The Future of XBox

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

I'm not a gamer in any way and while being interested in the gaming wars have never owned a PlayStation or an XBox. This ad on X though makes me wonder though about the future of XBox.

 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I could be wrong but I don't think this is new, you haven't needed an Xbox to play their games for a while now (Xbox Cloud Gaming launched in 2020). I think the advert is just trying to raise awareness and increase the number of people subscribed to the service.

But this will work like Google Stadia, streaming the game to your device. People will still buy the Xbox, for example if they don't have a decent Internet connection or if they want to play their games offline.

[tsupersonic]

On 09/07/2024 at 05:14, Nick H. said:

I could be wrong but I don't think this is new, you haven't needed an Xbox to play their games for a while now (Xbox Cloud Gaming launched in 2020). I think the advert is just trying to raise awareness and increase the number of people subscribed to the service.

But this will work like Google Stadia, streaming the game to your device. People will still buy the Xbox, for example if they don't have a decent Internet connection or if they want to play their games offline.

It is new...as this is the first non-Microsoft device to get an official app to be able to play/stream Xbox Game Pass games. You of course already had the ability to play/stream Game Pass games on Android/iOS/Browser provided you have a GPU subscription. 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 09/07/2024 at 10:21, tsupersonic said:

It is new...as this is the first non-Microsoft device to get an official app to be able to play/stream Xbox Game Pass games. You of course already had the ability to play/stream Game Pass games on Android/iOS/Browser provided you have a GPU subscription. 

Ah, I see. So while the service isn't new, it's now being expanded to other devices (well, one other device for the moment). Thanks for the clarification.

[SnoopZ]

On 09/07/2024 at 10:21, tsupersonic said:

It is new...as this is the first non-Microsoft device to get an official app to be able to play/stream Xbox Game Pass games. You of course already had the ability to play/stream Game Pass games on Android/iOS/Browser provided you have a GPU subscription. 

Samsung TVs have been able to stream Xbox games for years.

[macoman]

I usually play games in a Chromebook laptop connected to my amazon luna account which connects to my epic and Ubisoft accounts and can play games owned by these publishers in the cloud.

[tsupersonic]

On 09/07/2024 at 16:35, SnoopZ said:

Samsung TVs have been able to stream Xbox games for years.

Oh ok - I didn't realize they could. Good to know

[neufuse Veteran]

On 09/07/2024 at 05:21, tsupersonic said:

It is new...as this is the first non-Microsoft device to get an official app to be able to play/stream Xbox Game Pass games. You of course already had the ability to play/stream Game Pass games on Android/iOS/Browser provided you have a GPU subscription. 

first non-ms "device"? My Samsung Frame TV had an XBOX stream app that let me do this for well over a year now and it came installed out of the box

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

I've been convinced that Microsoft is leaving the physical console space for a while now. All signs point to them moving to an almost always subscription based cloud service for gaming which is unfortunate.

[spaceelf]

If you say so I guess.  They're letting people play on whatever device they want to play on.

I always come back to PC and lately I haven't had much reason to care about consoles so works for me.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Like with Windows in the early days, I think the goal is to get Xbox games everywhere, on any device you might wish to play on.

I think we will get another physical Xbox console as its a good way for people to get access to everything in the Xbox ecosystem.

Console hardware has never really been profitable though. If more people play Xbox on PC or stream from their smart TV's, we might well reach a point where Microsoft decide they don't need to make a console anymore, as the average person is happy to pay £20 a month and just stream on their smart TV. I don't think we are there yet, however in 10 years time... who knows?

Personally I hope that doesn't happen as we have seen what happened with Netflix and other streaming services in recent times, long term subscribing to play will benefit Microsoft far more than consumers.

[tsupersonic]

On 25/07/2024 at 21:29, Kyle said:

I've been convinced that Microsoft is leaving the physical console space for a while now. All signs point to them moving to an almost always subscription based cloud service for gaming which is unfortunate.

There is a huge void in its current state, so this is not happening soon (THANKFULLY).

First, obviously xCloud is still in beta, and requires internet. That is a huge cost of entry to gaming, which Microsoft is trying to solve. Not to mention the cloud is not viable for serious multiplayer where latency/lag is extremely sensitive.

Second, not every Game Pass is available on the cloud.

Third, to the second point, not every Xbox game is available on the cloud. Meaning that every game regardless if it's on GamePass is available for play on the cloud. The Xbox gaming ecosystem would be further limited if all you could play was what's currently on the cloud. 

Re: Hardware- Microsoft hardware division for Xbox is very lacking. They haven't released anything new console wise, and don't count the new hardware revisions as an upgrade. They are merely new SKU's for the purpose of having something 'new'. The new controllers are an absolute abmysal waste of hardware/engineering/design team resources. If anything going all-digital means more reliance on the Microsoft/Xbox store for purchasing games/media. They seriously need some innovation in the hardware space.

[George P Global Moderator]

Don't like bringing up old'ish topics but people who expect MS to stop making Xbox hardware are wrong.  Going forward I expect to see more hardware, with maybe a focus on licensing the Xbox OS to 3rd party hardware makers like they do with Windows.  I think it's a safe bet to assume that they've got a handheld in the works and at least one more traditional home console coming.

After this next gen, it's anyone's guess what the console makers do, this isn't just a Xbox thing, even Sony has to think long and hard about the future of PlayStation since the home console market just doesn't have growth.  For Sony to not worry they need console gen like the PS2 or better, sales wise.  150m units minimum to justify sticking to a mostly console first business model.   I just don't see that happening.

On the Xbox side, with them pushing for streaming, and putting some games on other platforms, they aren't a console first business anymore.  If they sell around 50m units by the end of a console gen, they'll be content with that.  They don't need to keep trying to sell more and more each gen like before, specially not in a market that's going away from standalone devices and more mobile.