Microsoft surprised many of its fans with a peek at the future of Xbox. Instead of announcing the new Xbox console, they revealed two powerful Xbox Ally
Their ultimate play is to turn gaming into the same model as Spotify. You no longer own games, but subscribe to a service that allows you to play them.
Reject it.
I’ll be honest: as much as I love Xbox—I still have my OG and a 360—PC gaming has completely leapfrogged it in terms of value.
The whole appeal of the original Xbox was that it brought PC-style gaming to consoles. I never liked playing FPS games on console until Halo came along and proved it could actually work.
But over the last 15 years, Valve has basically turned PC gaming into a console experience. These days, instead of hooking up an Xbox to my TV, I just connect a PC tower. Honestly, it’s way easier than it used to be.
The last console that really offered something unique for me was the original Switch, mostly because it made going from handheld to TV effortless. But with the new wave of handhelds running SteamOS or Bazzite, that same seamless experience is now possible on PC hardware.
If Microsoft can make Windows as smooth and intuitive as SteamOS, then maybe they’ll be back in the game.
All the fun of Windows gaming with the locked-down ecosystem of a console (no mods). What could go wrong?
It’s Windows Mobile all over again.
I keep screaming about how the TPM 2.0 requirements of Windows 11 are insidious due to the ability to implement remote attestation now. I don’t think they’ll spring the trap immediately, but it’s locked and set and you’d be a fool to believe it won’t happen eventually.
Remote attestation allows changes to the user’s computer to be detected by authorized parties. For example, software companies can identify unauthorized changes to software, including users modifying their software to circumvent commercial digital rights restrictions. It works by having the hardware generate a certificate stating what software is currently running. The computer can then present this certificate to a remote party to show that unaltered software is currently executing.
Xbox already supports mods. They have had mods support since like, 2015.
Word from SkillUp is that you can still load the desktop experience the same way you can on Steam Deck, so that would make it neither locked down nor anti-mods.
Too bad there aren’t existing platforms where Microsoft and other devs could just make their games available to play on and not keep trying to monopolize everything through their service
You mean…Windows?
Don’t get me wrong—I love SteamOS and Bazzite as much as anyone. But like it or not, Windows has been the backbone of PC gaming for decades. Most developers still build for Windows first. Even on Linux, you’re usually running Windows games through Proton, not true Linux ports.
And honestly, it’s not Microsoft that’s closest to monopolizing PC gaming. It’s Valve. They control 85% of the storefront market. If SteamOS takes off, I doubt most people will bother installing Heroic just to run GOG or Epic games. Sure, it’s possible—but for the average gamer, it’s more hassle than it’s worth.
What we really need is more competition. I want to see an Xbox handheld running Windows, but also a GOG Deck, an EGS Deck, maybe even an Itch.io Deck.
Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.
Personally I think it’d be super cool to see some platform independent handhelds rather than something like a gog deck or an epic deck. I’ve fankensteined SteamOS to be that way but it def still prioritizes steam which ain’t great
Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.
They have the hardware (any current gen iphone or ipad), they only need to release a version with console-like controller buttons, but they lack the willingness to really invest in games. Apple arcade is a joke compared to nearly everything else on offer.
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consoles have mods these days, though they do need developer support
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not everyone cares about mods, I’d go out on a limb and say most pc players don’t use mods
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this new Xbox thing is not an OS, it’s an app. The device still has full windows in there and it is accessible. But when you’re using the Xbox app windows suspends many of its functions.
The next Xbox will simply be a prebuilt PC and it won’t be subsidized (or it will be subsidized less) so expect a $700-$900 price tag for the Series X, and a $500 for the Series S. It wouldn’t make sense any other way. Steam et all will be usable, as it is usable in the Xbox Ally as well.
Now tell me what would you rather buy? The PS5, which is absurdly locked down (even more so than the current Xbox when it comes to mods)? Deal with the gpu market shenanigans? Or buy the prebuilt Xbox PC that lets you play all your Steam games as well?
It’s fucking genius.
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It is such a weird strategy.
It’s worked well for valve in the wake of the steam machine flopping. They’ve got like 20mill+ gamepass subscribers so clearly there’s something to what they’re doing, even if it isn’t the “Netflix of video games” scale they were hoping for.
