We've got a large bit of news regarding the future of Xbox today via Windows Central, a respected site when it comes to Microsoft-focused leaks as they have quite the track record. Xbox will be getting new hardware and it will be more open than ever further merging the PC and Xbox experiences.
If you are not familiar with the ROG Xbox Ally, it is an Xbox branded ASUS handheld that made its debut a little over a week ago in two variants at $599.99 and $999.99 USD for the Ally and Ally X respectively. This was the first time that Microsoft had a piece of third-party hardware in the Xbox ecosystem, and a big part of their recent push for "Xbox Play Anywhere".
And it makes sense, Xbox hasn't itself been doing very strong in recent years, despite having some of the best gaming studios under their gaming brand. Losing out on console sales to Nintendo and their core competitor, PlayStation, Microsoft has instead turned to making everything we own an Xbox. Whether you're playing traditionally Xbox-exclusive titles now on your PC, or even on PlayStation, or if you're using XCloud on your Phone or Meta Quest VR headset, Microsoft wants all of us in their Xbox ecosystem no matter what.
It has been rumored that Xbox hardware was over, the end of the Xbox console as we know it, and maybe, maybe that's still true despite Phil Spencer stating their plans "remain strong" for hardware. In the report from Windows Central today, it looks like Microsoft is opening up the Xbox to even more games, and even Windows.
The next generation of Xbox hardware will work with PC Games, on all launchers. Steam, Epic Games, and Battle.net were called out as being available.
Quote From Windows Central You will be able to run PlayStation's PC titles like God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and Spider-Man on the next Xbox, purchased via Steam or Epic Games. You will be able to play World of Warcraft on the next Xbox, via Battle.net. You'll also be able to install practically any game that runs on Windows, giving you access to decades upon decades of content all on a single device.
The most interesting call out though is that of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's MMORPG that has been king in the genre for over 20 years. Perhaps this writer is a little biased in this excitement, but I've seen this coming a mile away, and so has everyone else in the WoW community. It all started with Blizzard introducing an early version of controller support to the game back in Patch 9.0.1 all the way back in 2020, which when augmented by community-built addons, you can get WoW playing on the Steam Deck or the new ROG Ally. It's certainly not perfect, but I have found it to be an interesting experience of what is to come.
Final Fantasy XIV has been long-supported on consoles with controller support, and many players enjoy it, with friends of mine prefering it to keyboard and mouse, so WoW moving in this direction to get you playing in Azeroth on your couch or on the go with a handheld device, it's a no-brainer and a dream come true for many.
The new Xbox is expected to still be able to play all the previous games on Series X|S and all the backwards compatible games that we've been playing for years. But, we'll also see any PC game be able to be played and apparently, you'll just be able to launch straight into Windows and open up Microsoft Office if you so desire.
Quote From Windows Central The Xbox Full Screen Experience will allow you to exit out to full Windows if you want to, and run competing stores like Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft's own Battle.net, the Riot Client, and indeed anything else you want. Indeed, you could run Adobe CC or Microsoft Office on the next Xbox, if you so choose.
This is inline with how the ROG Xbox Ally works where you're normally in the Xbox App but you can still access the Windows Desktop, as one normally would have on the regular Ally which just run Windows. We don't know if this will be any different than what we currently see on the Ally devices or if Microsoft is going to make the integration even better, but it will be the first time a home console from Microsoft has an official copy of Windows running that is accessible to the user.
Valve's Steam Deck has a similar feature where the underlying Linux-based OS can be accessed to run anything one desires outside of the usual Steam overlay. I'd wager its safe to say that going forward, handheld gaming will be expected to be more than just a closed ecosystem, other than what we see on mobile phones.
If the Xbox is just going to be a PC, and seriously this time because its running Windows, it's something I'm personally very excited about. It's very easy for developers to target a base level of hardware for game performance since you can expect everyone playing on this piece of hardware has access to these specifications, while the system will be more open. I'm not the largest fan of Windows these days with the constant advertisements, the forced AI features, and general bloat and telemetry, but I do respect that not everyone is going to go out of their way to run Linux or even MacOS to a degree, and I also respect the desire that people just want things to work.
It will be interesting to see how security is handled on these new generation Xbox devices. Hopefully they are more secure than a typical Windows installation, because the last thing we need is a new generation of malware that's going to take these devices down. Windows Defender, you're solid but you definitely have a lot of work ahead of you.
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