I believe we are standing at the crossroads of the future of console gaming, and a few key decisions will have a significant impact long term.
When Microsoft announced on its business update podcast that it planned to release four games to its rival platforms (Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 5), I was not surprised. I have always wondered when the floodgates would open.
After all, modern consoles are now marketing terms instead of the bespoke hardware initially created as minimum requirements and financial loss leaders to deliver gaming content they used to be. With PlayStation and Xbox both using x86 architecture and being powered by chip maker AMD, it seemed just a matter of time to me.
The Reaction from the Gaming Community
I was taken aback by the reaction from the gaming community. Xbox gamers felt betrayed, and PlayStation gamers felt a sense of victory, insisting their favorite console vendor would never go down this path.
It took time and long conversations on Discord with fellow gamers and trusted friends before I started to understand where the sense of betrayal was coming from.
My Gaming Journey
As a child of the 80s, my gaming journey was different from most of my peers. Due to my religious upbringing and African cultural influences, gaming did not have a place in my home.
While others debated what “Genesis does and Ninten-don’t” on the playground, I was hoping to visit cousins and friends on weekends to experience what all the fuss was about. In later years, I got the chance to build my own PCs to play games and eventually became the console hardware collector I am today.
I have come to understand that these formative years shaped the minds of the now middle-aged gamers I call friends. They have grown up expecting a specific level of competition, and in the few cases where a competitor has bowed out (I’m looking at you Sega), it has become a tragic cautionary tale that folks talk about to this very day.
Gaming has always been an expensive hobby. For kids fortunate enough to have parents buy them a console, it quickly became a cherished possession. This attachment often led to spirited console wars during recess, where they passionately defended their chosen team against others.
The console vendors of those early days also used this spirit to market to gamers. They made sure to pit them against each other in the name of competition. Because of all of this I think the middle-aged gamer of today assumes that this business model and method of marketing is the only way forward; the only way to “Win.”
I’ve also heard some gamers warn that opening up an ecosystem where all competitors are closed will spell disaster for the first mover. They say that will diminish customer desire to own the hardware (since there will be no exclusives there) which will in turn disincentivize 3rd party publishers from releasing their games on the platform.
Of course, us middle-aged gamers aren’t the only customers console vendors are trying to serve. In recent years we’re seeing how our children and younger gamers are interacting with the gaming hobby, and it’s completely opposed to how us “grey beards” are used to.
While controllers are a minimum requirement for us, the new generation are more than happy with tablet and phone screens. We insist on owning our games, but the younger generation has no problem with games they access on a server, play for free, and continue supporting through microtransactions or loot boxes.
I see these factors having a larger effect on how console vendors approach existing consumers and market to future customers. To put it plainly we are no longer the target audience.
The Future of Console Gaming: Xbox’s Vision
I still do not agree with the assessment many in my community have made that putting games on other platforms will spell the end of their favorite brand. But I have come to understand and accept why they feel this way.
To me, the future of console gaming envisioned by Xbox is bright, although there are parts of their vision that are still logistically clouded.
I believe the days of artificial exclusivity are slowly ending. We see Xbox leading the charge, as they do with most initiatives, and Sony is following slowly. The ecosystems offered by both modern consoles go beyond the content they provide.
While “content is still king,” the services and ecosystem features provided by the platforms are now the real differentiating factors (we will see what the next Nintendo console has to offer, hopefully sooner rather than later). While I do not expect this to become the status quo in the current console generation, I see Xbox’s moves as laying the foundation for a post-exclusive future.
Services like Game Pass, features like Quick Resume, and cross-buy/progression all serve to differentiate them from their competitors. Sony is making moves of their own by offering services that help with trophies and strategy guides built into their core UI.
I believe these moves offer value beyond content much like how Valve’s Steam has elevated to become the preferred platform on PC by offering a seamless friction free gaming experience even though most, if not all, of their games can be found on many different PC storefronts.
While this is a departure from console gaming as we have come to know it; from both a business and a value for consumer perspective, it makes sense to me.
