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Microsoft To Unify PC and Xbox One Platforms (theguardian.com)
New submitter Serzen writes: According to The Guardian, Microsoft is planning to end fixed console hardware for the Xbox One as a move towards one ecosystem running Unified Windows Applications. The head of the company's Xbox division, Phil Spencer, said that the Universal Windows Platform would be central to the company's gaming strategy. "That is our focus going forward," he told reporters. "Building out a complete gaming ecosystem for Universal Windows Applications." What this could mean is that the Xbox One becomes more like a PC, with Microsoft releasing updated versions at regular intervals with more powerful processors and graphics hardware. In theory, because games will be written as UWAs, older titles will remain compatible with the new machines.
Just what PC gamers need - games targeted at low end hardware so it will run on a console.
If your PC can run everything that the console can, why bother with the console?
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
... like, for example, graphical artefacts on xboxes released in march-november 2018, and crashes on xboxes from the second half of 2017. But the game runs just fine on consoles from 2019, you just need to upgrade!
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
It's the PC that will become more like Xbox, like the ios-ification of OSX.
So Microsoft sells more Xboxes for use as computers, stripping away sales from other vendors (it's partners). Profit!
older titles will remain compatible with the new machines
Well, 99% compatible; but, really, is anyone worried about the occasional game-breaking glitch in older software titles?
Nobody replays those. Even if someone discovers a classic for the first time, I'm sure the developer will keep up with fixing any bugs introduced!
[end sarcasm]
Looks like the fact that Valve largely controls PC gaming and is doing everything they can to push it away from Microsoft's platform has earned them Microsoft's perceived #1 gaming competitor. Make no mistake, Microsoft knows that gaming is one of the few remaining compelling reasons for consumers to use their platform. Most (but not all) desktop application use cases can be accomplished with a web browser these days. Microsoft knows that if they don't create a reason for game devs to use DirectX 12 then there is a risk that game devs will prefer Vulkan due to the multi-platform targeting (Windows, SteamOS, Android) which will erode the position of Windows as the best PC gaming platform.
Basically this is Microsoft saying that they don't care very much about Sony anymore, they perceive Valve as a greater threat and they are willing to give up the hardware sales that XBox exclusive titles would normally drive to instead incentivize continued purchase of Windows licenses for gaming PCs. It would not surprise me if Microsoft starts licensing the XBox brand the same way Steam Machines are licensed. We could see an "Alienware Xbox" sometime soon.
MS won't be making the console as capable as the PC, they'll be limiting the PC like they can their console, where they have control over what you buy, when you buy and can sell the shit out of your use of "their" (because in their minds the console is, was and forever will be theirs, just as they pretend with their software and have mostly been allowed to pretend is legally the case in most regimes they have bought USA pressure to bear on). They want to extend that, not reduce it.
So it becomes nothing more than an XBonedII that you have to pay for upgrades to during its short available lifetime.
So the question is "Why get a PC?".
Why maintain two different players for rented software.
Tell your boss you must have an XBox to edit spreadsheets!
This is excellent, I can finally F9 my Excel workbooks on my Xbox!
Ring a bell?
"Always"? I don't think you know the meaning of the word.
I'm toying with another possible interpretation of this; that this is effectively MS's way of getting out of the console market, but without the "big bang" announcement that saw Sega ditch things what should have been half-way through the Dreamcast's life-cycle.
There's not much detail out there yet, but based on what there is, it sounds like MS are planning to release what are basically cheap, locked-down PCs on a rolling basis, similar to the Steam Machines. As with those Steam machines, anything which is playable on them will also be playable on a full-sized PC. This is a long-way removed from the traditional console model, where a machine is sent out to sit in the market for anywhere from 4 to 8 years with no hardware changes and where the console-manufacturer funds exclusive titles to grow the installed base (then creams revenue off the third-party titles via licensing fees). In essence, it is just a slightly different type of PC, which sits under your TV (and yes, I know the PS4 and XB1 already resemble that description to a degree, but they were both sold on the "static hardware" model).
It's pretty clear why MS might go in this direction. Their long-standing cash-cows are Windows and Office. Xbox has been a side-line and, in some respects, a slightly risky one, in that it has toyed with undermining one of the key sales-points of Windows (gaming). It was always a sideline which only a company which was very, very confident in its continued monopoly position in its main market (and the continued health of that market) could afford to pursue.
And right now, while that monopoly still looks fairly strong, there are signs of stress; tablets (mostly non-MS ones) have convinced a lot of people to give up their laptops. Ten years ago, Linux was, in essence, NeckbeardOS with no real chance of displacing Windows in the home environment. Now you have Valve and other reasonably serious players throwing a lot of weight behind Linux-powered devices. Win8 flopped and while Win10 is doing better, it isn't doing as well as you might expect given it's basically free. MS still dominate the PC OS market, but it's an increasingly vulnerable domination of an increasingly vulnerable market. Re-emphasizing the Windows PC (be it a laptop, desktop, tablet or box that sits under the TV) as a gaming platform may well be a sensible defensive strategy.
