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Would you be more interested in an Xbox console if it offered a duel windows/series s OS options?

Papa_Wisdom

Gold Member
if they introduced this as part of the series x or a pivot away from what they consider their Xbox Hardware as far as a console, should be able to.

If on boot you had the option of the console ui as we know it, buy games, games pass, friends lists, achivments etc.

But alternatively they offered you the full windows experience,

I’d personably would love a box like that, Xbox and pc experience in one box. I think people buy them and use the Xbox side for game pass/ back cat and the windows side for steam games/emulation/ usual pc stuff.

This is not a console war thread but I’m just wondering if you think the market would take to such a concept?

Edit by “series s boot options” on title I just meant the series os in general and not specifically the s.
 
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ManaByte

Gold Member
Mike Myers No GIF
 
That could be pretty useful if you also needed a pretty decent computer, but it wouldn't personally make me more interested no.
 
You want them to take a loss on the hardware so that people can get a cheap Steam PC? What’s the upside for Microsoft again?

It’s up to Valve to give Steam machines another shot if they want to, as they would be the primary beneficiary of a cheap PC box.
 
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R3TRO

Member
The hardware would still be underpowered so I’d pass but if I could use my own pc hardware with an Xbox os option then I might be slightly interested…Steam Big picture kind of does that though tbh
 

T4keD0wN

Member
Xbox isnt about selling xboxes or hardware, its about selling games, dual os would be dumb as hell for them.

They could sell 100m+ units if they really wanted to, all they would have to do is put ms office on there and series s/x would sell 100m+ in a single year (if they could produce that many).
I and likely many others would buy an xbox if it could run office, just excel alone would be enough. But they are in a bussiness of selling games and not consoles.
 
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Papa_Wisdom

Gold Member
Yes I have been advocating for this for two years now. They need a tonic so to speak something other console offers. The ability to become a pc and allow more m/k genres natively opens an entirely new market segment for the Xbox division
Yup I think it’s more relevant than ever to do something like this, small compact, quite powerful for the price little pc. I think all kinds of people would pick one up for their needs, content creators, emulation boxes with full os front ends, kids these days wanting pcs and not console, why not give it to them with the added benefit of also offering cod etc on there Xbox side of things with the console streamlined experience.
 

near

Gold Member
I'd be more interested in an Xbox console that was seamless with PC. Like if I was to buy a game on the Series S/X, I could also download it on PC and it would offer cross-progression. I know Game Pass tries to offer a similar service with Play Anywhere, but there isn't a function in place for digitally purchased games. If I wanted the windows experience in the living room, there are alternative ways of doing that.
 

nowhat

Member
That's pretty much the niche I meant in my last post. They ended up stripping out the support not too long after the system released IIRC. If it was a notable factor, they wouldn't have done that.
As I recall, Sony stripped it away because people (not USAF et al) were able to hack the hardware too deep, there were security implications. Consequently PS3 was jailbroken on the default OS, such is life.
 

El Muerto

Member
It's basically like a pc now. You have all those weirdos that wanted mouse and keyboard support because they use the console at their desk. It also has the desktop version of Edge and you can use MS Office (In Edge) too.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
As I recall, Sony stripped it away because people (not USAF et al) were able to hack the hardware too deep, there were security implications. Consequently PS3 was jailbroken on the default OS, such is life.

Exactly why Microsoft won't make the same mistake here. And for what? To sell a Windows license? lol
 

King Dazzar

Member
One of the reasons I like consoles is the fact they aren't Windows desktop and so wouldn't be of interest to me personally. I have a dedicated PC for doing PC related activities. But I would love to have more powerful Xbox and PlayStation console options, together with their walled gardens, reaching into the more expensive high end.
 
How many people bought a PS3 for Linux?

It will attract a very small niche but will do nothing for the masses.
The PS3 Linux edition was limited, no ability to play games if I remember right. And Linux in 2006 was not Linux in 2023.
A Xbox console with a Windows option would be like Steam machines to me. Better than that, depending of the price. In 2020, a 500€ PC with the Series X specs would be amazing. A Series S would be the best deal in gaming. I would have taken 2 or 3 as gifts for friends. Get this PC for almost nothing. 300? For a PC with 8GB of RAM? SSD? AND a good enough GPU to play most multiplayers games, retro/emulation, and Xbox exclusives until close to 2030? How can that not move units? Are the masses that stupid?
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
A subsidized PC? Of course I would be more interested but it would lose MS money so I don't see why they would do it.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The PS3 Linux edition was limited, no ability to play games if I remember right. And Linux in 2006 was not Linux in 2023.
A Xbox console with a Windows option would be like Steam machines to me. Better than that, depending of the price. In 2020, a 500€ PC with the Series X specs would be amazing. A Series S would be the best deal in gaming. I would have taken 2 or 3 as gifts for friends. Get this PC for almost nothing. 300? For a PC with 8GB of RAM? SSD? AND a good enough GPU to play most multiplayers games, retro/emulation, and Xbox exclusives until close to 2030? How can that not move units? Are the masses that stupid?

