Cakefish

Ah yes the good old announcement of an announcement.

I hope Wuchang will end up being good. I'll need some more soulslike nourishment after I finish Lies of P: Overture.

Split Fiction, easily.

The only other 2025 game I’ve played on Xbox this year is South of Midnight. It was alright, fairly decent, but couldn’t hold a candle to the co-op masterpiece that is Split Fiction.

My overall 2025 GOTY will very likely end up being a toss-up between Split Fiction and Metroid Prime 4.

@Ricky-Spanish thanks man! Yeah the hot nights are especially unpleasant when ill! I’m happy to report that after stuffing myself full with painkillers I’m feeling a bit better now.

I’m playing the fun game of fighting some sort of cold virus thing. Why have I caught this in the middle of summer? Ugh. I feel petty crap today. Bleh.

1) Do not close any talented studios via mass layoffs. Hands off Double Fine!

2) Zero Game Pass price rises or messing about with the Core to Ultimate conversion offer. That would be appreciated.

3) No nerfing of Microsoft Rewards points. It’s already not as good as it was in its prime, let’s not degrade it any further.

4) I want to see more OS updates that focus on QOL additions to the home screen, dashboard, store, games & apps etc. Don’t stay still, keep improving the Xbox OS. I hope Xbox Ally doesn’t consume all of their focus, leaving XSX forgotten and unloved.

That’s about it I suppose, I’m not being too demanding here I feel.

@Isolte can’t argue against those points because I agree, but I think that’s exactly why they are working on this controller-friendly UI on the Xbox Ally. That’s the first step, I think that handheld is being used as a testing ground. It’s basically copying Valve’s Steam OS, which isn’t a bad idea in my opinion because everybody and their dog raves about how good Steam OS is.

Problem is that for every game that has it, you can point to several other games that don’t. This issue will only be solved once Xbox and PC are fully merged into one.

@Fiendish-Beaver you’re right, you’re absolutely right. Though I still reserve the right to be angry at Phil if he dares touch my precious Double Fine. Of all the studios, the one that delivered the narrative platforming masterpiece that is Psychonauts 2 must be spared. There is so much incredible talent in that studio. Keeper better not be their swang song!

So when you try to access the in-game UI does it default to Xbox or Steam? I presume Xbox. Is it possible to access the Steam in-game UI via controller though?

These will be relevant not only for the Xbox Ally but also the next home Xbox (yes I’m still a believer! 😅)

@Fiendish-Beaver nah Phil can’t get off the hook that easily. As far as I know Microsoft is not run like an absolute monarchy, I doubt Satya is micromanaging Xbox to the extent where he’s dictating exactly which studios will get culled. Those decisions will be on Phil and his executive team’s shoulders.

I can only hope the fact Double Fine announced their new game just a couple weeks ago means that they are safe.

How sad that we are even discussing this when Microsoft have been boasting of record-breaking Xbox revenue in their last quarterly report.

Don’t you dare touch Double Fine Phil, don’t even think about it!

I played it on my PC due to the framerate issue. It looks far more cinematic running at ~60fps VRR than it does at locked 30fps on XSX. It’s a good thing they’re finally adding 60fps now, shame it arrived so late though.

I’m looking forward to this one. Intend to play coop with my brother.

Edit: friend pass! Very nice!

@NishimuraX thing is though if they wanted to do a Sega, why not now? Why commit to a whole extra generation of hardware that’s doomed to be a Wii U level disaster? I don’t see the logic there. I think that they do definitely want to transition away from traditional consoles in favour of PC, but in a way that retains as much of their existing customer base as possible.

@TheGameThrifter Oh I agree that cloud streaming absolutely wouldn’t count as backwards compatibility as far as I’m concerned either. It needs to be running on local hardware for sure. I think they have given up on console honestly, but as long as the real deal offline backwards compatibility is in place then I personally don’t have an issue with this.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner we’re not really fully representative of the wider Xbox customer base though. The original did quite well on Xbox when it launched last year so I think the sequel would too!

@TheGameThrifter I think that Xbox is moving entirely to being an open platform, based on Windows. I think XSX is the last of the traditional closed platform consoles. Backwards compatibility has been confirmed by Microsoft already, thankfully.

@NishimuraX I don’t see how a traditional XSX2 can be viable in the current market. We’ve all seen the sales figures for XSX|S over the past few years, and they really aren’t pretty. I don’t see how XSX2 can avoid repeating the fate of the Wii U if it just attempts to offer more of the same. I think Microsoft needs to do something truly radical for Xbox to survive. I also think it’s telling that although these rumours have been circulating for many months now, Microsoft have made absolutely no attempt whatsoever to dampen the flames.

@TheGameThrifter I do think that the XSX successor will look like the Xbox Ally, running on Windows but with a streamlined gaming UI layered on top. Just with the hardware developed in-house rather than outsourced to Asus.

I do wonder what happened to Everwild. No disrespect to Sea of Thieves, but it sure would be nice to see Rare branch out and do something different for a change.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Xbox version comes alongside the PC version or if there’s an additional delay. Hopefully the former and they release both ports simultaneously.

