I've been looking around the internet as of late and it seems that the conversation surrouding Xbox is about how it'll soon become a third-party publisher.
This isn't too far fetched seeing as they already have games published on other places, even giving Linux some support with Halo and Forza as those games work just fine through Steam.
But how likely is it that Xbox goes third party?
Microsoft's new marketing stunt is that everything is an Xbox. Hell, I can play Xbox titles on my Linux PC through Cloud Gaming, so I guess my Arch install is an Xbox.
But there are a couple of barries to this.
Microsoft cannot simply abandon its console division out of nowhere like this, even if unfortunately, they are selling way less than what was probably expected from this generation.
But still, just giving up would be a catastrophic event, on par with SEGA's leave of the videogame market with the Dreamcast in the early 2000's.
And the other part of this is the Xbox App. Sure, Cloud Gaming works on pretty much anything, with me having played quite a lot through my Samsung TV without any other devices hooked up. But the Xbox App is currently Windows only.
On this same promotional material they don't have show a Steam Deck (even if they have instructions on how to play Cloud games on the Deck on their website), instead opting to show an ASUS Rog Ally, which runs Windows and can natively run the Xbox App, which means it works with PC Gamepass, which is significantly cheaper than a Ultimate subscription that is needed to play with Cloud Gaming/xCloud.
At the end of the day, I think this is still part of the eternal battle between Microsoft vs Valve.
They couldn't beat Nintendo, and they couldn't beat Sony. So the only option now is to branch out on all platforms and try their hardest - but some things such as not at least trying to launch Gamepass on the Switch or PS5 shows that they still want some exclusivity.
In the end of the day, I think Microsoft might become a third party, but with the example I just gave, they won't be willing to make their services available absolutely everywhere.
If I could pay for Gamepass through Steam, I'd be doing so in a heartbeat, so many games would become playable - and there's a precedent for this: EA Play. That is available through Steam, and if you have a PC Gamepass subscription, it works even on Linux through the EA App (which is kinda crazy).
So in the end, they'll definitely be releasing games for other platforms, and many more of their titles will come to Steam - but, on the services part of Xbox, they'll still be trying to make that as exclusive as possible to where they can control it. Not giving in to Sony, Nintendo or Valve.
At the end of the day this isn't 100% stupid, most people use Windows and when you install Windows nowadays you even get ads on the installation screen for Gamepass (which pisses me off to no end.)
And phones are something everyone has, and to play on them you need Gamepass Ultimate, which is really expensive.
I don't see the current Xbox consoles going anywhere, but I'd say the chance of there being a next Xbox generation is 50/50. If their gamble with "This is an Xbox" goes well, they might not even have a reason to release a new console or pair of consoles.
I absolutely adore the Series S for making this generation accessible to everyone, but a PC that can run the same games as a Series S is not that expensive and has many more upsides.
I'm personally hoping we get another gen of Xbox consoles, but if that doesn't happen, I'd also be hoping that they bring Gamepass to as many places as possible.
It's a shame that their monopoly on operating systems kind of prevents them from working together with Valve - but between Gears and Half-Life, I much prefer Half-Life.
Thanks for reading.
