Xbox Next Xbox A Hybrid Pc/console

There where already some rumors about the next Xbox going to be a PC/console hybrid. Microsoft recently confirmed the next Xbox indeed will be a hybrid and they call it a premium experience. Now the expectation is the hybrid will costs at least 1000 dollar, based on the kind of hardware this hybrid will have. This means the end for the Xbox consoles as we now know, the series S was a cheap option, but is also will mean double the price of a Series X, as it was on release.

I don't think I'm willing to pay at least 1000 dollar for a console and I'm even not sure this concept will succeed, with the risk of Xbox failing completely. But this will also mean investing in a game library on Xbox is a dead and, why should I still invest in TSW DLC's or other games on this platform? This new hybrid will also support Steam, so why would anyone buy games in the Xbox store for PC when there is Steam? Also, will developers and publisher still release their games on the Xbox store? On this moment, I can't even buy a new Series X in my country, Series S is new available only from some online stores, so it looks already the end of the road for the Series consoles too.

I'm mostly playing simulator games and I'm playing them long term, so it's not like I'm playing games one time and never play them again. There are quite some games I'm playing right now, so I can keep playing them in the future on my Xbox, but buying new stuff like DLC and games on Xbox, seems to be a waste of money and investment.

What options do I have, now switching to a PS5 and later to a PS6? The expected price for the PS6 is also high, 799 dollar. But my monitor only supports AMD FreeSync (VRR), which the PS5 does not support. So I also need to buy a new screen with HDMI 2.1 to get VRR and I even don't know how well this works with TSW and other games. Another option I'm thinking about is buying a Steamdeck, this give me also the option to switch to a full blown PC later if I want to. With a dock, the Steamdeck also support AMD FreeSync, so I can still use my same monitor. I made already a Steam account to claim the TSW6 Free starter pack, just in case. Steam also has the best sales for TSW, what makes re-buying DLC less painful and expensive.

How do other Xbox players think about this, are you still willing to invest in your game library on Xbox? What options do you consider for keep playing TSW and other games?

 

Almost certainly investing in a high end PC at some point in the next year, which still gives my options on a lot of my Xbox content and also the chance to branch out with Steam etc. if I wish.

 

A PC is indeed an option, however I did not mention I'm hating Windows and I'm not using it anymore. So the Xbox app is not an option for me and after they pulled the plug of Windows Phone/mobile, this the second slap in my face from Microsoft, so I'm totally done with this company and their products.

 

I'm all-in on Xbox for my console gaming, have only had Xbox since the 360/PS3 generation. No interest in getting a Playstation at all. I don't really mind paying $1000 if it's a good piece of hardware.

Not only is the Series X my favorite gaming console ever (tiny, silent, have yet to run a game it struggles with other than TSW lol) it's also our house's media player, so it's pretty much in use 24/7.

I'm sad that it ended up being such a flop- my opinion is it never really had a chance after the Xbox One debacle. Many many people went PS4 or PC and never looked back.

So we'll have to see what the final specs/quality and price end up being- if it's good value i'll probably buy it and move my Series X to the bedroom. If not i'll take that money and invest in a gaming PC as much as i really don't want to do that.

Regarding TSW i'm probably done buying for it on Xbox unless the memory leak is definitively fixed someday. If i end up getting the NextBox, i'd probably play TSW on it via Steam.

 

My first Xbox was the 360 arcade, later on I bought the silent 360 S. After this I went for the PS4, but I never like the hardware and the interface, even the PS4 Slim was not completely silent but it was nice to play some of the PS exclusives. And now I'm back to Xbox and having a Series S. I love that tiny box, it's silent and I'm enjoying my games on a FHD gaming monitor.

For TSW, yes it's double because of the issues and now being uncertain about the future of Xbox, it's making me don't want to spend money on it. So for that reason I was thinking about the Steamdeck, still can play my current games and DLC on Xbox, the newer DLC I can buy on Steam. Whatever I choose for in the future, being the new Xbox (I don't think so) or a gaming PC, I can still use the games I'm buying for the Steamdeck. But in the end I wish, there would be just a successor to the Series S for a affordable price.

 

Sounds to me that you're just a luddite in all honestly. You do realise technology moves on rapidly?