Hell notice valve has made it very clear they are not making another steam deck anytime soon, they are perfectly content getting third-party vendors to build handles that handles their OS/software as the flagship product. Exactly what Microsoft just did with their handheld.
Idk I think Microsoft is actually on to something here. The question is can they find more casual audiences to buy handheld hardware that is built around their ecosystem at such a price point ($700+) and/or invest in a window/xbox library when they’re clearly abandoning the Xbox as a central product. Xbox brand is already kind of lukewarm in the public. Not dead, but certainly not thriving.
Valve isn’t making their next Steam Deck anytime soon because the technology doesn’t exist yet. You can crank up the wattage and put in a bigger battery, but those things make the handheld larger, heavier, and hotter, so they’re not interested. This is a bottleneck from AMD and their R&D.
But especially due to live service anti cheat and Game Pass, I agree that there’s a potential market for this strategy. There’s certainly no way they compete with Sony by doing what consoles have always done.
I own the original LCD Steam Deck. Still a fantastic device.
But after trying the newer handhelds, I have to admit: the upgrades are anything but minor. Visually, it’s a bigger leap than the jump from DS to DSi. The difference is immediately obvious.
Apple does have the technology though… imagine a steam deck with the m series chip? An m4 pro could run basically all modern games on a small screen at 60+ fps with the right software…
That’s not really how any of this works. Apples m4 are ARM CPUs. Games have to be built specifically for arm to run correctly. Most games in the PC ecosystem are built for amd64 or x86-64. If those same games were built specifically for arm then they’d probably run quite well but since most aren’t and game devs aren’t likely to go back and port an already finished and sold product to a new cpu architecture they’ll probably run worse. Apple did provide a compatibility layer for other archs to arm IIRC but that’s more overhead for the same games and I don’t know how that’ll impact performance. My point is really just it’s not a clear cut situation of “my games will run better on more efficient cpus”.
I’m imagining a lot of regression in compatibility and performance loss, as that’s what I’ve heard of the state of Apple’s new CPU architecture.
Performance-wise apple’s chips are way ahead of amd and any other arm based chip as well. Not sure what you’re talking about.
And compatibility ofc, that’s what I meant good software. Like optimizing steamOS to run on the m chips.
But that would never happen of course.
Performance wise AMD and Intel run circles around the m4, there is not any compititiom here.
Performance Watt per instruction is where the m4 really shines and still I have my reservations
Way ahead of other ARM chips doesn’t mean that they’re ahead of the best that x64 has to offer, so that’s why games are still built for x64. The transition to ARM may happen someday, but Apple jumped the gun from a gaming perspective. Solving the software problem isn’t just getting SteamOS to run on it, but to get games built for x64 to run on it, and that’s not an easy problem to remedy. Even if it was solved, it likely would not result in better performance than we can get out of AMD’s x64 chips for x64 games on handhelds.
I’m not arguing about why valve is or isn’t doing it, i’m just stating the facts: they’ve decided that it’s not worth working on/investing in. I guess I’m not really sure what kind of point you’re trying to make here
The point being that it will resume when the technology exists; it’s not that they lost interest in it.
I tried to make similar points in regards of it being too early in the console’s lifespan.
Maybe I am misremembering their statements on the matter, but I’ve seen no indication that they’re planning on another version any time soon. All they have said, again IIRC and maybe something changed the last few months, is that they would like to revisit it when the hardware becomes more capable and worthy of a refresh. But that means they literally aren’t even working on it right now, which means we are likely years out from even an announcement. There is no point in sitting around waiting for it or planning for it at this stage. We are completely speculating about any timeline, again, because they aren’t even thinking about version two right now. You’d be lucky if you saw one within the next three years
I think people forget that they are not a very large company. This isn’t just percolating in the background. They are focused much more heavilyon steam OS and third-party support right now than they are even considering building a second steam deck. They’ve explicitly said as much.
“…we aren’t thinking about new hardware until next year at least” doesn’t mean that they aren’t working on it now. And they seem to have low confidence that said new hardware will even make it out next year. Yes, we are likely years out from a new Steam Deck, and you shouldn’t plan on one being imminent. That’s not the same thing as them no longer working on it.
