New Xbox & AI CEO announced via Twitter ( not calling it x) the new “hybrid” console that will play Xbox and PC games.
In other words you know just a PC. Thus far it seems the system will use the exact same Xbox desktop experience as the “rog ally”.
While we all saw it coming and there isn’t much surprise. This to me says Xbox is dead as a platform.
It’s going to be expensive, it’s going to have Windows. It’s going to have co-pilot it’s going to have the same pop ups.
At least we get an Ally ROG desktop at most a Surface Gaming Desktop. Either honestly is a terrible idea. There will be most affordable options not tied to windows there will be mode powerful options at the same price. Even if you like the idea of going all in PC gaming this won’t be your best option.
If you want to stay a console gamer you’re going to have to switch teams …
RIP Xbox.
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It just sounds like a Steam Box that also steals your data.
And shoves ai both down your throat and up your ass
And then feeds it into the actual orphan crushing machine
…and likely has better compatibility with more Windows games, which are most games.
Microsoft has the existing expertise and access to source to build a very effective and basically seamless compatibility layer, akin to how 32-bit apps run on x64 windows using WoW64 (Windows on Windows 64). I guess the real question is if it will be running real windows with an Xbox compatibility layer or a version of the Xbox modified windows with a regular windows compatibility layer.
They have the expertise, just not the desire. Which explains why in 2026, proton and wine manage to run more Windows apps (well) than Windows.
Proton consistently shows better performance results than running the same game natively on Windows. Despite having a bunch of experience, Microsoft consistently shows that there is always a way to make a thing worse.
I was talking about being compatible, not performant. Proton is very often more performant, but WoW64 is seamless and extremely compatible. If we were to pick say 2000 windows 32-bit apps, selected at random released over the last, say, 25 years do you think WoW64 or the combination of Proton/WINE will correctly execute the largest number of them without requiring tinkering? How many if we limit the tinkering to something really basic, like picking the windows version it was made for off a list?
That’s what I’m getting at that I’ve been downvoted for - this “hybrid” console will almost certainly have better compatibility than Proton/WINE for regular windows software (let alone XBox software) and that’s going to be it’s draw. For stuff that’s also compatible with Proton you’ll likely get better performance out of Proton, but effective and seamless compatibility layers are a strength of MS - most regular users don’t even realize that when you run a 32-bit windows app in x64 windows that there’s a compatibility layer involved at all.
I think Xbox is shutting its console side to compete directly with the PC market. Head-to-head with valve. Good luck. And by that I mean eat shit Microslop
You need log into your microsoft account and give us your goverment ID to start using your Windows Computer, powered by Copilot. Would you like to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass with Copilot? Would you like CoPilot to play games for you? Copilot is very helpful, it can take screenshots of your whole screen every few seconds to help remind you of what you were doing 3 months ago. Copilot is very helpful, it can work your browser, manage your files, write your letters, use your computer for you! All you need to do is say, Hey Copilot, because Copilot is always ready to listen to you! You want to install a software? Downloading software from sites can lead to malicious spyware! Use the Windows store instead! You need to log in to your microslop account and give us your goverment ID to browse the Windows Store. Windows is so useful, it can give you weather updates, remind you of that thing you were looking to buy, things you were looking for, straight from your Start menu and task bar! You want to install Steam? I’m sorry that’s not available in the Windows Store, consider Subscribing to Xbox Game pass instead! You want to run something outside of our guardrails? Don’t worry, if something goes wrong, you can use Recall to see whatever it is you were doing before you did something you regret!
Ok, I can’t keep this up. I cannot fathom why the fuck anyone would tolerate Windows… No game, no software, no nothing, is worth keeping literal bloated spyware that wants to drain your wallet, safety, and privacy. – I will continue to say this;
Just Switch to Linux. If you really need a guidance, just use Linux Mint or Zorin. Explore and try other things, don’t be afraid of making the wrong choice, just pick a flavor, learn it, and own your stuff back.
