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[Crayon]

Change takes time, possibly decades. Think of it this way: If someone told you in the year 2000 that Windows would lose over %20 of its active user base during the 2010s and 2020s, would you have believed him? I wouldn't have.

Also that Steam Survey can be inaccurate as fuck. Twice now it's read my 4090 as being an AMD GPU for God knows what reason, now I'm genuinely questioning everything I hear about it.

Linux isn't going to threaten windows on desktops and laptops. But it will prevent windows from becoming de facto on newer form factors like handhelds, headsets and set-tops.

 

[GoodData]

MS is going to use this as a Trojan Horse for a court battle in attempt to open up the "walled gardens" they lost all the battles and essentially the war in. All with their "newfound" third party love and bubblegum strategy when Sony blocks attempts at their first party games running on said closed/hybrid ecosystem.

This is their new "slimy platform things" game plan for the "spending the competition out of business."

Bet.

In short, MS fucked up with Xbox One, really bad. Can we really say Xbox has a better culture than Sony, or vice versa?

If Xbox fails in the foreseeable future, in a future where we will remember these conversations, my new rtx 5070 gaming PC won't install Windows 11 (bios issue).

Prophecy.

 

[GoodData]

Wrong pic...

That is a picture of the Dude's doppelganger.

 

[Astray]

Linux isn't going to threaten windows on desktops and laptops. But it will prevent windows from becoming de facto on newer form factors like handhelds, headsets and set-tops.

That alone is an issue. Windows is increasingly becoming something that the new generation is doing without, you can carry out %95 of your office workloads with an iPad for example (my brother sometimes does this for extended periods).

The other thing is this makes it so any new form factors that emerge (like the PC handhelds for example) are gonna be defacto Linux too.

 

[Humdinger]

Ok, I guess. MS doesn't seem very good at naming things clearly.

 

[Astray]

.

 

[reinking]

 

[PurePlatinum]

This is their off ramp. They do NOT want to be in the hardware game, it just doesn't make any sense for them.

The problem that I think makes their situation almost impossible is that even if they dominate the American market, the PS brand is so strong in Europe and Japan that they just can't compete on a global scale. Their strongest era was the 360 and they still got beat by PS in the end due to worldwide sales. The Japanese largely just want to buy games and consoles made in their home territory, and it just leads to this cascading effect where Xbox only has like 50% of the relevant games.

I can't really imagine any western company competing with Nintendo / Sony in the dedicated games hardware space ever again.

 

[Bry0]

MS is going to use this as a Trojan Horse for a court battle in attempt to open up the "walled gardens" they lost all the battles and essentially the war in. All with their "newfound" third party love and bubblegum strategy when Sony blocks attempts at their first party games running on said closed/hybrid ecosystem.

This is their new "slimy platform things" game plan for the "spending the competition out of business."

Bet.

People saying you're wrong must be young or ignorant.

Microsoft gonna Microsoft. "It's just them transitioning to publisher" no, it's about making life for the Sony's and the Apples harder because MS couldn't copy their homework without screwing it up.

 

[diffusionx]

People saying you're wrong must be young or ignorant.

Microsoft gonna Microsoft. "It's just them transitioning to publisher" no, it's about making life for the Sony's and the Apples harder because MS couldn't copy their homework without screwing it up.

Im not convinced. Windows Phone failed over a decade ago. MS responded by fully becoming an app publisher on iOS and Android.

 

[bitbydeath]

People saying you're wrong must be young or ignorant.

Microsoft gonna Microsoft. "It's just them transitioning to publisher" no, it's about making life for the Sony's and the Apples harder because MS couldn't copy their homework without screwing it up.

That will just be an isolated PC battle as games are coded differently outside of Windows.

I think they're worried about Steam, and rightly so.

 

[Crayon]

That alone is an issue. Windows is increasingly becoming something that the new generation is doing without, you can carry out %95 of your office workloads with an iPad for example (my brother sometimes does this for extended periods).

The other thing is this makes it so any new form factors that emerge (like the PC handhelds for example) are gonna be defacto Linux too.

In a way, yes. It's a continuing pattern of ms, though. Gaming devices would just be an extension of that, and a small extension compared to the rise of mobile os' and ms missing the boat.

We don't call smart phones mobile pc's. As long as we are talking about the far future, I wonder if a bespoke gaming device running on arm and linux will still be known as a "pc".

 

[DeepEnigma]

People saying you're wrong must be young or ignorant.

Microsoft gonna Microsoft. "It's just them transitioning to publisher" no, it's about making life for the Sony's and the Apples harder because MS couldn't copy their homework without screwing it up.

E.E.E. has never left their company culture.

The ABK/FTC court docs with internal emails revealed it's alive and kicking with them. Always has been.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Windows 11 is a colossal trash in gaming performance lmao.

On handhelds yes, but games still perform well on Windows 11 that are designed to be used on Windows.

Comparing to WIndows to Bazzite/SteamOS. I found that Windows often gets higher FPS, but far less consistent performance, while Linux gets slightly lower FPS, but far better 1% lows.

