New Xbox & AI CEO announced via Twitter ( not calling it x) the new “hybrid” console that will play Xbox and PC games.
In other words you know just a PC. Thus far it seems the system will use the exact same Xbox desktop experience as the “rog ally”.
While we all saw it coming and there isn’t much surprise. This to me says Xbox is dead as a platform.
It’s going to be expensive, it’s going to have Windows. It’s going to have co-pilot it’s going to have the same pop ups.
At least we get an Ally ROG desktop at most a Surface Gaming Desktop. Either honestly is a terrible idea. There will be most affordable options not tied to windows there will be mode powerful options at the same price. Even if you like the idea of going all in PC gaming this won’t be your best option.
If you want to stay a console gamer you’re going to have to switch teams …
RIP Xbox.
The PC cannot currently play non-ported Xbox games at this time, though. I get why you’re saying “just a PC” but that’s a distinction worth noting. I hope the PC platform in general will gain the ability to play all Xbox games and not just Xbox branded hardware. I also hope PCs gain the ability to use some of the features that are nice about Xbox (mainly Quick Resume).
Could be that they add that functionality into Windows. There’s nothing special about newer games that run on Xbox, they’re all x86 applications. Microsoft could just release the Xbox middleware as its own app and allow Xbox games to work on whatever PC it’s installed on, which is basically all that an Xbox is right now.
For older games (360 and OG Xbox), just do the same thing with the emulator that they currently run through.
Yeah, I’m hoping they don’t wall that stuff off from the general PC space for business reasons.
No matter how you slice it, it’s going to be emulation. And people will and already can emulate without Microsoft’s “experience”. I doubt it will even have an optical drive!
In fact I’d argue there is no reason to wait for their hardware. Buy or build something now. You can play all the same games. Get an emulator and do the same …
Their emulation work is one of the few bright spots of the Xbox platform on the past decade. Things like FPS boost and Auto HDR are nice for improving older games. I’m not sure if any third party emulators can do the same, admittedly.
Independent emulation teams trying to keep older games alive are true heroes, but there is certainly something to be said for the quality of a competent team of first-party engineers who have access to all of the original code and architecture documentation. Truly some magic they were able to pull off.