Is anything in the tech world interesting or good any more? I remember being excited 20 years ago for new inventions. Now its slop, slop, slop, authoritarian surveillance fascism, slop slop slop
Foss projects and indie games are about the only interesting thing now.
I’ll go back to 2005 soon as someone invents a Foss time machine !
This knowledge does me no good if I can’t go to one of these exoplanets and meet a nice Orion lady.
Handheld emulation devices
Yes! Super interesting devices, a friendly community, lots of development and you’ll be playing games made before gaming went full enshitification.
Is anything in the tech world interesting or good any more?
Steam Machine?
I like to see what’s going on in the handheld emulator world!
AYN Thor is a awesome DS handheld, but they too also warned that their supplier is bumping RAM prices heavily, so they expect the price to go up too
Oh true emulation in general is very awesome
Ironically, there are a couple of things in the tech world right now that I’m extremely interested in. But you would likely downvote me if I mentioned them.
You got downvoted for mentioning you’d get downvoted! OK, I’ll bite. Based on OP’s comments, As long as it isn’t in AI, surveillance or Microslop WIndows, maybe you have found something for us all?
As long as it isn’t in AI
Afraid I can’t help you, then.
It’s really quite ironic, this is the sort of tech that science fiction has been dreaming of for decades. And now it can’t even be mentioned in tech-oriented forums, can’t even be hinted at, without mobs of negative-nellies dumping on it.
Ah well. I continue to have fun with it, downvotes can’t stop that.
this is the sort of tech that science fiction has been dreaming of for decades.
No it isn’t. LLM’s are a fucking technological dead end and will never reach AGI’s.
Quit sucking off Sam Altman and go look into actual AI research, douchebag
You just can’t quit bringing up your ai girlfriend, can you ?
So what, who cares about downvotes on Lemmy? Even one more person finding out about some awesome tech is worth it!
Unfortunately they’re just a fucking AI-bro. Not worth your time
When people call any AI user an AI bro, you know the logic has left the room when it comes to AI discussions.
LLMs are a technological dead end and will never be the path towards AGI. The AI bubble is fuelled exclusively by overly wealthy gambling addicts like Sam Altman.
You claim the “AI bro” accusation is the loss of logic. Go look at the fucking market right now, it’s completely irrational. It’s the AI investors that have killed any logic going on.
The AI bros just continually ignore this because they’re idiots. If you’re going to back them up you’re just as much of a dumbfuck as them
Why are you arguing against things I never said? The market condition has no bearing in justifying you categorising anyone using AI as an AI bro. That’s a specific term for people who are pushing the market towards AI without regards for anything, not for anyone that has a use for AI.
The latter types can also be anti-“AI bro”, they’re just not lacking as much logic as you are acting on right now. Have you realised how little logic you’re running on if you’re even calling what I said as defending AI bros? You’ve either cultivated a Pavlovian response whenever you hear the word AI to turn off logic in your brain or you’ve never had good reading comprehension in the first place. I’m not sure which is worse.
Quite true.
Well, I guess the most games-oriented thing is that at the moment I’m generating some cover art for some music I generated earlier to use as part of a tabletop roleplaying campaign I’m in. Custom art, custom music, stuff that a few years ago would have cost me thousands of dollars to commission (and therefore that I would never have dreamed of commissioning - it’s just for me and a couple of friends). That’s pretty awesome, IMO.
Steam Machine, Steam Deck, Steam Frame. Pick your level of console.
List of things I buy the instant they will take my money. Also, grapheneos phone.
If your going Pc pre built route to me Valve built is the answer.
But to me this more lies with concerns with a true blue console experience.
Most people believe Microsoft will have little no success with this strategy either. Outside of hopes to “disrupt” steam machines market share I can’t see this going anywhere.
No matter how you slice it , I think it’s over.
You’re*
Little to no*
Ah yes.
Swapping one walled off ecosystem for another
You can add non-steam games to Steam Deck, not sure how that’s walled off.
If I’m going to buy a PC type console, it’ll be the steam machine. No idea why anyone would go for something that has windows on it at this point. I guess some will buy it because it has the Xbox name but the value of that is waning.
