Consoles are not necessarily going to push sales. Microsoft’s push and Xbox future is now in windows. If anything, I think they will use their games to push the (XFSE) Xbox full screen experience on PC and windows devices. Chances are XFSE would be officially released before the launch of Forza and fable.
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Agree. They want their store in front of many, many people. Windows checks that box. Next step is getting more people to use that store. Or for some just discover it is there. As people count boxes in the console wars, these companies are trying to get eyeballs on their stores. And if they don’t have to deal with creating hardware to do that, it is even more of a win. The trick with xbox is getting that pc with windows in the living room where lots and lots of people play games.
It’s not to get those people who bought it on PS5 but the millions still on last gen consoles, many probably are Game Pass subscribers too, if they don’t care about selling hardware at all, then why should I even be thinking about their next gen system? Shouldn’t I just ditch Xbox altogether right now and go all in PlayStation or build a PC…?
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Personally, it’s all about where your digital library is and where your friends are at. Those who are entrenched in PlayStation aren’t switching. Those like me who are entrenched now in Xbox aren’t switching either and when you look at what the next console will be - a PC/console hybrid.
Why wouldn’t you want to buy it when you can get everything in one box? I’ll have my Xbox library along with Sony’s games via Steam which will be day one sooner rather than later along with other PC store fronts and that’s before including all the Xbox benefits like Game Pass Ultimate, Ubisoft+ day one, EA Play (and Pro via the PC side), backwards compatibility, free cloud saves, play anywhere and so much more.
Why would anyone who’s not playing favorites spend what will probably be $1000+ on a PS6 and be so damn limited and restricted to what they can do and play when you can spend the same amount on the next Xbox and get literally everything?
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If you’re willing to pay the premium for their next device, of course. It likely won’t be manufactured to sell to the masses, but those of us who game heavily within the Xbox ecosystem and have to have the latest device.
As for those still on last-gen consoles, it depends on what they’re playing there and if Forza Horizon is a big enough draw to make them shell out cash to upgrade. That remains to be seen, so I think Microsoft would rather see the demand build up and then supply consoles to meet it.
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Say…
Anyone here remember Code Violet, PS exclusive Dino Crisis inspired game? I believe we already have MindEyes of 2026. I have never seen so much negativity on a game. Like wow, I actually want to watch a review, don’t care from who.
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Maybe some game play instead? As that would let you see more of the game with some glitches that could be funny, but not just be a look at how glitchy this game is video.
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Hope this is real so bad, need more Witcher in my life.
I want the next gen Xbox hybrid, that’s fine by me, as of right now most of the people I play with are on Xbox but I also want the games on the next gen Xbox to be available through the Xbox store, I want the ecosystem, I understand there will be times when I’ll just get a game through Steam if it isn’t available but my hope is that that isn’t something that will happen with most games, this is probably not that hard to achieve, just gotta get most devs to support the Xbox store on PC.
I understand, I just hope the support remains the same, but my fear is that it needs to sell at least 30+ million for that, like Series has done so far.