Xbox’s Future Hardware and Unified Experience
Beyond that, I believe Xbox is gearing up for an interesting pivot where they offer different hardware (consoles, handhelds, and streaming set top boxes) as a first-party vendor but also allow third-party partners (like Asus, Lenovo, and others) to do the same.
This would all be unified by a universal front-end/UI solution they would offer. In this future, the core operating system of the hardware would be dynamic and scale to match the device using a future flavor of Microsoft’s Windows and not separated as it is today with PC vs Console. So, no matter where you choose to game, whether it be on your DIY built PC, a third-party vendor, or from Xbox proper, you would continue to have the same experience you expect from the Xbox ecosystem.
The latest news of Microsoft’s partnership with Amazon by allowing their FireTV stick access to Cloud gaming speaks to their plans. As of right now, your internet connection bandwidth will determine your experience with it. In my testing I found that the experience might not meet the standard of a hardcore gamer, but for a person who is now getting into gaming this might be a great solution today. As their cloud technology matures, I can see it becoming a viable option for gamers of all stripes.
Challenges in Backward Compatibility and Licensing
The parts of the vision that are still unclear to me are how they will manage backward compatibility from a business perspective. I believe the technical hurdles, like leveraging modern chipset optimizations to run previous-generation games more efficiently on future handhelds and consoles, are relatively less difficult to traverse than the business hurdles.
How will they manage the licensing of existing titles to ensure they can be carried forward onto other hardware platforms not covered by the original contractual agreements? We saw this play out when Nvidia’s GeForce Now subscription service first started, and almost immediately all publishers removed access to their games until Nvidia renegotiated with them; with some games never returning. While this still is not clear to me, Xbox and parent company Microsoft are uniquely positioned to resolve these issues.
We also recently received word from Microsoft that they were changing Game Pass Subscription offerings and increasing prices. Some of the modifications they made to their tiers (and the lack of a cost-effective cloud-only tier which it now seems they’re thinking of rectifying) left me with more questions. It can’t be denied that price increases aren’t great, but it does signal that Microsoft is still experimenting and is trying to find the right combination of value to cost in preparation for the future where consoles are optional and not a requirement to get into their ecosystem.
Add to that the idea that Phil is open to adding PC store-fronts like Epic, Itch.io (and hopfully Valve’s Steam) to their consoles and it becomes is clear why I think the future of xbox consoles is bright with a lot of options in price and entry points into their gaming ecosystem. The devil, as is usually the case, will be in the details of implementation, but I am excited to see how it all shakes out.
In conclusion, while the road ahead for Xbox and console gaming in general is filled with challenges and uncertainties, it is also brimming with exciting possibilities. As technology evolves, the way we play games will continue to transform. Xbox’s forward-thinking approach, focusing on options and breaking down barriers between platforms, signals a future where gamers have more choices and freedom than ever before.
In a world where AAA-budgeted games are here to stay and are costs are steadily increasing, it makes business sense to diversify your audience for maximum return on investment. Whether through hardware innovations or seamless cross-platform experiences, the future of Xbox will offer something genuinely interesting to gamers (even if some of us are opposed to the change).
The next chapter in console gaming is just beginning, and I believe that in the future we will look back at this time and lament our initial trepidations.
For me the big problem is that by leading this change they have killed “the excitement”, something that was already seriously damaged in the first years of Xbox One and that cost a lot to recover.
After the acquisition of Activision it seems that the decisions at Xbox are being made by “a businessman”, and not “a player”. So I think Phil’s voice is no longer the one who runs the ship without limitations.
I don’t know what will happen in the future, but the video game business is not like the productive software business, it is passionate, irrational, and therefore we need that enthusiasm for the brand, which in a matter of months they have damaged a lot.
Okay, so not to bash you too hard, cause I kinda get where you were going with your conclusion, but bro, you were so close yet you missed the ball on this topic so hard.
Let me make a few points..
