.

It's just the sad case where offering a better value doesn't actually help the brand even if it does help the customer.

But yeah, XBox's bad PR for the past month seems to have been fixed by Bond, Sarah Bond randomly on a Saturday tweeting. Weird stuff. Starting to like her. While the internet's ranting about the end of xbox, she's doubling down on next gen hardware and bc/forward compat which instantly makes the internet rabble sound insane. And yeah, the "pro" console is such a fail of an idea. Funny thing is Phil said back at launch they "dont' want to be in another situation where they have to do a Pro", then Jimbo went and did a pro. Even though it didn't sell great last time. So Pro gets its 2 or 3 years as the most powerful before MS does a whole hardware revamp and maybe PC shift + a handheld (Vita 2 plz, Sony.)

MS sucks so bad at PR, but so does Sony right now. I don't think we can gamble on who will do the better messaging in May/June. I think we just have to gamble on who we think will do the worst. Maybe a coin toss. We'll have the image of two failed console brands and declare one the winner

@NEStalgia agreed on both fronts. One the value of the digital Series X is great for gamers but hard to create marketing buzz around and two the PR speech of Sony and MS aren’t great. This is an industry where talk is cheap tho. Let the games do the talking and i think MS has the edge in June. I will throw my $1300 dollar iPad Pro to the ceiling in joy if they announce Gears of War Marcus Fenix collection in June and show Gears 6 both in UE5. Sony don’t have a game that i would be that excited for.

I think Pro’s sell ok for who they are marketed too and also due to the fact they are more expensive and have half the lifespan. Not saying they are a catch all do it right. But i ran with the One X and PS4 Pro and found them to be better for me and my style. Not sure about PS5 Pro tho. If it can’t hit 60 across the board i will be half as excited for it.

@NEStalgia ok so it finally clicked with me what you were explaining the next Xbox strategy to be. I just watched a video and somehow it made it go this is close to what NES was telling me. They build the Ui to run on windows and the games would be just PC games that would run on Xbox, Pc and handheld with the slight adjustments needed. You buy say Diablo 4 and you can run it across all platforms with cross save and achievements etc etc. so it’s mostly what we have now as a Xbox Series X and PS5 is already just a PC. But it’s more of what windows and the back end of the dev teams would benefit from and of course this fits MS’s mission of games on all devices, play anywhere with anyone. Not that most of this was over my head but i am just starting to see the impact it would have more behind the scenes, and of course the player. Hmm this seems really good actually. I mean why would you even play on PS if it’s locked to just that when you could buy it for windows and use it on 25 different devices of your choice? If and it’s a big if this catches on. Sony would have little to no answer for this as they don’t control the PC software side. They would just have you buy a PS6 game and run it on console and their rumored handheld but no way are they including a PC and PC handheld access or mobile if the title could run there. This seems like the perfect answer really for MS. It will be a win win for them on a software (games & OS) standpoint. Am i missing something?

@HonestHick Yep, got it in one!

And it definitely sounds really good. The impact on development reaching pc, steam deck, Xbox all as one platform with tuned settings would be huge. Obviously only if they get it in consumers hands, but hardware sales volume wouldn't impact developers and their "Xbox isn't worth it", it's just PC. This is really what Xbox was originally intended to be. But the tech wasnt there in 2000.

TBH it's likely Sony would be pushed by publishers to do the same thing if not on PS6, by ps7. The publishers have all the power and would push hard to never have to build outside PC again. Heck they're already half there with instructions on how to shop for compatible nvme ssds.

I also had a revelation just yesterday about how the 3rd party stores would work. I've been getting into FFXIV, finally, after years of trying on and off, since the xb launch. It was my last ditch attempt to like it and it finally clicked. It's got a lot of flak on Xbox due to the different payment system. If you're bored, read my posts about that mess on the xiv forum thread here lol.

Anyway, I realized the separate payment system for Xbox only is a prototype experiment for 3rd party stores. Because the xiv mog station is basically a 3rd party store that just sells 6 games, all xiv expansions, subs, and mtx. And buying "xiv coins" currency in Xbox store that deposits into the store when you launch it, and is the only way to pay, I realized is exactly how EGS, GoG etc would work. You buy currency for the store in the Xbox store, which is exactly like buying prepaid cards in GameStop and Walmart and Amazon. Xbox gets a cut, and the stores don't have a problem with it because that's how they already sell currency with retailers anyway. Xbox store just becomes another retailer carrying currency cards for them.

Pretty much all pros, no cons, other than maybe price, and I hope the keep "home Xbox" sharing in their own store, but they probably would as that's just part of the drm system in the store. Can't tell if it'll be successful, but it also has a low bar for it to be a success since ultimate is just selling a customized PC gaming experience in Windows and a well designed mini gaming PC.

@NEStalgia i agree. I think this is the way forward. It makes the most sense on every end. The only thing the video i watched said that could be issue for software is licensing. I am sure they will figure that out as i am not well informed on how all that works. Otherwise this is a slam dunk move cause like me and you have said on here before this is what they wanted Xbox to be. Windows in the home entertainment area of the house. Well this would put windows front and center. Now i just hope we see the handheld they are working on at some point. That is a day one buy for me. The tech and market has matured perfect for it. MS will hopefully cut out the few headaches that market has and if it’s powerful enough, i think it’s a home run device. As for the console. Just make it Zen 5 and don’t skimp on the CPU and it will be fine for console players. If not we can build a PC. Either way it’s all Xbox.