WC/Jez: Microsoft's ambitious new Xbox: Your entire Xbox console library, the full power of Windows PC gaming, and no multiplayer paywall

Will you buy the next Xbox hardware?

  • Total voters
    322
HeisenbergFX4 said:
Just my 2 cents if it plays my old Xbox library and plays GTA 6 day one then I call it a console
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That's fair. The catch is, that only makes it a "console" looking backwards. What about the way forward? If next gen games are all PC SKUs and you have PC-like settings screens, is it still a console? May be Xbox Store will have shaders precompiled in the future, with preconfigured/auto-detected defaults, but otherwise the user experience within the game would be PC-like through and through.
 
Punished Miku said:
They aren't. Sega never made it up either. They will have to change into a leaner 3rd party publisher with a PC store, and a small boutique hardware for profit business, and Gamepass. It's a different thing.
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Agreed. Totally different thing. Which leads me to question how can they predict that this will get them their 30% accountability margin if it's a different thing that's literally never been done before?

vaibhavpisal said:
This system will have high attach rate with gamepass.

Cannot imagine getting this but skipping on GPU.
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But with them removing the multiplayer paywall, I'll assume the price of GP will go up again to $35 a month. Or PC GamePass, becomes GP Ultimate and becomes $30 a month too and there isn't anymore seperating PC Gamepass and GP Ultimate.

Kacho said:
No it was the Dan guy. Rhyker or whatever his last name is.
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Yeah funny enough both Jeff Gerstmann and Dan Rhykerd had major issues with the Xbox Ally X Windows software.
 
Sony systems are smartly constructed, thoughtful and everyone is banging on Xbox maybe it's not the best but you buy a Pepsi and enjoy it, I think Xbox is a solid #2, Microsoft wants you to be able to use an Xbox as a computer, they're done forcing avatars, Kinect, and Xbox recognizes their failures, I think what they're doing with power, is pretty one sided. The base consoles for Xbox are so powerful.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
Just my 2 cents if it plays my old Xbox library and plays GTA 6 day one then I call it a console
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I wouldn't call it a console because it still checks more boxes on the PC side than console, but we are definitely blurring the lines, as you say. I will say that this is a device that could legitimately be called an "Xbox" because of the very reason you've stated here. If Xbox gamers can bring over their games seemlessly and there isn't a "gotcha" moment where they realize the games don't work then I'm on board with it. It's not some bullshit marketing nonsense like "Rog Xbox Ally"
 
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Topher said:
"Furthermore, thanks to new silicon from AMD (already approved all the way up to CFO Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella), the new Xbox will also run all games currently available on the Xbox Series X|S library. This means all the OG Xbox back-compatible games, all the Xbox 360 back-compatible games, all the Xbox One back-compatible games, and all the current and future Xbox Series X|S games. These games will run natively on the new Xbox and launch seamlessly via the Xbox launcher's library."

Seems Jez went from "entire Xbox console library" in the title to "back-compatible games" in the article.

I don't think Xbox One/Series would need a translation layer. They are already DirectX. Probably have some low level mode switching like PS5 does for PS4 games.
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That's a good point. Hardware will still be x86 and DirectX if quite different in makeup. It will be interesting to see what happens either way.

I can't see myself buying one of these since the device will lack flexibility of a normal PC in upgrades and it's unlikely to further enhance actual Xbox titles. I already have an XSX for that. Might buy a backup one at some point.
 
rodrigolfp said:
Where is the part about no multiplayer paywall?? 🤔
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"Right now, I'm told the current plan is for the next Xbox specifically to have no paywall for multiplayer. It wouldn't make a lick of sense for a "PC" to have paid multiplayer, particularly since it would create a strong incentive for players to simply install Steam instead of use the Xbox ecosystem on that device for online games. It remains to be seen if that plan actually plays out into reality, though."
 
mckmas8808 said:
Yeah funny enough both Jeff Gerstmann and Dan Rhykerd had major issues with the Xbox Ally X Windows software.
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I need to look up Jeff's impressions. They sound juicy.

I was someone that optimistic about the Ally X over the summer, but Microsoft didn't deliver an OS experience anywhere close to what I was expecting. And that bar was low.
 
Sorcerer said:
They won't dictate that themselves but if people are playing on Steam, Epic, etc, and pc game requirements rise substantially, the machine will show its age. If Microsoft is just licensing to vendors why would they care.? You buy a new machine and Microsoft makes money. It kind of sounds like a conspiracy, I get that. If you are on the Xbox side, you probably are safer and Microsoft appreciates you, if you buy it for the other storefronts side, well Microsoft will just shrug it off as that is not their responsilbity.
Gamers can run out and get a new card. You probably will not be able to get a new APU for this Xbox machine.
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It's not that it sounds like a conspiracy. It's that it's just a horrible business strategy. The good thing about PCs is that you can upgrade "parts" of your PC and not the whole thing. For this, you'd need to upgrade the whole machine for another $1,200 (potential price).