First off, majority of titles available on Game Pass’s cloud gaming absolutely requires an Xbox Series controller be synced to whichever device you’re streaming with, regardless if it’s smart phone, tablet, samsung tv or fire stick for said game to boot. The number of actual games playable with touch screen controls is vary limited, so I don’t know where you got that touch screen peripherals is taking over, cause it’s quite difficult to play anything or find anything for that matter that isn’t blocked behind an accessory requirement on game pass cloud gaming. So that’s just wrong at best, and misleading at worst. 2nd point related to that, your point of limited reliability of cloud gaming due to the wireless connectivity that most those devices use for it’s networking would have been a good point if it weren’t for the fact that the same factor applies to console and pc gaming too, cause regardless, eithernet/hardwired connectivty trumps wireless wifi and cellular. It always has, and most likely always will when it comes to the difference in transfer speeds, and even if you would want to further the point by bringing up the point of not being able to use ethernet on a cellphone or tablet, that still doesn’t hold water cause there are still docking stations on the market sold at various price ranging that have ethernet ports and for connecting your tablet or phone to a TV. I personally have a Samsung S23 ultra and a cheap $30-40 dock for running Dex mode on the TV with ethernet attached running from my in-home router, but to be honest regardless if I’m cloud gaming wirelessly on the TV via my phone or straight through my phone itself attached to my controller, the reliability of streaming has still been, for the most part, seemless which is crazy to think cause xbox game pass cloud gaming is still in its BETA fase of testing.
3rd point, your metaphorical nay saying for the Xbox series X and S’s capability for backwards compatibility just sounds ignorant. The Xbox Series consoles have been highly praised for it’s abilities to not only run backwards compatibility for all prior generations of xbox tiles well, but with even better fidelity. The Xbox Series consoles aren’t just king for backwards compatibility, but they’ve been touted as an amazing emulation machines aswell. With a Dev coded consoles and the right software added, the consoles have shown to be capable of emulating games anywhere from Attari consoles titles to Playstation 5 titles and every generation and make that’s in-between.
Now I’m no fan boy, okay, and to prove it, I’m going to make my final point, where you missed the ball, but yet were so close on making a proper critique of Microsoft with was the price increase and changing of game pass tiers. The price changes, as mainstream of a marketing choice that may be right now due to the current rising prices of everything else right now, the real self own of microsoft isn’t the price hike or gimmick riding of cloud gaming. The real own is that Microsoft just recently shut down the Xbox 360 market place, along with it all it’s content and everything that it integrated over to the current Xbox series market place. Game pass covered alot of those 360 titles as apart of its subscription, and with its shut down, so too alot of the value of game pass with it, and the price hike was announced just days before the xbox360 market place was officially shut down and so too said integrated benefits it added for game pass to the current gen market. The real Self own is, we got told not only to pay more, but to pay more for less before it could even be stopped or discussed by the consumer base.
Your whole article is full of half truths. You clearly did minimal to no real research, and even when you did have a valid point, you failed to research enough to point out the factors of the one thing you got right and thier true detriment to not just Xbox customers, but to the affect it truly has on the gaming seen as a whole. You missed the opertunity to point out the normalization of “pay more, for less” movement that’s being shoveled down all our thoughts without debate. Something that, no matter which generation or era you grew up from, is something that never deserves to be normalized or rationalized, ever.
I think people (particularly Xbox fans) are just in denial. I went through that phase with Sega after being a lifelong Sega fan. What a horrible feeling it was after all of the efforts of Sega battling Nintendo to defend devs and give them options rather than restrictions, to see Nintendo come out on top, with the help of Sony, and to see Sonic on a Nintendo console, and that Nintendo was Segas first and primary pick to put him. To this day I still can’t accept it and will only get a Sonic game on Nintendo hardware if it’s my only option. I’ve been there thinking it was everyone else’s fault but Sega until you do your due diligence and study and research and you learn that the conflict between Sega of Japan and Sega of America was their demise companies since haven’t made and have gone to great lengths to make sure their foreign offices are on the same page. It’s denial.
