Support NeoGAF

[ResilientBanana]

There is zero sense to build a next gen console of any sort if you lose your digital library and especially the silly notion of it not playing Xbox games.

That's just a PC and they aren't doing that.

As of today I would bet ALOT of money on that

I have a West Coast trip coming up to open the Baseball season and catching up with a lot of old friends inside and outside of Baseball and should get a much better idea of what's going on after that trip as having a few dinners with some gaming friends out there

uh, can I come

 

[IntentionalPun]

There is zero sense to build a next gen console of any sort if you lose your digital library and especially the silly notion of it not playing Xbox games.

That's just a PC and they aren't doing that.

As of today I would bet ALOT of money on that

I have a West Coast trip coming up to open the Baseball season and catching up with a lot of old friends inside and outside of Baseball and should get a much better idea of what's going on after that trip as having a few dinners with some gaming friends out there

I also find it hard to believe.

But we also know MS has these insiders who are really just doing controlled leaks, and have any of them said "Then MS is also releasing a traditional console?"

It's all this mish-mash that amounts to branded PC's and maybe an updated Xbox App/windows store. I'm starting to think they are at least testing the waters of abandoning console hardware.

 

[Punished Miku]

There's a play anywhere list on the Xbox dash now. Its a solid list. Seems they've gotten a large amount of the indies.

 

[Three]

No idea on the Surface team honestly

I really don't understand their direction, its like they are purposely sending this Windows based handheld out to die if they release their own a year or so later

But we are also taking the word of Jez here on this Xbox branded device

If they are doing "xbox certified" devices with an OS and it's part of the surface team then it would make sense. They have OEM certified windows devices and their own created surface. The question is would any OEM want to be a part of something that's likely to be outsold by the inhouse version and possibly even subsidised by MS vs their machines. It might be the same strategy of FEs where they do limited subsidised consoles and the rest OEM. Who knows what MS are thinking at this point. They haven't been on a straight path for a long time and they seem to change plans almost quarterly.

 

[awwr999999]

It’s insane you even think this is how the industry works.

It's clear that you're unfamiliar with MS. As of March 13, 2025, Microsoft's est. market cap of $2.85 trillion is significantly larger than the est. combined market cap of the entire video game industry's $2.1 trillion.
Look at what MS did to PlayStation - literally launching Xbox with the sole purpose of undermining PS2 sales, and understand that Nintendo is much less diversified than Sony.

 

[mayham2199]

It's clear that you're unfamiliar with MS. As of March 13, 2025, Microsoft's est. market cap of $2.85 trillion is significantly larger than the est. combined market cap of the entire video game industry's $2.1 trillion.
Look at what MS did to PlayStation - literally launching Xbox with the sole purpose of undermining PS2 sales, and understand that Nintendo is much less diversified than Sony.

Yes and they’ve done nothing with that money other than remain in third place with console sales lower than ever minus the original Xbox. Go ahead and keep believing they’ll take that money and do something as wild as what your as proposing though. Xbox has been running off hope and what they could do for a long time now.

 

[Kacho]

It's clear that you're unfamiliar with MS. As of March 13, 2025, Microsoft's est. market cap of $2.85 trillion is significantly larger than the est. combined market cap of the entire video game industry's $2.1 trillion.
Look at what MS did to PlayStation - literally launching Xbox with the sole purpose of undermining PS2 sales, and understand that Nintendo is much less diversified than Sony.

We’re so back

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

I don't know how this thing will be marketed in all honesty or why it even exists unless there is some hook we don't know about

Then it looks like Xbox themselves will have their actual handheld in another year or two?

I mean what are they doing over there at castle green?

It’s a testing ground for encirclement. If windows handhelds were efficient, ran multiple ecosystems it would become the standard. The only way this works is if all oems are onboard with yearly/competitive upgrades.

Easy trailer: gears/halo/league of legends/steam symbol/ epic symbol/gog ect.. one place in your hands… windows x built for gaming.

 

[awwr999999]

Yes and they’ve done nothing with that money other than remain in third place with console sales lower than ever minus the original Xbox. Go ahead and keep believing they’ll take that money and do something as wild as what your as proposing though. Xbox has been running off hope and what they could do for a long time now.

MS creating Xbox just to stop PlayStation involved a ton of sunk costs that can now be leveraged to stop Nintendo.
From MS' point of view Xbox succeeded just by taking money and would-be users away from PlayStation.
No PlayStation console has ever been as popular or as beloved as the PS2 and MS views that as success.
With the Switch approaching the PS2's level of popularity/love it's an obvious target with a weakness the PS2 never had - it's super easy to emulate.
From MS' point of view just disrupting the market with a handheld and causing Switch 2 to be less popular than Switch would be worth losing a massive amount of money.
Other factors to consider:
Revenge: Nintendo laughed at MS' offer to buy the company.
Value: The idea of using the same stone (Xbox) to slow down two birds (PlayStation and Nintendo).
Facts: PC is the only platform that allows users to easily emulate Nintendo's entire game catalog from NES to Switch.

 

[Ritsumei2020]

MS creating Xbox just to stop PlayStation involved a ton of sunk costs that can now be leveraged to stop Nintendo.
From MS' point of view Xbox succeeded just by taking money and would-be users away from PlayStation.
No PlayStation console has ever been as popular or as beloved as the PS2 and MS views that as success.
With the Switch approaching the PS2's level of popularity/love it's an obvious target with a weakness the PS2 never had - it's super easy to emulate.
From MS' point of view just disrupting the market with a handheld and causing Switch 2 to be less popular than Switch would be worth losing a massive amount of money.
Other factors to consider:
Revenge: Nintendo laughed at MS' offer to buy the company.
Value: The idea of using the same stone (Xbox) to slow down two birds (PlayStation and Nintendo).
Facts: PC is the only platform that allows users to easily emulate Nintendo's entire game catalog from NES to Switch.

You are on a roll today lol,

But lets accept that yes, MS wanted to disrupt Playstation and possibly Nintendo’s businesses.

Only now MS is releasing games on Sony and Nintendo hardware. They are not competing with them on the hardware side anymore, they need PS and Nintendo hardware to sell well for their game to reach a broad audience.

So I dont think MS is out to get revenge. They simply like money.

 

[Orbital2060]

MS creating Xbox just to stop PlayStation involved a ton of sunk costs that can now be leveraged to stop Nintendo.
From MS' point of view Xbox succeeded just by taking money and would-be users away from PlayStation.
No PlayStation console has ever been as popular or as beloved as the PS2 and MS views that as success.
With the Switch approaching the PS2's level of popularity/love it's an obvious target with a weakness the PS2 never had - it's super easy to emulate.
From MS' point of view just disrupting the market with a handheld and causing Switch 2 to be less popular than Switch would be worth losing a massive amount of money.
Other factors to consider:
Revenge: Nintendo laughed at MS' offer to buy the company.
Value: The idea of using the same stone (Xbox) to slow down two birds (PlayStation and Nintendo).
Facts: PC is the only platform that allows users to easily emulate Nintendo's entire game catalog from NES to Switch

You have a point in relation to the PS2 and Xbox, but I dont believe for a second that Microsoft wants to compete with or win over Nintendo in any way. Thats all in the past whatever they said about acquiring Nintendo.

They are going to make money off of the Switch, and its a win win when they are already optimizing for an S level handheld to publish on their handheld as well as on the Switch.

 

[RCU005]

So eventually everything will be a “play anywhere” title by default. Very interesting but I have serious doubts on them meeting my expectations with my Xbox library.

But shhh don’t call them third party.