Kepler_L2 has made an alarming claim about Microsoft’s latest announcement.
Yesterday, Xbox head Sarah Bond announced that Microsoft has:
…established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next generation Xbox consoles, in your living room, and in your hands.
Bond also said that their AMD partner silicon chips will:
…maintain compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.
Bond also talked about an:
Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.
We quoted Bond’s exact words here because even as she confirmed that there will be a 10th generation Xbox console, her statement has left a lot open to interpretation. Many gamers and game press, including people who have sources within Microsoft, believe that the next Xbox could be a hybrid device that will have both your Xbox library, and also allow you to play games in other storefronts, such as the Steam library.
If Microsoft could make such a PC/console hybrid, it would be a superior experience to what Steam itself provides with their Steam Deck and SteamOS. Since Microsoft also builds Windows, they could hypothetically build an environment that allows gamers to play Windows games on Xbox as if it was just Windows. And of course, some gamers believe that the next Xbox will just run Windows.
Kepler_L2 has been sharing rumors focused not on gaming, but between chips, chip manufacturers and foundries. On Twitter, he responded to this story with a dire warning:
Multiple storefronts = Console has to be sold at a profit
Get ready for the first >$1000 console boys
To understand why Kepler_L2 is saying this, we need to understand he isn’t saying it as a fan of Xbox, or for that matter, PlayStation or Steam or Nintendo. His specialty are the chips running game consoles, so he knows what it takes for AMD to design an SOC for a game console, or a desktop or laptop computer.
In general, SOCs for game consoles are cheaper to manufacture, but have technologies in them so that it’s possible to design games around them, that can run more efficiently than they would on a PC. Consoles are also built around an exclusive game store, because they are based on a razor and blades business model. Game companies like Microsoft are willing to take a loss on each console sold, because they will make the money back when the customer buys multiple games or content, or in their case, subscribes to Game Pass.
But if Microsoft’s own products have to compete with other storefronts in the same device that no longer guarantees that the razor and blades business model will work. So, Kepler_L2 argues that Microsoft will have to completely change the way they do business. And for those gamers who are old enough, these are similar to the dilemmas faced by the 3DO company when they let multiple companies make their consoles and compete against each other.
We don’t think Kepler_L2 is necessarily correct, though. We aren’t really sure if Microsoft is making a 10th generation Xbox that just runs Windows. For example, it’s possible they’ll make their own PC gaming standard, for desktops, laptops, and mini PCs dedicated for gaming. Those devices could have native Xbox game support, and cost over $ 1000, and it would be a completely different product than their games console.
This all does go back to how, for how much Bond has confirmed and revealed, there’s still enough mystery left that gamers are filling in the gaps, and we’re not sure who’s right about what. We just reported on new Xbox rumors that contradict other rumors.
Clearly, Microsoft can see all this speculation, and they’re willing to let their fans and the public keep guessing what they mean. Hopefully, we won’t be waiting that much longer to find out.