 

This has nothing to do with being a luddite. People invest money in a ecosystem and Microsoft just pull the plug. Actually I like the progress in technology, I always did and I'm also very interested in it. But what Microsoft is doing is not really something what can be called progress, it's just burning down something and slapping their customers and even fans in their face. Microsoft again proves not being a reliable and trustworthy company, everything they say is just marketing blabla. I'm now looking at buying a Steamdeck, well products like this are kind of an innovation, isn't it? Playing full blown PC games on such a small device is something you maybe not expected 5 years ago, but here we are.

 

To be fair, it's $600-700 for an Xbox now with 5+ year old technology and this would be at least 1/3 better.
So... that's about what a high end Xbox should cost.
The original Xbox from 25 years ago was about $300+ back then for a basic model which was more like $600-700 in today's money.
If they add more "hybrid" capability (basically you can use it if you want as a PC too in a pinch) then you're really getting value for your money because the whole intent is to make it accessible to the same things that PC owners can do (game mods, Steam store, etc)
Basically you'll just have a gaming computer branded an "XBox."
Which was essentially what an XBox was all along... a stripped down, simplified computer focused on gaming.
The only big difference will be the UI, which will be based on Windows so they won't have to recreate every game specifically for XBox. For TSW, it should improve performance, shorten development time, and allow XBox users to use community mods. All good things my book.

 

If MS keep releasing XBOX consoles then I'll keep buying them - I prefer almost every aspect to PS and can't be bothered with PC any more. PS6 won't be much cheaper than the next XBOX and access to my game libraries on Steam, Epic and GOG (similar to my ROG XBOX Ally X) more than justifies any cost difference as far as I'm concerned.

I don't know what the future of XBOX holds, but even if the next gen XBOX is the last XBOX my backlog is so huge that I have enough games to last me until the grave anyway.....

 

Will easily drop a £1000 if I get the benefit of having my current library of DLCs on Xbox and then the benefit of getting steam stuff like TSC

 

I was an original Xboxer, an early purchase with one of my first 'proper' pay checks of about £800 pm after tax!!!!

First games where Fifa 2003 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

Happy days and better times....

 

I'm somehow suprised, people still wanting a next Xbox regardless what is happening now. I can understand people don't want to loose their game collection, however I have no trust in Microsoft anymore. Even with owning a next gen Xbox, it's not certain you will keep your collection or for how low. If the Xbox store failed because everyone is buying on Steam and GamePass failed too with those high prices, how long will Microsoft then keep the store alive?

I also can't imagine, the next Xbox will be a succes with those high prices. TSW is some exception with the huge collection of DLC, but there will be a lot of Xbox players with games they only play once or maybe for a year until the next game in the franchise arrives. Those people will most likely not care that much about switching platforms.

 

I’ve got both Series X and PS5 but the Xbox has always been my “primary” console as I’ve amassed an enormous library of games for it over the years and since TSW is what I play more than anything, all my content is on there.

However in light of recent events and how the Xbox brand has been dying on its bum, I’ve started picking up some routes on PS5 when they’re in the sale as going forward I really can’t imagine purchasing another Xbox console.

Having played a bit of TSW 6 on PS5 I was quite surprised by how different it looked compared with the Xbox Series X version actually - might just be that I have different settings on my TV for that particular HDMI input, or maybe Xbox’s auto HDR. Couldn’t say which looked better, just different.

 

Smart move to buy already some routes on PS with discount. Can you explain what is visual different between PS and Xbox? From what I saw on youtube, at least old routes do seems to a bit darker on PS, but this can also be caused by how the recording is.

 

It’s quite hard to describe but I’d say the colours seemed a bit bolder and more “vibrant” on PS5, which made them look a bit more striking but possibly not as realistic.

Next time I get chance I’ll have a look and see if it’s something to do with my TV settings or if it is down to the way the game is rendered on both consoles.

Also have only played Euston-MK on PS5, so this is a very small sample size!

 

Honestly half the reason I’m staying with Xbox is just so I don’t have to use the terrible ps controllers (weird place for the thumbs)

 

I can imagine this, I'm also never getting used to PS controllers.

