He's a crybaby and a fanboy, but I do think he has an inside track with MS so I'm willing to believe him on this.
The question is, how is it going to come to Xbox? I genuinely don't think they're going to put full-fat Windows on Xbox; that's both too complicated (probably) and too much of a potential security/inconvenience issue for something they still want to present as a console-like experience. And designing a Windows UI that can 100% function with a controller? Probably impossible until they drop legacy Windows support (which will probably be never).
That's why I started thinking that MS could just work to have a native version of Steam on Xbox devices, but tie access through to Game Pass. Preferably they'd work out a separate tier for alt-storefront access but I guess that depends on how many other storefront they could get on the platform. For the time being though they could just make a version of the app that could run on the current systems and tied inn to the higher tiers that already exist (with or without price changes).
Ideally though they'd probably want to really save full fleshing out of this type of feature for new devices and structure new GP tiers to accommodate it. Regardless, they HAVE to find a way to monetize alt-storefronts on Xbox to have this make even a lick of business sense. Otherwise, they'd just be inviting people to drop Xbox Store altogether and do all 1P & 3P purchases on Steam. I don't think the financial incentive would involve having Valve pay a cut, though. Because in that sense, the prospects are worthless to Valve given Xbox needs Steam a hell of a lot more than Steam needs Xbox.
It's either this or they don't monetize it at all, but price the hardware even higher to offset things. At least with this subscription idea, they can keep the prices on the hardware a bit cheaper (so maybe a next-gen Xbox at typically expected console perf costs you $599 or $699 instead of $899). Heck, they maybe can keep the prices at the more expected $499, but I really doubt MS are going to truly subsidize Xbox hardware to that extent anymore. Cheapest next-Xbox at ~ some PS6 spec (assuming they launched around the same time; the next Xbox's rumored to launch in 2026 right?) would be either $549 or $599.
But hey, if you can access Steam and other storefronts on its (via Game Pass), run whitelisted Windows apps on it, and modularly upgrade certain components depending on the form factor (RAM, maybe GPU, etc.), $549 or $599 would actually seem pretty fair for that type of system IMO. And with some distinct value differences vs. a PlayStation (something Xbox hasn't genuinely had in 10 years).
This destroys any kind of playstation third-party exclusivity
Man what is in those nuggets you're eating? They're giving you bad takes every day.
Why would anyone buy something from Microsoft on Xbox if they can grab it cheaper on Steam instead?
NGL, accessing Steam on an Xbox (even if via subscription, which is likely how they might do it) might be appealing to PC gamers on lower-end setups looking to upgrade, but can't afford the top-end GPUs/CPUs and don't know how to build their own boxes, is probably going to be appealing to a decent portion wanting to upgrade.
And as long as they still give a console-like experience, that type of option along with more PC-like upgradable features will probably appeal to a big chunk of remaining Xbox console fans to stay in that hardware ecosystem, even if they're otherwise mainly on something like Steam for accessing their games. It'd just have to be able to bridge towards both camps while being affordable
enough for them.
In both cases I think $599,
maybe $699 (latter mainly for remaining Xbox console owners since they're probably among higher-spending hardcore/core enthusiast types) is the highest the hardware could go and still find a decently sized audience to sell to. Then they'd just have to work out what the subscription rate for accessing other storefronts would be (that would need to be factored into Game Pass some way, including restructuring tiers & pricing for them, maybe also including a tier that's
just for the other storefront(s))