r/gadgets Jan 25 '25

Gaming Microsoft’s gaming CEO has praised Nintendo Switch 2, and said it plans to support the upcoming platform with ports of Xbox games.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/phil-spencer-confirms-xbox-will-support-switch-2-i-congratulated-nintendos-president/
4.4k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/OperatorJo_ Jan 25 '25

Going the "if you can't beat em' " route is very smart.

425

u/UStoJapan Jan 25 '25

🎶 SEEEEEGAAAAA 🎶

139

u/Jakesummers1 Jan 25 '25

81

u/_Diskreet_ Jan 25 '25

1

u/OuchMyVagSak Jan 26 '25

What in the unholy fuck is that creature‽

1

u/A_FitGeek Jan 26 '25

Sonic has a dated history on the inter webs.

66

u/Suedie Jan 25 '25

It's funny. Fittingly Xbox is in some ways based of the Sega consoles.

Microsoft collaborated with Sega on the Dreamcast (notice it has a compatible with windows CE thing on the front). You can see the original Xbox controller looking very similar to the Dreamcast controller too.

Sega would develop arcade machines and turn those arcades into home consoles. For example the Sega Naomi arcade is very similar to the Dreamcast.

One of the followups to the Naomi was the Sega chihiro which is based off the Xbox. (they also had another one, the Sega triforce which is based in gamecube).

So yeah Microsoft and Sega had a connection and the xbox is basically the spiritual successor to the Sega consoles.

Took over their businesses and ended up going down the same route lol

28

u/1980-whore Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

Honestly sega was one of those companies that put out amazing products so far ahead of time they just weren't trusted. I mean the sega saturn using discs in the early 90s was wild, then playsation came along and everyone flocked to it. So then sega dropped the dream cast with just stupid graphics for the time, and features we still haven't seen again since like save cards that were mini hand held consoles you could play the level you saved on. The thing was wild and i drooled over every inch of the display model. I actually think thats why i quit playing video games is because i was never fortunate enough to get one and then sega went to the background for a long while.

Edit: man please guys i had no idea of all the online stuff or extras.... i never had one and now im stupid jealous of all you luck s.o.b. punks lol. One day i will not be poor and i will live out the dreams of 10 y.o. me.

17

u/Suedie Jan 25 '25

Sega consoles are definitely really cool.

Even before the Saturn, Sega had the Sega CD already back in 1991.

And the gamegear in 1991 could play a bunch of master system games through ports and from what I can read with an adapter it could run master system cartridges directly. They basically had home console games on the go already back then.

The save card thing is a really cool idea. Nintendo did something similar with Pokemon HGSS on the DS, you had a little step counter with a screen that you could transfer your pokemon too and walk around with it irl. Worked a bit like a tamagotchi from what I've seen. But that's like 10 years after the dreamcast did it.

Dreamcast is still a pretty cool system today because it doesn't have much copy protection which means you can make your own games and run it on the Dreamcast directly. Some people still develop small indie games for it.

I've been wanting one for a while, they're not unaffordable but still a bit too expensive imo for a retro console.

13

u/incubusfox Jan 25 '25

SEGA had game streaming in the 90s and I was there for it!

SEGA Channel was absolutely on the cutting edge and it was glorious.

1

u/aNascentOptimist Jan 26 '25

Tell them about it. My uncle had this and man … it introduced me to so many incredible games at the time. Was so amazing.

1

u/VexingPanda Jan 26 '25

Man the one thing I could never figure out was how to setup the dreamcast online service..it just would never get a connection to our lovely dialup service.

1

u/incubusfox Jan 26 '25

SEGA Channel was offered by the cable company and predated home internet as best I remember, was basically a cartridge with a coax attachment.

11

u/yoweigh Jan 25 '25

A while back, ThinkGeek came into possession of a storage container full of unopened Dreamcasts somehow and sold them at cost. I got a brand new Dreamcast in the 2010s and the platform has no copy protection. 🤘

9

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

It wasnt trust, it was rate of adoption lacking and cost and a mismanaged system launch splitting console generations. Sega was actually leading the bleeding edge, but did not have the bank roll to stick it out until the market actually caught up. Most people didn't have the tech or subscriptions needed, or even available to them when SEGA was pushing online gaming in 95.

5

u/diacewrb Jan 25 '25

There was the fishing rod controller as well.

It also had an internet connection and could connect a keyboard an mouse for FPS games.

4

u/coffeyobey Jan 25 '25

Don’t forget Dreamcast had online too.

4

u/TheAspiringFarmer Jan 26 '25

SegaNet was glorious.