 

Yeah if they sold a PS6 with Xbox controllers i might be tempted to switch lol

 

If it's really so expensive games companies can't just ditch the Xbox series that'd be suicidal for the developers. Just the way that DTG have only just started to drop support for 8th gen because it's such a massive income stream and makes up so much of the sales especially for TSW

I also don't think that console TSW is going anywhere. We know that previously a year or so ago the player base was evenly split across all three platforms xbox, PS and PC. If they lose TSW on console they TSW will probably go as a whole IMO or there Will have to be severe cutbacks.

 

I bought the series x in the February after it came out (2021 then i think it was) i don’t feel like i need an upgrade yet for a few years still real great quality on 99% of games, no issues at all with great graphics and no personal grievances with performance unless I'm quite overloading limits of a game.

think ill skip the stock issues this time around and let the price come down at least a little anyways first, definitely not considering high triple numbers price tag for a console at the minute

 

"Expensive" is subjective. Xbox has never been "cheap".... just "cheaper than a full sized gaming computer."
No one in 2005 spending $400-500 was going to call it as "affordable."

 

Well, I bought my Series S for €269, if I want to buy it now it costs me €349. I believed the Series X was €499 back in the day, so when the next Xbox will be €1000, it's double the price of a Series X on release. I will call that expensive, and maybe the price will be even more then €1000.

 

You can call anything you want expensive.
At the end of the day, gaming is a luxury.
You don't need it to live.
It's worth what we are willing to pay for it as a hobby.

On a related note, that's why mobile games are taking off at the expense of AAA games (PC and console.) There's often no investment to play them. Yes they're "simpler" and you won't get a "simulator" on your iphone, but also ridiculously cheap (many are even free with ads)

As I said, "expensive" is all relative.
To people paying zero dollars anything is "expensive."
To people spending $3,000 for a gaming PC... $1,000 seems "cheap."

 

Not always, you could spend £10k on a some kind of tech or spend £3k on a cheaper model and still call both expensive

expensive to me is not a number but is something i believe to be overpriced, most often through greed, anyone can say anything, I can tell others 600k for 360 is not expensive if I want to, people’s views don’t make something not expensive.

 

Indeed, an Xbox of €1000 or more, sounds overpriced to me when I was able to buy one this generation for €269 or €499. An Xbox is not worth that kind of money, better go for a full blown PC then.

When consoles are becomming to expensive, it will damage the ecosystem behind the console and the gaming industry in general. So when a Xbox becomes a €1000 and no one buys it, the Xbox store becomes useless and MS will not generate much of an income. Make you console cheap, more people will buy it and spend money in the store. When gaming hardware becomes to expensive in general and people can't affort it anymore, game sales will decline too, which affects the whole gaming industry.

 

i agree, theirs no point making a console compete with PC prices as the PC has more going for it especially with how widespread PC mod support is, as a long time xbox user i would go with PC over a console at similar pricing and capabilities.

the current pricing of somewhere around £500 is much better placed for what they are selling, major increases such as 100% rise to £1000 is not gonna help console sales. As someone who works selling them theirs so many cases of families who will still buy Xbox one and Xbox 360 because of how far out of their willing price range even for Christmas and Birthday occasions when budgets go for further for that.

 

To be fair, rumors are it is basically a rebadged PC, plus some stuff for backwards compatibility with the old Xbox in... some manner. I see conflicting stuff on whether it's just the software end of if or they're actually building Xbox chips into it.

That said, even if this new machine is partially a PC I still see much appeal if you don't already have a massive Xbox collection. Every game for the past generation on Xbox already exists on PC, and so are most of the really big Xbox One titles, the only two big exceptions are Halo 5 & Rare Replay, everything else pretty well already exists on PC. Honestly the best selling point is the Xbox & Xbox 360 backwards compatibility titles being playable in a way on PC, but is that really gonna have enough fanfare to sell a $1200 machine on?

IMO this is a console only for super fans, and that should worry anyone wanting to invest into it. I don't see Microsoft doing several generations of this hardware just for sales the make the Wii U look like a blockbuster hit. (Frankly I question if it will even outsell Steam Deck) And if they drop support for it in five years you might very well have to rebuy all your games on PC anyways if you wish for them to not be locked away on a proprietary piece of hardware. IMO I'd just keep the Xbox and play your older games that way, then buy or building a normal PC for new games instead.

 

So, 20 years ago, the decision that consoles suck and the PC is the most universal platform was confirmed. No more disappointment when your game collection suddenly turns into a pumpkin after a few years.