It’s a bit disappointing they never gave the option to centre-align the tiles if you choose to reduce the number of them on the Home Screen. They look a bit odd clustered up on the left hand side, it creates an unbalanced aesthetic. As it currently is implemented I don’t think l I’ll use that feature. Hopefully they’ll give some more options in future.

If this isn’t evidence of Steam on next Xbox I don’t know what is 👀

I think the strategy is to piggyback off Valve’s success. It’s a way to conveniently advertise Game Pass to Steam users.

If you can’t beat them, join them. That sort of thinking.

Yeah I did just copy-paste my comment on the other article here, but it’s definitely relevant here too! 😅

I kinda like them honestly, reminds me of the Steam UI in a way, which might be where they got the inspiration from!

But it’s good that we get the option to disable them if we want.

If this isn’t evidence of Steam on next Xbox I don’t know what is 👀

I think the strategy is to piggyback off Valve’s success. It’s a way to conveniently advertise Game Pass to Steam users.

If you can’t beat them, join them. That sort of thinking.

Chicken and egg situation really. Microsoft has been actively encouraging this for years now. It’s not surprising to see the numbers play out when converting console gamers into windows PC gamers appears to have been their long term strategy all along.

I have both XSX and PC. I wholeheartedly welcome the upcoming merger of these two platforms. Best of both worlds: Steam, free online play, controller-friendly UI, and Quick Resume. Sounds wonderful to me.

@NishimuraX Yes I guess I am trying to will it into existence! I’ve been very critical and negative on the direction that Xbox has been heading in over the past year and a half. I’m aware that some of the community here have found that grating. Now that I finally have reason to be positive about the brand again it feels so good!

@Titntin like you I already have a PC, but I think this is perfect for me. This would allow me to access my Steam library on my TV via a controller-friendly interface. Play Anywhere theoretically already provides this kind of functionality, but in reality it really doesn’t because only 5-10% of the Xbox library supports it (it also doesn’t do anything for all the games that skip Xbox).

If they mean what I think they mean - then hell yeah! Backwards compatibility, Steam, and death of the mandatory online paywall - what’s not to like? It’s perfection, combining the best of PC and console into one ultimate gaming machine. It’s my dream product.

Horizon: Forbidden West. I recently upgraded my PC, so I got massively distracted by overclocking and undervolting, but after finding stable profiles for CPU & CPU I’m finally ready to get back into actual gaming again!

@NeoRatt that’s how I interpreted Sarah Bond’s statement too, so I certainly hope that’s how it pans out!

@NeoRatt if console and PC are still going to be treated as distinct entities then that’s really just continuation of the status quo, as XSX is already running a streamlined edition of Windows 11. So it would be a lot of hype over nothing. I want to see some real change, I want to see Steam on Xbox hardware as well as the death of the mandatory online multiplayer paywall.

@FraserG

Okay I’m confused again. Here we are with them referring to console as separate entities to PCs. I thought the whole point was everything was being unified under the Windows umbrella into one platform, but now they’re talking about multiple platforms here. That seems to contradict what Sarah Bond was saying. Great, just great. Imagine my crushing disappointment if all this turns out to be just poorly worded PR nonsense 😭

I’m tired, boss. My brain needs a rest from all this frustratingly vague marketing spiel.

It wouldn’t make sense to me to have Xbox handhelds which can freely access Steam and do not have an online multiplayer paywall, but then arbitrarily shackle the living room Xbox with relics of the past (closed ecosystem, subscription paywall). I know Microsoft is very fond of PR blunders and confusing marketing, but my god that would generate so much confusion for the public as to why one Xbox can’t offer the same functionality as the other Xbox. “All Xboxes are equals, but some are more equal than others” - is that really the plan here?

You could make the argument that’s the situation we’re in now and that’s certainly true. I believe we’re in an unfortunate awkward transition phase. I think new hardware presents the golden opportunity to standardise exactly what an Xbox is and what they can offer across the entire lineup of first party devices.

I said 2027 in the last poll, I still say 2027 now. It just makes the most sense to me. Zen 6 + UDNA architectures should be ready for mass production by that point, it gives Microsoft plenty of time to beta test the gaming-optimised version of Windows via the Xbox Ally, it still allows the XSX to have a full 7 years of primetime support, and it aligns with the rumoured PS6 launch timeframe which makes life easier for developers.

I love to see it.

Backwards compatibility has been the biggest question for me since hearing about the PC transition, so it's just so lovely to have that reassurance so early on that my digital library is safe.

I plan to buy it on Steam soon (just need to finish Horizon: Forbidden West first), but I absolutely would buy it on Xbox if it were available!

It is going to be so nice to not have to worry about such things once Xbox transitions to Windows and these problems no longer exist.

@Fiendish-Beaver yeah I agree, there will definitely be a reshuffling of Game Pass tiers to accommodate the merging of platforms. I really don’t know whether Game Pass can survive this transition, Microsoft will definitely invest significant resources into giving it the best chance of success possible though we can be sure of that. And yeah XSX|S will continue to exist for a long while as we know the cross gen period lasts many years, the window of overlap will be very lengthy. In terms of how many units the XSX successor needs to sell to be considered a success in Microsoft’s eyes, well I guess it needs to comfortably recoup the cost of R&D of the hardware at least. It’s gonna cost more than Steam Deck to produce and distribute so will need to sell more than that to be sustainable long term I think.