I don’t understand how that’s any different than what I’m saying, in fact that’s the interview I am referencing in my above comment. They “aren’t even thinking about it until next year at least.” How is that at all incompatible with what I’m saying? That’s not even a promise that they’re going to make one. It’s the verbal acknowledgment that in 2026 they might think about building something again. That’s so flimsy and does not require any accountability/commitment from them.
The title of your article is literally “we may never get a steam deck 2.”
He even says:
Not to say that Valve isn’t thinking about it. It’s kind of clear from Griffais’ answers (more on those later) that some talks have started. But with SteamOS’ journey progressing from just being on one really good console to being on as many devices as possible, is the original Steam Deck going to be chalked up as something that walked so the rest of the industry could fly? Maybe.
I mean read over his “Outlook“ section. He’s pretty much fully aligned with my assessment
I have to ask, did you actually read this article in full?
They may very well be on to something (anyone who thought about this for a bit after the first announcement, could figure out this strategy, but it doesn’t include an important factor). Xbox is predominantly a console that lives in the living room. The most expensive Xbox series x is currently available is $729.99. The handheld they modeled this off is currently $899.99. The price increase when this handheld and it’s predecessor consoles have been popular in majority US markets, during a financially unstable time where there exist things like the switch 2 and the Lenovo Legion series of handhelds, not to mention ROG’s other handhelds may make this untenable to consumers. It’s a great idea for them to drop a handheld with an Xbox interface. It’s not a good time.
Yeah the fact that the series S out sold the X like 3 to 1 last I saw (A year or two ago they said it comprised 75% of their Xbox sales) also makes me a little skeptical of the play. But I guess we will see!
Hell notice valve has made it very clear they are not making another steam deck anytime soon,
FFS. I don’t care.
Okay? That wasn’t the central point of their message. It seems somewhat disrespectful to respond that way, ignoring everything else they said. They have a valid point.
We’ve had this discussion before, and they tried to argue this same point.
I’m sorry but I don’t recognize your username/every conversation I’ve ever had before, and to be honest I think it’s a little strange to not just expect that of other people but to get so angry about it within one comment rather than trying to maybe suss out if I even recognize you. Yes I vaguely remember talking to you about this like a week ago now that you’ve mentioned it, but there’s no reason to be rude about it.
I’m sorry as well. It’s just I’ve been treated poorly for having a Deck as it is. I was just recently gifted a PS5 and Series S after having One S for god knows how long now. So, yeah, forgive me for snapping, but I have no interest or motivation to upgrade. I just want to have fun.
If I remember our previous conversation, I also made it very clear to you that I own a steam deck and like it a lot. I came to enjoy it so much it actually was what led to my full-conversion to Linux (along with Apple jerking me around for the last time), and I now run bazzite on my PC I built six weeks ago and primarily use my steam deck for handheld play and as a steam link. 20 years of consoles came to an end.
Suffice to say I am not some detractor of the steam deck, I love it, I am just talking about current realities and what valve’s plans are. I don’t know why you see that as a (negative) value judgment of your ownership and usage of a steam deck, but it is concretely not. Especially because I am somebody who agrees with you that it is a wonderful and capable device.
I came across something interesting with a FireTV stick. It’s got Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service on it. It looks like it really wants to push Luna+, a paid subscription tier. However, they also have connections to several other gaming services, which supply games you can play outside of the sub. Most don’t seem to supply many games (EA, Epic, Ubisoft). But GOG on the other hand supports many Luna games! I’m not even sure how many. It’s probably not a ton, but still. My personal collection with GOG is only represented by a fraction that are actually playable on Luna. A bunch of games I’ve gotten free, too, since Prime Gaming has provided them for being an Amazon Prime member, along with helpful community members pointing these things out when they come around! GOG also does a pretty good job of displaying which games have Luna capability on their site. They seem to be leaning in on this.
For shits and giggles, I ran the Steam and Xbox apps also on the FireTV stick. I only gave it a limited run, but it looks like you’ll need to keep your computer running to mirror Steam, while Xbox requires Game Pass to play games, even ones you own! Big thumbs up at least for the ease of Luna!!