Tiny caveat: If the “windows tax” is less than the cost of building the device by parts – which it might be – then buying a new XBox Series X 360 Box X Box 360 One and installing linux on it might be a cost savings for a consumer… assuming no signed OS fuckery.
Good idea, but I 100% expect the bios to be locked down and force secure boot. Hopefully there would at least be a work around to enroll new keys, but don’t count on it.
you, maybe. but valve is hesitant to make anything available outside of a handful of countries meanwhile microsoft sells their shit to the most remote tribal villages. most people in the world who’d want something like that will have to buy this one by default.
So, will I be able to play Halo 5 on PC?
I’m confused by the pessimistic reactions, though.
Companies converging towards the semi-open platform is a good thing. The locked down hardware and exclusives are not something we as customers asked for. It was something the cartel just shoved down our throats.
What bothers me is the backwards compatibility that microsoft has always just hand-waved in regards to the sunsetting of the xbox HW. A clear yes or no would be nice.
I, for a long time, wanted Microsoft to delete the difference between PC and Console. They are the same hardware, they can run the same software. Valve achieved this with the Steam Deck. I just wonder how Microsoft is going to fuck it up.
I’m confused by the pessimistic reactions, though.
Microsoft has done an amazing job of destroying good-will. And it’s why I and an increasing share of people stopped using Windows (I still have to suffer with it at work though). For any gaming PC that runs Windows:
-
Why is there a pre-installed Xbox app in Windows? It doesn’t help play Steam, or Epic, or GOG, or even Amazon games. I don’t think it even helps with Windows Store games…
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Why are there ads in the start menu?
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Why are there two control panels? Why do I always have to hunt to find the old one because the new one doesn’t do what is needed?
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Why are there popup ads in the notification area?
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Why do I need an online account, or a hidden fucking terminal, just to get the OS going?
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Why is Copilot fucking everywhere?
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Why does the OS hoover fuckloads of data and send it to Microsoft?
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Why is there pre-installed bloatware?
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No, but seriously, why are there ads?
These are all questions that are relevant when you ask about why people are pessimistic about Windows as a gaming system. But with the merge of Windows and Xbox, all of the above questions apply, but you also get to add:
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How locked down will this merged thing be?
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Will multiplayer require monthly payments?
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Will it have backwards compatibility?
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Will they find another place to shove copilot?
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How many extra ads will there be?
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In emulation and retro gaming forums I frequent the reactions seem mostly positive. Lots of questions surrounding backwards compatibility of course.
Oh God I know this will go over many people’s heads but I was listening to a podcast where they where talking about the renewal of CUSMA (or USMCA for you Americans) and a senator said “I’m half inclined to think Donald Trump is ready to make a decision” to which Rob Russo, a journalist, rightly pointed out that was not clarity it is infact the absence of clarity. He then said, and this is why I laugh and the yes/no comment is so true.
“If I told my wife ‘Im half inclined to take the garbage out today’ she would not say that is a clear answer as to if I was going to do it”
Political and Business language needs to fuck off.
Microsoft was already releasing games on PC. All this does is removes any dedicated hardware. Officially forcing windows down Xbox gamers throats. One less option in the space not really one more.
Windows is not the future for gaming. Windows shouldn’t be anyone’s future
But think of the AI agents that need to work on it!!!
I actually think it’s a great idea. The problem is that Microslop is behind it.
Yeah it can be , and Steam already did it and better. But it’s still not a console experience. It’s closer but it’s not equivalent. And for what Xbox has represented this isn’t it …
And this is why Sony pulled games from PC. The Steam Machine was just another reason. PCs in general are now consoles too, and Sony is afraid their traditional console loses meaning.
Consoles meant something back when commodity PC hardware was not good at playing games - at least not for a consumer-accessible price.
The specialized rendering processors of the NES and SNES and Sega Genesis could push pixels without all the distractions a CPU has, in away they were the first GPUs (although modern GPUs do a much more generalized job).
You don’t need that anymore though, a PC can do it all. You don’t even need to be on a specific OS anymore for most games.