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I think there will be more Xbox consoles to get those laggards and Microsoft has maintained that they aren’t ditching hardware all together. There was the reported Vietnam factory partnership to try and deal with all the recent production issues. That said, it’s also definitely not a priority. Microsoft is creating a lot of entry points for their content and services. There’s the multiplatform, but also a lot of ways to enter the first party ecosystem. If you are stuck on last gen and can’t upgrade either because it costs too much or stock is too hard to find (because this economy is dog doodoo) the Cloud Gaming is an option. It’s an option that has become increasingly cheap starting at $10 a month and one that Microsoft has invested in a lot to make a smoother experience. It is also an option that is far from perfect and is completely dependent on one’s internet, but it’s there. Then as far as PC goes… yeah, Microsoft would actually be very happy if you switched to PC (relatively speaking compared to everything else aside from Xbox). While Windows isn’t fully locked down, they still own Windows and make money from it and have a degree of control over it. Plus then they can target you with additional products and services through windows. To deal with people using other storefronts Xbox has done a lot with the Xbox Full Screen experience and the aggregated library to just make Xbox the center of gaming on windows, and the default “in your face” experience, so there’s increased traffic even if people seek out other storefronts. Still Microsoft has historically made windows as an open platform and been fine with companies independently hosting their own services that people use. At this point Microsoft is like one of the biggest publishers in gaming (maybe even the biggest) and they have a lot of stupid successful games in COD, WOW, Minecraft, Forza, Sea of Thieves, and so on. They also do maintain a solid gaming platform and console business (like it is third place and it is dwindling, but it’s still solid; if they end today they’ll have sold more than 30 million Series consoles and they still have the laggards on Xbox One, that’s better than most consoles historically (heck, better than the WiiU by a mile and even the GameCube)). They also own the dominant PC gaming operating system (by several thousand miles) and have their own PC storefront/launcher. They also now own a second PC storefront/launcher and one with a lot of history and strong dedicated userbase. They’ve also built a cloud gaming infrastructure and are continuing to build and expand it. I imagine at this point Xbox is really flexible in how you actually interact with them. So again they are definitely making more consoles (at the very least we got news that they’re trying to deal with hardware production constraints), but it also isn’t the end all be all for them. 2025’s holiday season was DEFINITELY them pushing the OEM ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox FSE to play the new Xbox games; not Xbox Series consoles (probably because they didn’t really have the stock and it was costing them a lot to produce and sell consoles so they couldn’t do sales). This year Jez said there’s a good chance we see a similar desktop PC Xbox OEM pushing FSE (and we know that windows insiders on desktop PCs are testing Xbox FSE, so that update is coming to all windows devices probably this year), so I wouldn’t be surprised if that device again gets the marketing push to play Xbox games on. Then in 2027 they’ll market their own proprietary hardware again with next gen.
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If it’s a PC, I wouldn’t worry. It sounds like Microsoft plans to have a ton of Xbox OEMs in the market in addition to their own hardware, so they won’t be as focused on individual hardware sales anymore. If they aren’t subsidizing hardware anymore and are controlling for costs & optimizing production (not making more than they project to sell) then there’s not so much pressure on sales numbers. I also think sales will be fine. The core Xbox userbase will upgrade as long as it has full backwards compatibility. According to official comments Xbox also has had more Xbox console gamers than ever this generation, so while upgrades continue to be slow that also means there’s people on last gen and new people buying current gen, so they’ll also have that data and continue to be fine if upgrades are slow again (which they definitely will be).
Same here! This would be fantastic!
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Well I’m glad I played Lost Records Bloom And Rage, Dontnod is so freaking good, not gonna lie I don’t know how I knew so little about the game before it came to Game Pass even though I usually like Dontnod’s work, probably decided to skip it at launch due to my backlog, anyway, I honestly liked this more than the first Life is strange and I think it’s even better than that, that ending is one of the biggest sequel baits I’ve ever seen lol.
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I agree and do believe that the Xbox Store will remain intact because Microsoft makes a lot of revenue off of it and PC wise, majority of gamers are on Steam so they would lose a lot of money. Also, without the Xbox Store, there would be no reason for them to have or work on Backwards Compatibility with previous Xbox consoles.
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Agreed. I do feel like Xbox is keeping their cards to the chest. They tend to always have something new with their hardware and Nadella said something to the effect. I like Steam but prefer the Xbox experience which I hope they enhance. I do also think there is a chance for Xbox to launch a new device category that could come close to the smart phones, I tend to think that might be their angle with the handheld. A handheld Xbox device that incorporates phone and social media features.
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Going Live
I’ve put several hours into FF16 now and well, it’s the story that keeps me going because I don’t find extremely many other redeeming qualities here. The combat is growing on me a little but boy does it get repetitive and those side quests are just garbage. I came from KCD1 where the side quests are fully worth your time, they really aren’t in FF16.
Those that played FF7R, are the side quests at least a bit more worth it there?
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I would say Remake side content is probably more or less the same as FF XVI. I enjoyed Rebirth side content more (mainly due to the activities) but the side quests are probably the best of the three but not by much. Side content in my opinion is just for the XP and rewards.
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