 

Well, I was a PC player myself back in the day, but choose to switch to console. I was done with upgrading PC's only for gaming and I like(d) the concept of a plug and play console. Most of the games I played back in the day, I only played once or twice and over a shorter period of time. More recently I switched to simulator games, citybuilders and strategy games, which I play over a longer period of time. However TSW is my only game I really want to rebuy again when I switch to a different platform and maybe Mudrunner. But the last one is so cheap, I really don't care about having to buy it again. Lot of the other games are getting a new edition every few years anyways, I'm still at FS22 right now, so buying FS25 on a different platform is no issue. I still don't want to build a gaming PC, but a Steamdeck or Lenovo Legion Go S are an option. I also hate Windows, so I prefer a Linux based system anyway. I also hope Valve or a 3rd party manufacturer will release a Steambox, like a Steamdeck without screen and battery but in a little box.

 

This is a big mistake at the moment. Games run fine on it, but there's no performance advantage. And mod support is more complex. Boo I'd be happy, of course, if Linux were improved to provide better gaming performance, but so far there are no signs of that happening.

 

Linux has way better performance in general, RAM usage is way lower, lower CPU usage, much faster updates, less bloated and so on. Performance in games differs, depending on if it's native Linux or Proton is used, but even with Proton games can run better. Is there room for improvement, always ofcourse, but it's becoming better and handhelds with SteamOS are performing better then the one with Windows.

 

The fact is, current sales figures for Microsoft's Xbox consoles are poor. This contrasts sharply with Nintendo, whose Switch 2 is selling like hotcakes. The PS5 is also selling reasonably well. This could be one reason why Microsoft's former exclusive titles are now also appearing on PlayStation; starting December 8th, the MSFS 2024 will be the next highlight for the PS5. Every company's goal is to generate as much revenue as possible, and if that means switching to competing systems, so be it.

What will remain crucial in the future is backward compatibility; games from older platforms must work on newer platforms so that players don't lose their game collections built up over years. Unless, of course, studios recycle their top sellers and release them again as remastered versions, allowing them to cash in once more.

But generally, the gaming industry is suffering from a slump. Many studios have reduced their staff, or some have even closed down. Microsoft is no exception. Whether the best solution is to release a PC/console hybrid for $1000/€1000/£1000 remains to be seen. In any case, such hybrid systems should in the future also allow access to PC platforms like Steam, enabling users to access their game collection from anywhere. Ultimately, it's always the users who decide which strategy will prevail in the market. In other words, we are all the decisive factor in the end.

 

In my opinion there is big chance Microsoft will ruin their complete ecosystem with both making Steam available at the next Xbox and with releasing their games on Playstation. With releasing games on Playstation, there is no reason for having an Xbox, with allowing Steam there is no reason for buying games in the Xbox store. So this seems like a dead end to me. They ruined already a lot with the presentation of the Xbox One, but in my opinion there is not much wrong with the Series consoles. They seems to be bad at marketing their systems, advertisements like everything is a Xbox only make it worse. They need to push their systems harder and make clear what kind of advantages it has. Also pushing their consoles with a lower price tag then Playstation can help to save their ecosystem, instead of rising the price. Also for gamepass, Xbox systems are a perfect way for playing those games, I don't think Sony will allow them to bring gamepass to PS. So this new strategy will most likely also harm their gamepass business.

 

We're not in 2006 anymore, so we shouldn't worry about having a browser open while gaming. There's no performance gain whatsoever from closing all third-party applications. Yes, there will be a little more free RAM, but what difference does it make if I have +10GB free with Chrome open, 40 tabs open, and a couple of other clients running while gaming? And I only have 32GB.Updates? No one releases updates that will drastically improve performance, or rather, worsen it, and then heroically fix it, so the speed of their release is completely irrelevant. Still, the main platform for games is Windows. Most games are released for DX11-12. This means that running on Linux will require a workaround, replacing DirectX with Vulcan. There aren't many games with native Vulcan support. I tried replacing DH11 with Vulcan in Snowrunner. A lot of stuttering ruined the FPS experience, which improved. Not to mention the non-native support for DLSS, which can be bypassed on Windows using Optiscaler. The implementation of DLSS in games is better than FSR, but the optiscaler can make the game think that DLSS is being used, although in fact your video card is performing FSR 4 calculations. This gives a better picture than just FSR 4. Is this available on Linux? I seriously doubt it. Not to mention something as trivial as mod support, which is often only available on Windows. Waiting.Should I wait until Linux is no different from Windows in terms of gaming experience? But why suffer now? Let them polish the system, I'll be happy. But with But in the next couple of years, games will only be available on Windows, unless you have a Steam Deck or something similar.

