kmtrain83

@cragis0001
This is kind of what happened already in the 1980s. Microsoft cut a deal with IBM, and slowly at first but then suddenly with the burst of PC clones, they found a way to get their OS onto tons of computers, thereby crowding out the likes of Apple, Commodore/Amiga, and Atari in the PC gaming space. The circumstances are different now, in that Steam gets a bigger cut of PC game than Microsoft (Windows itself generates a bit), and of course mobile gaming, which outpaces both console and PC. Microsoft has some mobile assets in King (of Candy Crush fame), but I don't hear much about if they are trying to push mobile, nor do I care, as I more or less dropped those kinds of games several years ago.

There seems to be a lot of consensus, but maybe it’s just the type of article that invites this sentiment.
Who knows, between AI and the cloud maybe we’ll just be making our own video games in the 10 to 20 year mark with a simple voice command.

Why would a fairly well known game like Dragon Quest VII Reimagined not have four reviews yet? It would easily be in the top 10. Nothing on this list screams "You must get an Xbox," and that is part of the problem. Meanwhile for Switch 2 on Metacritic the Monster Hunter Stories 3 lands all the way down at 12th place with an 82 (ie "great.") NSW2 is still being criticized as heavy a mediocre 1st year lineup, but it has the added elements of Pokekmon Pokopia, Animal Crossing update, Ys X Proud Nordics, Mario Tennis, and Xenoblade X update.

@Cakefish

I was also wondering about the fate of Play Anywhere. Furthermore, I believe the Game Pass PC vs Ultimate tiers need to be consolidated, and lowered in price to match the PC edition, forgoing significant revenue.

I’m still struggling to find a reason for Helix to exist, and to differentiate itself from any other mini desktop gaming PC. If it comes down to things like Achievements and Quick Resume, do we assume these are Xbox exclusive, and could never be replicated by the likes of other Steam, Sony, Nintendo, etc? So many questions!

@BAMozzy
I’m still not sure I understand the new normal. If Xbox the console creases to exist, then of course it will take no time at all to port to it.

I forgot Xbox "app" on Windows 11 is a thing, so I'm trying it out. The first thing that happened is a pop up window (love them pop ups when I'm on my work PC) saying their is misalignment between my Microsoft account, and my son's account for the Windows store. I have to choose. He's the one with the Game Pass, so I picked his. Then I clicked on Minecraft launcher, which said "Recently updated." It proceeded to install another update, which was admittedly fairly quick. Then I got a splash screen telling me to "Sign In With Microsoft." -> Didn't I just do that with the first pop up? Okay, forget Minecraft. Then I went to an oldie but goodie that I sunk many hours into back in the day: Age of Empires II. It's not installed, but I can "Play with Cloud With your Subscription." Okay, great let's get to it -> only now it says "Let's get ready... Controller disconnected." ... I seem to recall playing this with mouse and keyboard all those times. Why would I use a controller for the "best play experience?" .... Meanwhile, in the time spent, I could have likely completed an entire run on Hades 2, Switch edition.

The advertisement above shows a bunch of technology arranged like it's being tossed into a junk pile. Was that the original graphic, or was it modified for this article to highlight the fact that this message is going into the trash heap?

@TheGameThrifter
Well, being from an immigrant family, pretty much every fast food joint we visited, my mum was probably thinking, "This is a Macdonald's"

@TrollOfWar
Yes the release of Helix could coincide with GTA 6 coming to PC, but 4K 60 FPS would take a powerful graphics card...

I'd like to hear some technical translation of the PR speak. What do they mean by "order of magnitude" leap? That usually means > 10 times improvement. Also curious as to this AMD SoC , what would be the equivalent NVIDIA dGPU. For desktop gaming PC's, it's all about the GPU > people pay thousands of dollars for just that one add-in board.

I guess the youths are not into this chibi super hero squad stuff.

He must have a mix of emotions. He was at Microsoft since 1988 when it was a Seattle based start up, with nothing but moxie to help him gain through the ranks. He seems to be embracing this early retirement (forced resignation).

Other than the Phil [Spencer] name drop, the Sega CEO could say the exact same words today, and it would fit. As such, I don't see this quote as being useful in regard to Xbox remaining in the dedicated console business. In the PC brands we already have Alienware, HP, Lenovo, etc., and they have even partnered with ASUS. Sure, Microsoft is bigger than all combined, but if being big was enough, why are they behind puny Sony and Nintendo?