I just need one of 3 things to happen.

1. Nvidia support gets better for Linux. It's come a LONG way in the last year, but performance is still a tier below what it should be.
2, AMD needs to get the HDMI 2.1 issues solved. This is a big deal for people like me who want a console like experience on by LG C4. I will trade my 5070 Ti for a 9070XT at that point.
3. TVs start adding a Display Port, which I don't see happening.

We are quite close to having a mass market option to ditch Windows.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I concur.

Seems like a simple rebrand to me, too. Beforehand games would use "Windows PC" which is probably more confusing since all PC storefronts are technically 'windows' PCs.

While the Xbox app isn't terrible, one big reason PC Gamepass hasn't caught on is that the WIndows version of these games doesn't offer mod support or the customization of Steam.

MS best move for PC Gamepass would be to partner with Steam and make the games available that way and allow for Xbox achievements.

 

[Anime-Vix]

Looks like the rumors are true. This was taken from the Summergame showcase.

 

[twilo99]

 

[kruis]

I concur.

Seems like a simple rebrand to me, too. Beforehand games would use "Windows PC" which is probably more confusing since all PC storefronts are technically 'windows' PCs.

It's not just a rebrand. It's the end of Xbox as console platform. MS has just announced 3rd party "Xbox" handheld gaming devices that runs Windows PC games in an enhanced, version of Windows 11 with all of the unnecessary stuff turned off or suspended. MS has no reason to come up with a new real Xbox console because
once these enhancements officially become part of Windows 11 there's nothing stopping PC hardware manufacturerers from creating their mini or home theater PCs that run Windows 11 in the new streamlined gaming mode. What's the point of Xbox as a separate platform?

MS seems to be thinking of bringing Xbox console games to PC. Also notice that "Xbox Anywhere" appears in every Xbox announcement . When current Xbox owners can bring most (or at least a good chunk) of their digital games library to "Xbox PC", again, there's no reason for Xbox as its own thing anymore.

I bet there'll be plenty of PC owners who'd move to Xbox PC -- if they can play all their games on other store fronts too. The first thing I'd setup would be a method to hide the Xbox/MS store front and start up with Steam.

 

[Gamezone]

Does this mean most games from third party publishers also will be Xbox PC? Epic seems to struggle with publisher support.

 

[kruis]

Does this mean most games from third party publishers also will be Xbox PC? Epic seems to struggle with publisher support.

I think so. MS needs future Xbox console games to be "Xbox Anywhere" to make it easy for current Xbox gamers to take their current game library to Xbox PC.

Of course, the downside for MS is that since the future of Xbox is a Windows PC/handheld, there's no reason for software publishers to create a "Xbox PC" version of their game if it's not coming to Gamepass. There'll be very, very few PC gamers who'd chose Xbox PC over Steam.

 

[kevboard]

Without reading the article it just seems a Windows store rename to make it sound more gamery no?

I don't think they are renaming it, but just want to make clear that the Xbox App on PC is actually a way to buy games and not just a Game Pass app.

technically, the Xbox App is a more focused version of the Microsoft store with only games being visible.

 

[Hector Hall]

I don't really think Steam cares about OS dominance. Store dominance they've already achieved.

Yes, but that precisely the thing.
Microsoft plans to revamp radically their Games for Windows store, put it in both PCs, the Rog Xbox Ally handheld and their future home console. All these are consolized PCs, and even if MS let's put Steam in there it will always push for their store to be the main one.

I highly doubt you can transfer your PC games on Xbox PC to Steam and other way round.

So sooner or later there will be a conflict, MS wants to be a big player in PC again, their new hardware are consolized PCs and will run PC software under Windows 11/12. To achieve that and protect Windows they need many machines running Windows and using their revamped Store, and that can only happen biting at Valve share.

 

[mayham2199]

Yes, but that precisely the thing.
Microsoft plans to revamp radically their Games for Windows store, put it in both PCs, the Rog Xbox Ally handheld and their future home console. All these are consolized PCs, and even if MS let's put Steam in there it will always push for their store to be the main one.

I highly doubt you can transfer your PC games on Xbox PC to Steam and other way round.

So sooner or later there will be a conflict, MS wants to be a big player in PC again, their new hardware are consolized PCs and will run PC software under Windows 11/12. To achieve that and protect Windows they need many machines running Windows and using their revamped Store, and that can only happen biting at Valve share.

Oh yea I know MS wants to take over. I just don't think it will happen period. PC players hate the Xbox store. There are games literally right now that don't have the latest version of the game because the devs abandoned it. On top of that the Xbox store is missing all the Sony games. It's just another wasted effort by MS. They went from trying to take on Sony to trying to take on Steam. There's modding issues as well. The whole thing is a mess and sometimes the way people talk about it, I wonder if they even realize how much of a mess it is.

I wish MS the best but I think they were end up settling in is as one of the biggest publishers in gaming. That's everything is pointing to. They'll try and get as many of their hardcore fanbase over to their PC/console and call it a day after that.