Lots of unknowns still, so many unanswered questions! It’s going to be very interesting to see how all this pans out over the next few years!

They’ve had a year to optimise performance, we shall see if they used that time wisely or if this port is as technically compromised as the PS5 version. The Digital Foundry video will be interesting.

@Fiendish-Beaver I can only speculate, but it’s possible they crunched the numbers on the past few years of console sales and realised that a closed-platform traditional Xbox console was no longer viable in the market. After all, if that hypothetical next Xbox sold Wii U numbers - which let’s face it isn’t a crazy prediction looking at the past few years of XSX sales - it would mean certain death for the platform. And with it the ~30 million or so console Game Pass subscribers, Microsoft’s flock of golden geese. So by consolidating with Windows, they can provide a sustainable hardware platform for these customers to seamlessly transition over to. Suddenly it doesn’t matter if the device sells Wii U numbers, because it relies on the considerably larger Windows development environment.

This is a long and very convoluted way of saying that maybe it wasn’t a choice that they made entirely voluntarily, but rather something they’ve been forced to concede on just to ensure that Xbox as a brand stays sustainable into the long term.

@WildConcept6 but that’s precisely the big deal. The final sentence where she says ‘making Windows the number one platform in gaming’. Not Windows and Xbox. Just Windows. That shows us that console will no longer be considered a separate platform, it’s all being brought under the Windows umbrella. XSX successor will look like the Xbox Ally where it runs a modified version of Windows optimised for gaming. That’s why this is such a bombshell announcement. Xbox is transitioning into a fully Windows-based platform.

@themightyant I’m a bit confused, but maybe I’m just misunderstanding you. Whether you purchase on Microsoft Store or Steam the end result will be the same - you can play the game on any Windows device. I guess if you mean XSX|S consoles then yeah, but why would anyone purchasing this new gen device keep their old console around when this one has been confirmed to have backwards compatibility?

@themightyant Steam is Play Anywhere by default though. Any device that can install the Steam client can run Steam games - unless OS combability issues get in the way, as is sometimes the case with Linux and especially Mac. You buy from Steam and you can play that game on your Xbox Ally or any desktop/laptop/handheld PC, and even your Steam Deck in the most cases. So Xbox Play Anywhere offers nothing that Steam doesn't already - except for cloud streaming.

@Fiendish-Beaver it's a good question but I'm guessing they finally realised that Steam OS poses an existential threat to Windows dominance in PC gaming, so they figured that having Steam on a Windows-based Xbox was preferable to a future where gaming moves over to Linux instead. They can still promote Game Pass on this Xbox PC, just as they do with XSX today. Finally, I think the hardware will not be subsidised and will be sold at profit from day one. It's going to cost a lot more upfront than XSX did (but not needing Game Pass Core and having Steam will make up for that from the customer's perspective).

@FatalBubbles @InterceptorAlpha yep, she 100% confirmed backwards compatibility in the announcement. Whether it's via hardware support or software emulation we don't know, but it is happening (which is great news!)

@Jenkinss I agree it’s full of superfluous marketing buzzwords, but that’s every Xbox statement these days. It worked on me though. As a customer I am indeed reassured. It confirms that the next Xbox runs Windows while still retaining backwards compatibility with the XSX library. Sounds like a dream come true to me!

@FraserG I appreciate you keeping a sensible level-head here 😅 and you’re right - it’s not official confirmation. But now we know that the next Xbox is indeed running Windows I just don’t see how this won’t run Steam, as if it’s completely locked down then how’s that any different to what we have now with Series X? And why would they give handhelds full-fat Windows but hamstring the flagship living room device with a crappy Windows-lite version? It wouldn’t make any sense to do that, the way I see it. I want to believe! I think Xbox Ally is the beta test for the OS of the XSX successor.

@FraserG she confirmed in the video that it runs Windows though and boasted about alternative storefronts, what else could she mean by that? If it runs Windows that means it’s a PC and that surely means it’s compatible with Steam. Am I going crazy? What else could this mean?

@Dm9982 she literally says that alternative storefronts will be supported and that this XSX successor runs Windows. So yeah! Steam! Incredible news to just suddenly drop on us like this out of nowhere. Why didn’t they announce this last week at the showcase?

This is amazing. Backwards compatibility confirmed! Steam confirmed! Am I dreaming?

I was so down on Xbox throughout last year but credit to Sarah and Phil, they’ve successfully righted the ship, even if there were quite a few questionable PR bumps along the way.

Wow future of Xbox is bright! Sony published games on Xbox hardware, what a world we’re soon gonna be living in!

@Medic_alert Yeah I watched Digital Foundry’s podcast on these handhelds today and they were super negative about the cheaper Z2 A model, simply because it has the same SOC as the almost 4 year old (by the time they launch in late ‘25) Steam Deck. And I have to agree, it’s going to age like milk. The one with the Z2 Extreme SOC should be much more capable though heading into the future.