Phil Spencer is, unlike his immediate predecessor, no fool. If he thinks for a moment that what's needed to maintain the health of the Windows cash-cow is to sacrifice the Xbox console strategy on the altar of PC gaming, he will do so in a heart-beat and that, I think, is what we're starting to see happening. Previously-announced Xbox-exclusive series have been announced for PC (albeit Windows 10, and sometimes Windows Store-only) and in some cases are already available.
This shouldn't be a surprise. The Xbox One is a moderately successful console, despite the bad publicity, but MS has no real interest in having a moderately successful console. Don Mattrick's strategy was to use the Xbox One as a doorway for MS to get a presence in every living-room in the country through an all-singing-all-dancing multimedia box, that just happened to also be a games console. That strategy was inane and failed. Spencer has turned the disaster around by refocusing the console in the short term as a traditional console, but it is still only putting out reasonably good numbers and MS have bled market-share to Sony. I just don't see why they'd be excited about staying in that market.
Hooorrraaayy!!! Maybe now I can finally get Halo 5 or 6 on a PC. :)
"That is our focus going forward"
Good to know they are not going backwards in time, or sideways.
Coop play in Doom was a MASSIVE attraction to the PC game. It used to be that you could host multiplayer games using a LAN and ignore the official servers. However, and this is obviously before your time, they killed that because it cut into revenues and made an older MP game competition to their latest title.
And now more and more games for console come out without split screen, which was the form that the console won sales on in competition with the PC, again because that costs potential sales (you don't need to buy two copies of the game and again, no official server, so no planning to obsolete the game).
PC used to be the heart of LAN gaming. Consoles "won" in that you could carry a console around easier, and for two player, you didn't even need another console. But PCs USED to do what you now claim the PC is decried for never doing: LAN gaming.
The xbox is not going to become a pc. What they're doing is forcing the low end games that want to be on xbox (like all the trendy 2d indie stuff) to use the UWP apis instead of the native xbox ones, with the promise that they will run on xbox eventually. What they get out of it is that those games will also build for windows phones and the 'windows store' for desktop. The high end console games will still use their native apis, because they need the access to hardware that UWP doesn't provide, but the rest (which is 90% of the games in the xbox store) will be fine without it, so microsoft is hoping to use them to populate their other app stores that nobody cares about.
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
SteamOS was necessary after all!
SURELY NOT!!!!!
10 Confirmed Dead In Shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College.
How is that even remotely related to a story about Microsoft and xbox? Fix your shit, slashdot!
and they will lockout steam / uplay and others also need to pay for XBOX live.
This seems to be in line with Microsoft's policy of unifying platforms but I don't know if it's as big a deal as they want it to be. Starting with Windows Phone 8 MS was trying to integrate the Desktop OS with phones but releasing two different versions of their phone OS then dropping support for them pissed everyone off. When Windows Phone 10 released, even if it did have some useful features on it, nobody wanted it.
Now we're seeing MS try to tie their desktop OS in with their gaming console. For people who run an Xbox some of the features will probably be really useful but for most gamers I don't think it will offer anything their existing PC and/or console already offers. So I don't know what's going to draw people in.
There's one more area to look at with Microsoft's changes recently. MS is obviously moving away from a licensing platform to a software as a service platform. We see this in O365, Exchange services, and the way they're giving away Windows 10 licensing to existing Win 7 and 8.1 users. On top of that MS is pushing advertisements directly to the lock screen and possibly soon the desktop. By unifying their framework they can nickle and dime everyone for services and advertising revenue instead of individual licenses. Combining desktop, gaming system, and phone will just be a nice way to help create vendor lock in. That lock in along with the advertising and service fees are what is keeping me away from them. Part of me thinks that this situation will allow a competitor to show up and take market share from them but I don't see a company capable of it without doing the same thing right now. It will be interesting to see where MS tries to take all of this in the next few years.
Uh huh. This guy cut his teeth on Encarta, Microsoft Money and Microsoft Works. Has he even played any games or developed one?
What this could mean is that the Xbox One becomes more like a PC
Yes, but it could also mean that the PC becomes more like the Xbox one with advertisements cluttering up a dashboard. In fact, they've already started showing ads in the menu.
It's more than a little cluelessly optimistic to think that MS will suddenly reverse course and make the Xbox more like the PC. Get ready to have the Xbox dashboard shoved down your throat.
Now they just need to add support for desktop apps to Windows 10 on the Xbox One, that way users could play Steam and GoG titles on the console, not to mention emulators.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
The idea of an upgrade-able console has been around for quite a while, usually ending in failure. Most notably Sega's CD and 32X. Neither add-on was very successful. And the timing of the 32X didn't help it. Nintendo has it's memory pack for the N64 which few games used. Some game could only run with it, IIRC. There were other lesser known upgrades for other systems like memory expansion and VCD playback for the Sega Saturn and various devices that never made it out of Japan. People seen to reject console upgrades in general.
One more reason to avoid both the Xbox and Windows!