Form factor or other novel hardware is going to be the only thing anyone can do; I think this is why Nintendo didn’t bother to make a behemoth console and try to compete with PS5
I mean, Sony & Microsoft consoles are basically PCs with a custom OS now already (PS4 onwards, and Xbox One both used x86-64 CPUs).
There are fewer and fewer reasons to buy a specific (and expensive) piece of hardware that is less flexible in terms of functionality than the alternatives, so this is Sony trying to protect their own fiefdom.
Fuck ‘em.
Yeah exactly; consoles became a tool to oppress consumers. The Apple walled-garden strategy which is now being applied all over the industry.
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Bold of you to assume the oligarchs will starve when they can always print money out of thin air while the rest of us pay for it in inflation.
Consoles were just weird very restricted PCs for decades now, it’s nothing new really. If anything, making it more open will be better, there is no other need to keep it restricted other than making it unupgradable so you have to pay for a new one every generation.
In other ways, good, now do the same with PS.Let’s agree to disagree then.
It’s not a like for like experience no matter how you slice it.
I know this is going out to an audience who regularly self hosts and runs Linux.
But not everyone has the same technical skill level and the experiences are not ideal for everyone.
If you don’t have enough technical skill level and experience to install a game via steam, gog, or (bleh) epic games, you don’t have enough technical expertise to do the same on any console, including ones that require you to just put a cartridge in. Pressing “install” button and waiting for a while to then press “play” button might be less complicated than figuring out which side of the disk is up. And that’s exactly what is required to play a computer game.
It is not like-for-like experience, because a general purpose computer allows you to do a bit more than playing a game, but in terms of actually doing it, let’s not pretend it’s some kind of rocket surgery.There is more than just that when it comes to PC games
System requirements: RAM , CPU clock speed , GPU. And even if your requirements match there is no guarantee the game will work well. MW 2019 has stutters on my machine. No explanation to why ! I can play Indiana Jones at High settings no problem.
That is only there if you geek out about it. For a casual gamer, all of that doesn’t exist. You’re buying as nice “gaming PC” as your budget permits, you’re pressing “auto” in the settings, and you enjoy whatever picture and/or whatever framerate you paid for. For some years, most of the games run smoothly, then most of the new ones don’t look and feel great anymore, so you either buy a new computer, or play older games. It’s basically the same with the generations of consoles, it’s just if the game isn’t for your “generation”, on console you don’t get to downgrate the picture quality and try anyway.
When the games stopped shipping completely on their physical media is when they lost me. So, I guess PS3. To me, a console should be a completely self-contained experience. You want a game? You buy it. It comes on a disc, or cartridge, or HuCard. Doesn’t need to download updates. Doesn’t require the internet. Just pop it in, and boot directly to a game. Immune to digital stores closing, or servers shutting down.
If I have to download 50gb when I bought a game on discord, what are the discs even for? And I would still have to worry about disk space? Man, I’d rather just have a PC.
I think the steamdeck is the closest to a console-like experience, but yeah consoles have been PCs for a long time they just make it very simple to install/load games because it is a closed platform where they control every aspect of distribution
I understand the frustration with Xbox slowly dying, but this is all microslop’s fault.
Watch it not even be able to play native 360 titles due to the architecture. Gears of War 2 and 3 will be locked to consoles forever if that happens.
The Xbone and Xbox SeX can play 360 games just fine, and they are essentially PCs running modified Windows.
Right, but you cannot play those two games on PC. So if the new console PC hybrid uses Windows, I don’t forsee those games running. I may be missing something though.
The newer Xboxes already run Windows. MS could distribute their 360 emulator on regular Windows.
Ahhhh, very good point. I wonder if they just didn’t feel it was necessary to do, or there was some technical hurdle in the way. Here’s hoping they can get something going and maybe bring it to Win11 too so then the Linux guys can get to work on making it compatible.
Sounds great honestly, locked down console hardware is such an aging concept. If Valve manages to pull off the Steam Machines, it’s proof that we’ve past the age of consoles. Except Nintendo I guess, they’ve always been a special case somehow.