At that point.....who is this for?.


Topher said:
"Right now, I'm told the current plan is for the next Xbox specifically to have no paywall for multiplayer. It wouldn't make a lick of sense for a "PC" to have paid multiplayer, particularly since it would create a strong incentive for players to simply install Steam instead of use the Xbox ecosystem on that device for online games. It remains to be seen if that plan actually plays out into reality, though."
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Can people NOT realize that Jiz is playing the whole gaming community with this part of the story? Why do so many get tricked by him time after time?
 
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Topher said:
"Right now, I'm told the current plan is for the next Xbox specifically to have no paywall for multiplayer. It wouldn't make a lick of sense for a "PC" to have paid multiplayer, particularly since it would create a strong incentive for players to simply install Steam instead of use the Xbox ecosystem on that device for online games. It remains to be seen if that plan actually plays out into reality, though."
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But don't say anything about the Xbox games there.
 
GHG said:
If there will be no more "xbox" versions of games moving forwards then it's a PC.

In that context, framing not having to pay for online gaming as some sort if win is insane.
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I don't think this will be viewed as any other prebuilt PC though. So in that sense it not having MP paywalled will enter the calculus for some people deciding on whether to buy PS6 or this imo.
 
mckmas8808 said:
It's not that it sounds like a conspiracy. It's that it's just a horrible business strategy. The good thing about PCs is that you can upgrade "parts" of your PC and not the whole thing. For this, you'd need to upgrade the whole machine for another $1,200 (potential price).

At that point.....who is this for?.




Can people NOT realize that Jiz is playing the whole gaming community with this part of the story? Why do so many get tricked by him time after time?
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Let's be clear. Discussing what Jez is saying doesn't mean anyone is necessarily believing any of this. I'll need a much more reputable source than Jez Corden to dismiss everything I've read from HeisenbergFX4 HeisenbergFX4 and K KeplerL2 on this subject.
 
Topher said:
I guess all Xbox games will have free multiplayer with this device. That's what I'm assuming anyway. Question becomes whether that is extended to all existing Xbox consoles. Possibly. In which case, T Tobimacoss would have been right about taking down the paywall.
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Hmm… considering the desire for profit, I can't see them dropping paywall on the "Xbox" side. Incentive for GP subs will decrease even more then.

And it's not like the audience for the $300-500 console will migrate to $1200+ devices en masse.
 
Kacho said:
I need to look up Jeff's impressions. They sound juicy.

I was someone that optimistic about the Ally X over the summer, but Microsoft didn't deliver an OS experience anywhere close to what I was expecting. And that bar was low.
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And can see him talking about it here.

Timestamped
 
StereoVsn said:
Hmm… considering the desire for profit, I can't see them dropping paywall on the "Xbox" side. Incentive for GP subs will decrease even more then.

And it's not like the audience for the $300-500 console will migrate to $1200+ devices en masse.
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I get it.....but man....the backlash from console folks will be massive. That would be one final "fuck you" from Microsoft to Xbox console owners.
 
mckmas8808 said:
Agreed. Totally different thing. Which leads me to question how can they predict that this will get them their 30% accountability margin if it's a different thing that's literally never been done before?
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They have a lot of moving parts. People get paid to do this stuff professionally.

Valve has barely any employees. They'll have to shrink the actual store / hardware staff way down, and they already have surface staff elsewhere in the company. Developers can pretty much stay as is for now. Bethesda and Activision were already 3rd party publishers. And expand into porting everything on Switch 2, and keep pushing cloud / free ad-tier GP. And they will no longer lose money on hardware. They'll just have to stumble through it.
 
Topher said:
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I swear.....Am I going crazy, or is anybody else starting to get tired of this roller coaster ride of Xbox "news pushers"?! Some of these people honestly seem like they are making money pulling on the heart strings of Xbox fans (either on positive or negative news) regardless of what the news is.

Is anybody willing to stop and think about what's being posted anymore?
 
StereoVsn said:
Hmm… considering the desire for profit, I can't see them dropping paywall on the "Xbox" side. Incentive for GP subs will decrease even more then.

And it's not like the audience for the $300-500 console will migrate to $1200+ devices en masse.
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Imagine being so asshole to let players play for free on this vs keep charging other Xbox's users...
 