Allowing them to run Windows full-bore would open it up to a shit load of vulnerabilities though. Including rampant piracy. I don't think it's gonna happen outside of a *VERY* closed version of it, at that point it'll just get negative publicity for doing it anyway.
 

kevm3

Member
No. Xbox Series S/X sucks because lack of exclusive games. Shoving more side diversions on it won't help anything. People who want windows and some gaming get gaming pcs.
 
Allowing them to run Windows full-bore would open it up to a shit load of vulnerabilities though. Including rampant piracy. I don't think it's gonna happen outside of a *VERY* closed version of it, at that point it'll just get negative publicity for doing it anyway.
Good point. I could say that the thread is not about what would Microsoft gain from it but what we could gain from it. Or that piracy was a selling point of some consoles in the past, like the first Playstation in many countries. But I only say this this for the sake of argument. They are hopefully not that desperate. I think that maybe Microsoft could use their UWP and go from there, have the Windows being a sub as we have some rumors about it. Link it to Gamepass Ultimate, or create a more expensive tier on top of what already exist? It would eat on the gain of having a console with Windows, but we are just having fun in this thread.
 

near

Gold Member
Play Anywhere is a separate thing from gamepass
Really? I thought this was integrated into Game Pass. How does it work on PC, I assume it works through the Xbox app? This is cool if it actually functions the way I hope it does.
 
Really? I thought this was integrated into Game Pass. How does it work on PC, I assume it works through the Xbox app? This is cool if it actually functions the way I hope it does.
Just buy the game and you own it on both platforms with cross-progress; a lot of times getting added to game pass also means enabling play anywhere, but not always, world war z doesn't have it for instance.
It also functions retroactively, if you've already bought the game and it gets play anywhere later, you now own it on both platforms.
 

near

Gold Member
Just buy the game and you own it on both platforms with cross-progress; a lot of times getting added to game pass also means enabling play anywhere, but not always, world war z doesn't have it for instance.
It also functions retroactively, if you've already bought the game and it gets play anywhere later, you now own it on both platforms.
Thanks for the info. I really did not know this was a thing, holy fuck I've been under a rock.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Good point. I could say that the thread is not about what would Microsoft gain from it but what we could gain from it. Or that piracy was a selling point of some consoles in the past, like the first Playstation in many countries. But I only say this this for the sake of argument. They are hopefully not that desperate. I think that maybe Microsoft could use their UWP and go from there, have the Windows being a sub as we have some rumors about it. Link it to Gamepass Ultimate, or create a more expensive tier on top of what already exist? It would eat on the gain of having a console with Windows, but we are just having fun in this thread.

You can't run native Win on Xbox (yet) but you can run Win 365 on it at least (for what it's worth).

 

Ar¢tos

Member
Wouldn't allowing Windows change the hardware classification to Personal Computer and forcing MS to open the door to 3rd party stores and sideloading for Xbox software?
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
People have been talking about this since the first Xbox. Never going to happen. And the fact is if you have a PC you don’t really need a Xbox anymore. You get the games, you get gamepass, you get cheevos, you get everything.
 

Puscifer

Member
Yes I have been advocating for this for two years now. They need a tonic so to speak something other console offers. The ability to become a pc and allow more m/k genres natively opens an entirely new market segment for the Xbox division
Not even joking if they did and let me carry my steam library over I would dump PC overnight. Sorry but keyboard and mouse just feels so good for so many things and no, I don't care how much you tell me that stuff like TLOU feels with a controller it felt at home on PC with that
 

nowhat

Member
You can't run native Win on Xbox (yet) but you can run Win 365 on it at least (for what it's worth).


...but can you run Windows 386 on it?



(Timestamped to the part where the drugs really kick in. This is consistent with my theory that Microsoft's marketing department has been on crack for decades.)
 

Mahavastu

Member
Wouldn't allowing Windows change the hardware classification to Personal Computer and forcing MS to open the door to 3rd party stores and sideloading for Xbox software?
No, there is a Windows S (?) version, which only allows to install software from the Microsoft Store.
I would assume that this would be what Microsoft would do. There is just no reason for Microsoft to subsidize a XBox Console just to let people buy games at Steam, which would mean supporting a competing eco system.
OTOH only allowing Microsoft store would of course make the Console much less interesting for the general public.
 

Tsaki

Member
Yes with those discounted prices I'd buy a handful of them just as PCs for browsing and lite work
 
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