My kids have spent a fair amount on Fortnite over the years. The most I can say about it, is at least this is an ongoing live service, with no risk of cancellation in the near future. So they can get their enjoyment out of it. The skins cost money, but it's like outfits and accessories in the real world. This is a social game for them and their friends.

It would appear console gaming is trending towards rich adults, with families opting for either a cheap PC for the likes of Fortnite, or a tablet / mobile.

I believe he was not ready to retire when he had this interview. He is only 58 (same age as big boss Nadella). “Retirement” is being used as a euphemism for forced resignation.

@Fiendish-Beaver
The most telling statistic at the end of this year will be how many copies of GTA 6 split between Xbox and PS5, assuming it is not delayed again. The Series S version might not run well, so I would likely get it on base PS5 disc.

@TrollOfWar
All I can say for sure, is at least they are trying something new, and that has people excited, or trepidatious perhaps. As for Microsoft entering the shark infested waters of PC Desktops to go against Lenovo, ASUS, Razer, Alienware etc, I don't see them being more than an "also-ran" in that group. Even still, the PC gaming market is rather large, and so they might find a niche of they bring Xbox loyalists and peel off some PC first gamers.

@KayUK
That’s a nice set up and it makes you the target audience for this project Hellix. Unfortunately for Microsoft that target is niche.

@Seioni
Satya Nadella salutes you

@KayUK
I am also in this position of having to get a new PC next year. My question is that are you connecting both your potato and Xbox to the same monitor on a desk or are they in different rooms? If I had both the Xbox and PC on a desk set up with a 27 inch monitor or two I would consider replacing both with this Helix.

@Millionski
Steam Deck is a product of a privately held company. The shareholders have no say.

@fatpunkslim
I’m definitely keeping an eye out but if they did not have the series S this generation, I don’t think I would’ve gotten an Xbox and I think many of their current 35 million consoles sold had the same mindset. I just can’t see myself paying a hefty PC price for a gaming device that would go under the big TV and not be used for any home office or schoolwork. I’m not sure how much Game Pass would add to cost either. We also have a wild card of the Steam Machine with an unknown launch date and price.

@sixrings
Yes, part of the appeal of our two desktop PCs at home Is that sure they are used for gaming, but we get a lot of productivity done as well, which justifies the thousand plus dollar price tag for the 5060 in the newer one and whatever GPU I have on the older Dell I think it was a 1660.

@TrollOfWar
I’m still not sure what this means “the future of Xbox will be on PC.” Microsoft gaming existed on PC back in the 20th century so what makes it the future of Xbox to go back to the past? I don’t believe things like achievements and quick resume are enough because those are just software features not enough to constitute a brand. If it’s about bringing forward your library with backwards compatibility, that is about the past not the future. I’ve thought a lot about the future of Xbox and I still can’t figure it out.

@Globo
You said it right there the “why bother” is what has some of us concerned about the next generation.

@themightyant
I’m not sure how Play Anywhere would work if this console is a PC then what is the “ anywhere “part? Other PCs? Maybe for the quick resume feature?
And I have predicted earlier that Microsoft could certainly throw a monkey wrench into the Steam software interface to make users less likely to want it over the native Windows / Xbox store.

@BAMozzy
I’m not trying to be facetious. Nadella explicitly stated cloud as one of his main strategies. There are over 2 billion Apple devices in the world, and Microsoft could push their games more in that direction as the technology improves. My kids got hooked on Minecraft back in the day by playing it on my iPad. Why couldn’t they do this with Forza, Fable Halo, Gears, etc either natively or cloud.

@BAMozzy
Don't forget Mac gaming

@BAMozzy
HI yes I imagine "Play Anywhere" will only exist for legacy games, since the next generation Xbox is a hybrid, so no need for two versions. What I'm wondering is if this BC software will be on all Windows 11 or 12 PCs, or exclusive to Project Helix. Otherwise, why not buy a cheap PC clone? I believe this hardware can succeed if heavily subsidized by Microsoft, but I don't know if they want to do that, especially because they may get limited game revenue if a large proportion goes to Steam. Will they get a 30% cut of Steam games purchased through the PCBox device, akin to Apple iPhone cut from the App Store?

@TheCrafter1578
Yes I have been saying this for a while that there are several ways to go about this scenario, and I'm anxious to see how they implement. It could be elegant, or it could be a mess.

@TheFakulty
Yes despite the PCBox hybrid being a thing in the collective imagination for years now, it is amazing that it is still hard to fathom how it all fits together. It is telling that avid and likely intelligent gamers can't wrap their heads around it.