Topher said:


dat avatar. lol
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Ice Cube Friday GIF by HBO Max
 
Topher said:
I get it.....but man....the backlash from console folks will be massive. That would be one final "fuck you" from Microsoft to Xbox console owners.
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That's true. It's a huge issue for MS of course since they can't lock down online paywall in "PC Mode".

Personally I think that once we get over $1K, the ROI for such device on user side is not there.

Since it's "mostly" a PC, it will become outdated on PC schedule and it's not like you can do piecemeal upgrades. You can't stagger your CPU, RAM, GPU changes so have to do it all at once.

Laptops have a similar issue (some allow RAM / SSD upgrades), but at least they are portable and the use case is a bit different.
 
GoldenEye98 said:
I don't think this will be viewed as any other prebuilt PC though. So in that sense it not having MP paywalled will enter the calculus for some people deciding on whether to buy PS6 or this imo.
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Well based on what this device is and how it's likely to be priced, their competition is going to be other pre-built PC's.

Despite their best efforts, paying for online gaming is never something that has been standard in the PC space. It's not a selling point to anyone other than the guys that they are looking to transition over to PC from Xbox console.
 
There's one positive thing about all this: if Microsoft removes the paywall for online gaming, that means Sony will too.

Otherwise, for me, this isn't a console, it's a PC. End of discussion.
 
mckmas8808 said:
Can people NOT realize that Jiz is playing the whole gaming community with this part of the story? Why do so many get tricked by him time after time?
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He is the ultimate fanboy/mouthpiece for Xbox. He's telling you 1 thing making out like he knows what is going on BUT, if it doesn't eventuate, he can then say "but I did say it may not happen" or "they changed their minds". He speaks out of both sides of his mouth, much like his mate Phil Spencer.
 
Punished Miku said:
They have a lot of moving parts. People get paid to do this stuff professionally.

Valve has barely any employees. They'll have to shrink the actual store / hardware staff way down, and they already have surface staff elsewhere in the company. Developers can pretty much stay as is for now. Bethesda and Activision were already 3rd party publishers. And expand into porting everything on Switch 2, and keep pushing cloud / free ad-tier GP. And they will no longer lose money on hardware. They'll just have to stumble through it.
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Hasn't Microsoft been paying people professionally to do things for the Xbox division for the last 10 years? I'm just not sure why this news for Jez of all people is that interesting, considering how he's been used in the recent past to stomp out a bad news press run.

And if they aren't losing money on hardware, that means this machine will be extremely expensive. Which means it'll obviously sell to a very small amount of people. Which THEN means the amount of GP subs will go down, since we know for a fact that the total number of GP subscribers is closely linked to their total number of Xbox console owners.
 
This could be a positive if it ends up enabling windows pc's to play xbox games. On another note I don't think an Xbox branded pc is going to sell well...
 
Burger King said:
There's one positive thing about all this: if Microsoft removes the paywall for online gaming, that means Sony will too.

Otherwise, for me, this isn't a console, it's a PC. End of discussion.
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That's PR bullshit though since they don't actually remove it, on PC there's no paywall and this is just a PC
 
StereoVsn said:
Personally I think that once we get over $1K, the ROI for such device on user side is not there.

Since it's "mostly" a PC, it will become outdated on PC schedule and it's not like you can do piecemeal upgrades. You can't stagger your CPU, RAM, GPU changes so have to do it all at once.
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This hasn't been true for years, and only because Nvidia deliberately gimps their VRAM on their lower end chips. 2080tis from 2018 are still going to run games at decent settings in 2030.
 
rodrigolfp said:
Imagine being so asshole to let players play for free on this vs keep charging other Xbox's users...
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They've been telling them they don't give a shit about them and don't want them on console for a long time now.

Look at PC gamepass' prices and features (day one titles as an example), this would be nothing new.
 
If the console side truly doesn't have a multiplayer paywall, then this is definitely interesting to me over a PS6. But I need to see vastly more details before I would consider buying one.
 
mckmas8808 said:
Hasn't Microsoft been paying people professionally to do things for the Xbox division for the last 10 years? I'm just not sure why this news for Jez of all people is that interesting, considering how he's been used in the recent past to stomp out a bad news press run.

And if they aren't losing money on hardware, that means this machine will be extremely expensive. Which means it'll obviously sell to a very small amount of people. Which THEN means the amount of GP subs will go down, since we know for a fact that the total number of GP subscribers is closely linked to their total number of Xbox console owners.
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You're just not getting that this stuff is better than nothing. Nothing is the alternative. Sega went from Dreamcast, to nothing but 3rd party sales. MS is going from Xbox Series, to PC store, boutique hardware, GP, and 3rd party sales, and cloud / firestick / TVs. They will just have to work it out. Not sure what you're not understanding.
 
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