Seemingly out of the blue, Microsoft has come out and announced that it’s teaming up with AMD for its next generation of Xbox “devices.” This is frankly the least surprising news I have ever heard in my life, but it does start the conversation about what gaming is going to look like as we head into this new era.
While it’s good to know who’s going to be making the silicon behind the next Xbox, the bigger tidbit is that the Xbox team is going to be “working closely with the Windows team to make Windows the number one gaming platform.” Especially off the heels of the ROG Xbox Ally X last week, it sure sounds like the next Xbox is going to look a lot like a gaming PC.
Working Closely With Windows, Huh?
For the last few generations, Xbox consoles have been getting closer to gaming PCs, down to the operating system they run on. It doesn’t take that keen of an eye to look at the Xbox Series X’s home screen and not notice the similarities to Microsoft’s desktop operating system, especially if you’ve survived Windows 8 and Windows 10.
But in the video Microsoft released for its collaboration with AMD, Xbox president Sarah Bond opened by saying that Xbox’s vision is to allow you to “play the games you want, with the people you want, and wherever you want.” This definitely isn’t a new approach for Microsoft, which has been making its games more accessible for years now, especially since Play Anywhere became a thing.
I regularly play games across my Xbox console and various PCs, and that program allows me to carry over my progress no matter what I’m playing on. This is purely speculation, but it sounds like Microsoft is planning on taking things a bit further this time around. In the video, Bond talks about bringing an Xbox experience that’s not locked to a single store. I might be reading too much into it, but it sure sounds like bringing Steam, Epic Games Store and other launchers to the next Xbox might totally be a thing.
And why wouldn’t it? I mean, Microsoft already did announce an “official” device made in partnership with Asus that’s open to every PC game store. Why stop there?
The ROG Xbox Ally X As a First Step
What separates the ROG Xbox Ally X from the rest of the Windows handhelds is that Microsoft is teaming up with Asus and shipping it with a modified version of Windows. We don’t know the specifics of what that modification will do yet, but we do know that it won’t load certain elements of the desktop operating system when they’re not needed.
More importantly, the system will boot straight into a new version of the Xbox App without loading the regular desktop. If you’ve spent a lot of time with the Steam Deck, you’ll know that’s essentially what SteamOS does with its custom version of Linux. If you want to load up the desktop, you have to manually call it up and go through a loading screen to get there. This makes the Steam Deck easier to use, for sure, but it also allows for much better gaming performance.
If the next Xbox is going to be running on Windows, this approach is going to be absolutely necessary. After all, the main appeal of gaming consoles over a gaming PC is that, because the software is simpler, game engines get much better access to system resources. Microsoft is already building the tools to make this happen, and it’d be weird if it was just for the ROG Xbox Ally X.
The Next Xbox Should Be a PC, Even If It’s Not
PC gaming is in a weird place these days, and it has been for a while. Because while PCs are more powerful than ever and come in all shapes and sizes, there’s one thing they all have in common: They’re expensive. Even recent handhelds that are otherwise awesome, like the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS, are much more expensive than a traditional console.
Microsoft does shoulder some of the blame for this. After all, if you’re buying a Windows gaming laptop or handheld, part of the price goes to the license for the operating system. That’s why something like the ROG Ally with the plain ol’ Z1 chip is more expensive than the Steam Deck, despite the specs being so similar. It’s just something we’ve always had to deal with.
Consoles generally take a different approach. Because they generally make money off of licensing and game sales, console hardware is usually subsidized, allowing them to be cheaper than an equivalent PC – at least at launch.
Microsoft has the opportunity to bring that approach to what is essentially a specialized gaming PC. It’s no secret that PC gaming is getting more popular than ever these days, and this would bring a whole new audience into the scene for the first time.
Since it doesn’t look like graphics cards are going to get any cheaper in the near future, this new Xbox really could be the shot in the arm that PC gaming needs right now.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