Maybe they will unify marques and the next Xbox will be a desktop addition to the Surface family of products.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
This is it, GabeN, they are coming for you.
I wonder how long will it take M$ to push an update that for some unfortunate reason, will only affect Steam.
Don't you think I would have bought a PC?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They want to 'unify' a gaming console and home PC into a 'home surveillance platform' for their marketing department and the NSA, while simultaneously completely locking down what you can and cannot run on it. What's next, Microsoft? A 'biometric sensor package' in the form of a buttplug? You going to replace the old 'Clippy' with a new assistant called "Big Brother"?
Go fuck yourself sideways with a rusty chainsaw, Microsoft. GET OUT OF MY ASS. I don't want your shit anymore, FUCK OFF!
One OS to rule them all, and in darkness bind them.
I have always liked consoles for games because of the "it just works factor". You can pick up a title that says its for XBox One and you immediately know that it will work and you will probably have a good experience, and one consistent with the promotional videos etc.
Its entertainment I don't want do work for entertainment. I don't play what patch level of video driver works best, I don't want update libraries, and tune settings. I want to play.
I don't want to have to figure what revision of the console I have. I don't want bring a title home and find it runs like crap on my down level console.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
As usual, allegedly intelligent /. posters miss the point. If a console is simply PC hardware (and both the PS4 and Xbone are exactly that already) and are incremented in discrete steps every few years, you now have essentially infinite backwards compatibility, provided certain driver and hardware standards are maintained. (Oh, and guess what, Microsoft happens to excel at backwards compatibility.)
This is about their overarching strategy of trying to play the vendor lock-in game like Apple and Google have on phones/tablets/chromebooks/etc, only leveraging their already existent still overwhelming desktop install base instead of trying to create an entirely new platform.
It's about Ads
It's about Tracking
It's about the death of the consumer being the real customer.
We could see an "Alienware Xbox" sometime soon.
We could Alienware exiting the Steam Machine market. Seriously.
In a bizarre twist of fate, high end Steam Machines are being purchased for Win 10 console gaming. ZOTAC NEN Steam Machine 6th Gen Intel Core i5-6400T Quad-Core CPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 8GB Memory 1TB 2.5-inch Hard Drive Dual Gigabit Lan 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 ( ZBOX-SN970-P-U)
While sales of more affordable Steam Machines with very credible specs have been nothing to write home about. Alienware Steam Machine ASM100-2980BLK Desktop Console (Intel Core i3, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU #395 in Desktop sales at Amazon.com.
I'm quoting Amazon.com here because I can't find any better numbers for Steam Machine sales. I can't find much about Steam Machine sales, period.
Not good. Not at all.
It's a little late for Microsoft to turn the PC into an Xbox, IMO - Valve have already become the dominant games platform on Windows (and have wisely invested in Linux / SteamOS as a backup plan)
I think one solution for that would be binning players systems. If people only want to play against other people with comparable systems I see no reason this couldn't be a feature. I can also imagine ways to handicap players systems.
I imagine this is in response to steam machines and steam itself. Just look at the recent Slashdot post of the number of ported steam games for Linux. This must be scaring the s*** out of them.
I'm definitely part of the PC master race but strangely this makes me want one of these new XBox's as a sort of second system/portable system.
What this means is that Microsoft is going to market machines with at least one X16 slot if not two or four. They might also allow some high end system vendors to produce their own machines with Microsoft providing the canned operating system/interface. Water-cooling anyone?
High end systems that can be upgraded but meant for people that only play games on their PC. Direct competition to steam.
It's also their only play for VR systems. Note the DX12 feature that uses different vendors graphics cards no matter if it's Intel/AMD/nVidia. Throw in external PCIE expansion boxes that one can expand an XBOX or laptop system with.
It also allows them to expand on their justification of the machine as an always on appliance. If you need more horse power for your games you can buy it. Furthermore the graphics in the games they produce will no longer be crippled to the hardware. They will blow PS4/PS5 out of the water.
Last gen they dominated, this gen they're in second place with still plenty of mind share and the potential to come back next generation. I can't believe MS would just throw away consoles because of a slow start caused by MS's desire to exploit the Xbox platform as soon as they gain traction. More of this type of meddling to drive consumers towards even more of MS's bullshit is exactly the opposite of what they need to do. These gamers were avoiding PC in the first place in order to have the convenience and guaranteed set experience of the appliance that is called a games console. Driving them to the PC and bringing PC problems to consoles is going to just make things worse than they are now.
Twinstiq, game news
They don't use desktop conventions in their user interface elements. But more importantly, not every x86 is a PC.
The old SGI workstations that had x86 chips in them use ARCS firmware instead of BIOS, and incompatible with the PC operating systems of the era. (so not a "PC-Compatible"). Sure there was Windows NT for it, but it had to run with a special HAL. Remember that Windows NT ran on Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC back then and those aren't PCs either, so that doesn't automatically mean it's a PC.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Then why is Tim Sweeney complaining that UWP has exclusive features not available to games outside that platform? What about MS's announcement that Windows 10 is the last version of the OS and that their focus is now on UWP?