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XBox (Games) Microsoft Windows

Xbox President: We're Working To Ensure Windows Is the Number One Platform For Gaming (pcworld.com) 28

Posted by msmash from the existential-crisis dept.
Microsoft is positioning Windows as the primary gaming platform for Xbox, according to Xbox president Sarah Bond. "We're working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming," Bond said in a video announcing a partnership with AMD for next-generation Xbox hardware spanning consoles and handhelds.

The statement, PCWorld points out, aligns with Microsoft's recent "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, which promotes phones, PCs, televisions, and traditional consoles as Xbox devices. The company's newly announced Xbox Ally X handheld runs Windows beneath its Xbox interface, allowing access to multiple game stores unlike Valve's Steam Deck.

Microsoft has shifted strategy following weak Xbox console sales compared to PlayStation, spending billions to acquire publishers including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard while expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming services across multiple device types.

Xbox President: We're Working To Ensure Windows Is the Number One Platform For Gaming More | Reply

Xbox President: We're Working To Ensure Windows Is the Number One Platform For Gaming

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  • so can you install steam and gog on an xbox?

    • Now, no. That would allow competition and they still sell hardware at a loss.

      Eventually, probably. All the console makers will probably be forced to open their platforms sooner or later, at least in some markets.

      So far they have moved away from console exclusives to publishing almost all of their own titles for at least Xbox and PC. They are headed that direction as slowly as possible.

    • I'd be happy with a Nintendo emulator

    • That's what I read. The quote from Microsoft was "an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device."

  • Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming

    Yeah, Apple's been saying the same thing about macOS for the past 2 decades, so good luck with that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GoTeam ( 5042081 )

      We're working closely with the Windows team...

      They seem to imply that'll be their magic bullet. To even the most casual observers, this is a strange claim...

      • Yeah, no shit, The Windows Team certainly has done a stellar job over the past 15 years. Magic "bullet" indeed.

  • The company's newly announced Xbox Ally X handheld runs Windows beneath its Xbox interface, allowing access to multiple game stores unlike Valve's Steam Deck.

    You can install other game stores on the Steam Deck. You switch to desktop mode and install whatever works with a Linux desktop. Xbox cloud works, as well.

    • You can also dual boot Windows on the steam deck. Presumably you will soon be able to dual boot steam OS on some Xbox branded hardware like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally (do I have the name in the right order? Whatever.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GoTeam ( 5042081 )

        ... some Xbox branded hardware like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally (do I have the name in the right order? Whatever.)

        That doesn't look specific enough. To clear things up, I propose the following: ROG Xbox Ally compact portable entertainment system brought to you by ASUS in conjunction with Microsoft X.

  • I remember all the bloat they put in Windows 98 after Windows 95 was seen as the greatest version of Windows back in the 90s. Microsoft has extended the "good-bad" release cycle to multiple bad versions. The penguin is there in theory but still not enough to convince the major proprietary software companies to port over to it.

    • In the 90s I don't know anyone who thought Windows 95 was the best OS. Was it better than Win 3.0, 3.1 and 3.11. Yes it had a graphic interface. But Win 98se had USB support and windows drivers model. Win ME was a bloated mess but that was in Sept 2000. The best you can say about win 95 was that it was their best release to date coming from the 16 bit cli era.

  • It's always a variant of "Where is that setting hiding now?"

  • Due to cooling needs, this couldn't really be a tablet or laptop, unless one went with eGPUs, but I do wonder if MS could pull off an XBox that also doubled as a desktop PC. Done right, one could alt-tab between the console running in its own world, and Windows. This would be the best of all worlds, and maybe a boon for streamers.

  • I wonder why? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @01:52PM (#65458897)
    Could it be the Europeans switching to Linux & LibreOffice the canary in the coalmine? change happens on occasion and when change goes viral it happens fast
  • Linux is cool and proton helps but there's still a hell of a lot of stuff you just can't do. For example if you use your computer for music production it's extremely hard to get devices working under Linux (at least according to my buddy that does exactly that and has tried Linux multiple times and recently). They're just aren't drivers for a lot of the less expensive hardware interfaces.

    Also proton just doesn't work for a ton of online games because of the anti cheat software. Although marvel rivals i

  • Let's make everything XBox so I can get obscure hexadecimal error messages when software crashes on startup for no apparent reason. That would surely improve the XBox for Windows gaming experience! At least it's still better than some crap like the Ubisoft Connect launcher or whatever Blizzard is using, but that isn't a high bar to overcome.

  • We are working to shift/coerce developers to use proprietary tools, languages, and APIs that will impede the ability to port games to non-Microsoft platforms.

    Fixed that for you.

  • I know the last two generations of Xbox are kind of x86 centric. If the hardware was not as different, then the OS is what made it different than your usual PC. No antivirus that I can think of, no risk of anticheat software/malware that may be used as an attack vector. The recent story of the portable ROG Xbox Ally told that while in "game mode", 2GB of RAM will be made free for the game that is in the foreground. That sounds like an OS that is doing too many things. Having to cater both games and work is
  • Steam OS -- Linux, running apps through Proton (Wine) -- on average runs games faster than Windows does.

  • Disallowing access (Score:3)

    by JThundley ( 631154 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @03:38PM (#65459207)

    "... allowing access to multiple game stores unlike Valve's Steam Deck."

    What kind of bullshit is this? The Steam Deck doesn't disallow or block other game stores. Most other game stores don't have native Linux versions like Steam, so you have to use proton to get them working. This framing of Valve lock-in is disingenuous.

  • So, they're cramming a bunch of X-Box stuff into the Windows codebase?

    They do know that gaming s__t is inherently unstable right? Just ask anyone writing video card drivers.

    What will this do to Windows stability? Oh, right. Business customers will be allowed to get a version without the entire thing.

    So only consumers will be screwed. Yup. Par for the course. They may as well fork the operating system at this point. "Windows 11 for Business" and "Windows Suck-It Beta Tester Edition."

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