 

So one moment we're saying "There's no performance advantage" and then the next we're saying, paraphrasing a bit. "It doesn't matter because even if it did who cares? Everyone already has tons of RAM to spare" I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but a lot of people care, most people ain't playing on 4080's & 64GB's or RAM. Heck, there's people holding events with the sole purpose of upgrading old Windows 10 machines to Linux so that they don't go into literal landfills.



I can assure you, those people are extremely thankful for that extra RAM.

 

Indeed this, I hate the fact I need to install more RAM to run Windows well. I have a 5 years old laptop, with only 4GB RAM and only a dual core, running Linux very well, Windows is a struggle on this laptop. Booting and shutting down Linux is so fast on this laptop, while my other (work) laptop with much better specs is way slower on Windows then the one on Linux. Then not to mention how low it takes to update Windows.

Why should I buy extra beefy hardware, only to run a terrible OS? Are there downsides running Linux for games, yes there are and Nvidia hardware is also not the best supported hardware. AMD hardware is better supported on Linux for sure with FSR working fine and also AMD freesync is working fine.

 

Are Microsoft trying to re invent the media centre?

 

Even more and worse then that, they mentioned already Office and Co-pilot running on the next Xbox.

 

Not good. I can imagine the kids wanting to play games and dad saying... I just gotta write all these invoices first.

 

They made kind of the same mistake when they introduced the Xbox One, it was about everything except gaming. People are buying an Xbox for gaming, so office and co-pilot are not important at all, most likely it sits in the way of gamers.

 

I totally agree. A console should solely be for gaming. I would have said maybe for movies as well but it's all built into the TV these days.

 

Agree with all that, people forget how much the plug and play console experience is valued by players. I see people talk about how there should be more graphical options, and I feel like people are missing the point when they say that. People buy consoles to avoid that, moment you start adding draw distance sliders and effect options you start losing those wanting that simple plug and play experience.

Yes, you can do something like the basic Graphics/Performance toggle, I think that's fair. However this idea of trying to sell console people on downloading full fat PC versions with PC menu's that take a whole console generation to tweak and navigate is out of touch.

 

Plug and play is the power of consoles, just simple and affordable. Also not mentioned before, scaling of the hud can become an issue when people are playing PC games on a big screen.

 

Why do this? Windows 10 has turned into a pumpkin and no longer works?

My old budget Samsung Galaxy A71 phone had 6GB of RAM in 2020. That's not much, even by phone standards. It was decent back in 2006 - Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM. I have that much RAM in my router, which handles the network and acts like a mini NAS. The year is 2025. A 32GB RAM kit costs less than $100. Budget 60-series graphics cards have 16GB of video memory.

 

I know what is possible and on the market, but for browsing and some office applications, 4GB of RAM and a dual core is enough with Linux.

I hate the fact we need more and faster hardware just for doing the same things, because optimization seems to be something weird. Linux has better optimization and has lower system requirement.

Why they exchange Win 10 for Linux? Something with end of support and no security updates anynore. Yes you now can receive longer updates when you use a Microsoft account, but this was only a last minute action, because of complains of European consumer organisations.

 

Optimization for what? Okay, let's take gaming. If it existed, 90% of gamers would probably be using Linux by now, hoping to get an extra 50 FPS compared to Windows. But no, Steam statistics say that only 3% use Linux.

Can't live without these updates? It sounds like a hysteria about AMD's new policy that 6000 and 7000 series graphics cards won't receive updates for new games. Okay, I had a 6700XT until September. And I can't remember the last time any optimizations were described in the driver's instructions. What's changed? Nothing.

 

Without those updates, Windows is even less secure then it already is.

 

So what are the security holes? The last time I saw a virus was on Windows XP.

 

I quit this discussion, leads to nowhere.

 

GTA 6 delayed to November 2026.
Bundled with the new Xbox, you can bet.