Consoles may use PC architecture but competition in the market can always change that for maybe more stability or efficiency. That can always change.
You could very well be right, but it’s not that Xbox is a prognosticator, by any means, they gone done jacked up and they know and have accepted that, no matter the propaganda they’ve fed that’ve been eaten up by the gullible. This isn’t a look to the future, this is Xbox realizing they can’t recover from treating consumers so poorly and having the typical Microsoft way of doing business. When Blackley and his crew with Fries set out to make Xbox, they knew having Microsoft behind the console would pose a big challenge and they tried to downplay as much as they could, for good reason, and since then their design team hasn’t been the same. Xbox’s crew now designing a handheld to enter an even more competitive market isn’t this mindset of designers, it’s Microsoft’s SURFACE crew. Suits.
Sony may have been Xbox’s chosen rival, but Xbots have let Nintendo get away with a lot by not challenging Nintendo but fearing Nintendo. The Switch has passed 120 million units sold moving on to challenge the overall sales of the PS2….. Not even the PS5 and PS4 sales combined threaten Nintendos success and Nintendo whose bread and butter is gaming having nothing to fall back on like Sony or Microsoft, are even considering PC ports of their games, which makes me wonder why Sony is bothering to other than some extra income. If Nintendo isn’t fearful of the future, nobody should be. Xbox sees or differently because, get out of denial, they failed. It’s that simple. They know it, most consumers know it.
This article has all the Sam’s symptoms and signs of those of us who watched Sega plummet after the Dreamcast. Eventually we had to come to grips with the fact it was Segas fault, that there were major flaws they couldn’t fix. At least Xbox, or at least Microsoft, aren’t financially hurting like Sega was. Xbox may be but Microsoft isn’t. They learned, as well, that $69 billion just to keep the possibility out of the competitions hands isn’t smart because Call of Duty didn’t pan out like they thought and that hurt and now their consumers are making up the difference and, literally, paying for their mistakes.
This is denial on the part of the writer. Xbox isn’t forward thinking, they’re on life support and frantically trying to find a solution. It’s sad those who now are once like I was are so dedicated to being treated so poorly and falling for it but when the dust settles and they can clearly evaluate what happened when their next platform of choice is appeasing them, I had Sony to back up Sega as they were so much alike, then you can see where the flaws were you didn’t see. It’s called retrospect.
The fear has always been that if Xbox exists the console space, Sony takes the monopoly, and that’s not true. Nintendo still make consoles and games as does VALVE. People forget that Valve has a platform. Valve represents the PC space with Steam. They have their own hardware as well and that cuts into Xbox’s success as well, but blinders will show, because Sony was Xbox’s chosen rival, that’s all anyone sees. Xboxs failure is Sonys fault until you look at sales for, again, Nintendo and then PC sales on Steam. That pretty well says it. Xbox fans focused too much on Sony and didn’t bother to see attacks on other angles from Nintendo and Steam, they let them hang out in the shade and that’s killed Xbox along with their very poor business decisions and unlike Sony and Nintendo that have positioned actual gamers in their executive positions, Xbox doesn’t.
Sarah Bond is a Yale/Harvard graduate with degrees in business. She learned how to interpret graphs and spreadsheets. She didn’t learn tech. Sarah Bond is a publicity stunt. Washington State (for those outside the US) is a liberal and woke state and Microsoft is a liberal and woke business. Sarah Bond is a woke statement to trick the gaming world, she’s a female in an executive position and is also black. These wouldn’t normally draw attention if her resume backed her position but it doesn’t. Sarah Bond has no experience in the field she’s in. At least Tom Kalinski for Sega in his time had experience in making business decisions for kids coming from Mattel, Sarah Bond doesn’t. She’s an outsider trying to interpret what an insider wants. People best describe Sarah Bonds efforts in selling Xbox as “Word Salad”. She has no clue because she’s a publicity stunt of “look how inclusive we are.” It’s that simple. I hindsight you’ll see it.