I'm still wondering what is going to set this apart from buying any old PC for instance iBUYPOWER from Costco, launching Xbox FSE, and just getting the new controller as a separate purchase. I'm not going to pay a premium for a plastic Xbox knob on the chassis. If it's a disc drive that reads legacy titles, or a BC emulator, you could probably also make those available to all PC owners.

@Korgon
I wonder if the Project Helix has free online, but those who remain on Series S/X are still paying, if there will be friction.

@Millionski
OK just wondering for example I played Marvel Midnight Suns on EPIC launcher on PC, and also on Xbox Series S on the television. They were kind of the same, but not exactly the same. So if I launch it from Project Helix next time with both owned digital copies, I wonder what that will look like.

@Jenkinss
Nice deal

I'm getting a bit tired of this corpo speak. I might stop reading these articles until they officially announce their plans.

I would suggest they cut the price on Series X so that it is competitive with PS5. That would be a start. "Put your money where your mouth is."

I have PS5, Series S, and my son has a Switch 2. Although this game is not for either of us, the arguments are similar. I don't know if there is an objective scoring system that weighs better graphics vs portability. It comes down to taste. Series S owners are already acutely aware of, and have somewhat accepted the trade off of lower price vs performance; otherwise they would be Series X owners. It's just one level down to Switch 2; you don't save quite as much money as with Series X to S, but it has a screen and two controllers included. This RE9 game looks great on all systems. It's a long way from DS versions of Call of Duty or Age of Empires. When we got the Switch 2 last summer, my son and daughter were playing split screen Mario Kart World with one joy-con each on a cross country flight that same weekend. I don't care if Series X is 8K 120 FPS; It Can't Do That.

I’m hearing different things like this was a planned retirement even though he’s not even 60 years old, versus a sudden resignation or forced retirement
I’m not sure what to call Sarah bonds resignation. It seems like they told her you’re no longer have a job here and she said you can’t fire me because I quit.

@Banjo-
That Goomba still gets me about a third of the time, hence I mostly play turned base RPGs.

I’m hearing this classified as retirement versus resignation, but he’s basically the same age as Nadella CEO and he could easily work somewhere else so it’s not retirement unless he wants it to be

@BAMozzy
Yeah, kind of like Google and Android which it turns out has more dollars in gaming than even Microsoft. But you don’t see that much criticism aimed at Google and their hardware because it is assumed that mobile gaming (Android in particular) is not tied to any one manufacturer. I’m leaving Apple out of this argument for simplicity. They are more like Nintendo with the “walled garden.” I’m also not claiming that mobile is somehow equivalent to console or PC because it is a different style and audience for the most part. You do see some things like Death Stranding on iPhone, but that is not a huge seller.

@NeoRatt
You have more Xboxes in your possession than most retailers at the moment.

@BleedingDreamer
I didn’t mean in terms of quality. I meant in terms of sales in profitability. By all accounts, the Series X is excellent kit, but here we are, with what is being referred to as a failing hardware strategy.

@Gemini53
Sure, I guess if he subconsciously wanted to have “relations” with the hardware, unless you meant something more innocuous.

This actually makes sense with their third-party publishing strategy to Sony and Nintendo. They would only give up on first party if it was bleeding money, and if it just breaks even on hardware, they can still make up for it with additional software sales and subscriptions.
Nobody on the outside knows exactly how the Xbox division profit and loss totals with their various components, nor would they ever disclose. I’m familiar with the history of Zune and Windows Phone, but those were real stinkers compared to Microsoft Gaming, which remains a large business in the tens of billions of dollars. My main concern is that they don’t shoot themselves in the foot, or step on rakes, or whatever chasing a 30% profit margin when probably 10 to 20% would be more sustainable.

From what I can tell, they’re going to continue to treat hardware as a loss leader and focus on making services more profitable by incorporation of AI as a cost cutting measure, and bringing their software to as many platforms as possible. It’s the right business move, although it will turn Xbox into more like Sega.

@BAMozzy
I suppose with capitalism if the play anything anywhere is what customers want, instead of console wars and exclusives, that is most likely what will happen, regardless of what a few internet message boards claim.
I grew up in an era that you were either a Sega kid, or a Nintendo kid, and them's was the brakes. We didn't have the money nor the vision for this utopia that you describe. And we had "cracked" PC games back then as well, since we could not afford to buy PC on top of console games (most of those were rentals or borrowed from friends anyway).

@Nicekix
That's the thing though, that you can still be a healthy business, just not be ranked #1 in all aspects. They have only lost if/ when they exit the market.

I had no idea he had been there that long. I wonder if his first game was Solitaire.