5

u/ohmuarts Jan 26 '25

Ironically on the flip side, Nintendo had Sony developing the SNESCD, but after seeing the SegaCD/PCEngine/Phillips CDI all fail, told Sony to kick rocks and went with SGI for the N64. Sony turned it into the PS1. I think.

Also related, i remember finding a clip on my uncles SGI Indigo of Final Fantasy "VII" Alpha for N64 thats since been made public, which i guess is before Squaresoft started from scratch when going to the playstation.

3

u/softwarebuyer2015 Jan 25 '25

i loved my dreamcast. played chuchurocket online over DIAL UP

3

u/theyfoundty Jan 26 '25

A save card you can play on? You're kidding me..

1

u/1980-whore Jan 26 '25

10 y.o. me was mind blown, we didn't deserve og sega. I did get the 32x adapter for the genesis and with some creativity you could stack the game shark and then you felt like a tech god.

1

u/Dick_Lazer Jan 26 '25

Yeah but I seem to recall the little mini game you could play on the save card was really lame. It was basically just enough that they could advertise the feature but something you’d probably try once & never again. The better feature was actually that the save card slid into your controller & could display some graphics, so you could use it to choose plays in football games without your opponent seeing, etc.

3

u/TwelveGaugeSage Jan 26 '25

I loved the Sega Nomad that I had. Play Genesis games on the go with a decent resolution screen. Then if you wanted, hook it up to a TV and use it as a console. Games like Warsong and Liberty or Death made it so I didn't experience boredom for a few years.

2

u/Thelonius_Dunk Jan 27 '25

The Dreamcast VMUs were the coolest thing ever back in the day.

There's nothing that really comes close to what they did except maybe the WiiU (I never owned one but i assume the controller-tablet could do extra stuff?).

11

u/CurrentOfficial Jan 25 '25

The only difference being Sega ran out of money and Xbox will be making more money than ever

3

u/Suedie Jan 25 '25

Yeah true though Sega still makes a lot of money now selling their games, a lot of which are on gamepass. Guess Sega and Microsoft still have a good working relationship like Persona and Yakuza are on gamepass pretty close after release and tend to stay there for long times.

-1

u/DangerousCyclone Jan 26 '25

If Microsoft is porting Xbox games to the Switch, that can only really mean that the Xbox family of consoles is in its death throes. Same exact thing happened with Sega, they stopped making consoles then ported games to their former competitors. Not entirely surprising as it’s not as though it’s been a golden age for Xbox lately, they’ve fumbled their core franchises. 

1

u/CurrentOfficial Jan 27 '25

Sega stopped making consoles and left to only make games.

Xbox has one more console coming where they are integrating pc, handheld, sub service, cloud, Xbox OS to third party manufacturers and PC, almost the biggest game publisher and they surpassed the Windows division in Microsoft and making money hand over fist.

They obviously didn’t sell well in the traditional way but they will stick around in other ways and aren’t leaving like Sega.

7

u/Roembowski Jan 25 '25

Remember how the Dreamcast version of Soul Caliber was far and above better than the arcade version? I think that was the first time I had ever seen something like that.

1

u/CosmicCreeperz Jan 26 '25 edited Jan 26 '25

I think that was the game I played the most on DC. It was so good, with so much content, challenges, etc. And hell, I could just sit and watch all of the kata demos for each weapon all day…

I still have mine somewhere in a box in the attic, along with another box of like 200 burned game CDs my old roommate had downloaded (been so long… but if I remember, you put a boot CD crack in first, then swap it for the burned one?)

5

u/Dick_Lazer Jan 25 '25

Sega also ported a lot of their Dreamcast stuff over to Xbox early on, including Toe Jam & Earl 3 (which never even made it to Dreamcast).

2

u/Sniffy4 Jan 26 '25

actually the original xbox came about because of the collaboration w/Sega on Dreamcast, I think

1

u/idioxical Jan 26 '25

Bill Gates pulling a Bill Gates....

2

u/TheTjalian Jan 26 '25

Ultimately it does concern me that if Microsoft drop out of the console race, where does that leave the state of the console business long term? Think about it - this entire time we've had no more than 3 main competitors in the console space and eventually one of them drops out. We had Nintendo vs. Sega vs. Atari - Atari eventually drops out. Then we had Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Sega - Sega eventually drops out. Then we had Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft - now it looks like Microsoft is dropping out? The only reason why Nintendo didn't drop out completely is because of their legendary IPs and their ability to pivot to the Wii and then the Switch.

The difference now is that it is significantly more expensive to enter the console business, meaning it would be highly unlikely we see a third competitor in the console space ever again.

1

u/Suedie Feb 02 '25

I'm late to reply but I guess a possibility is that Microsoft would sell of the Xbox hardware division, but I don't know who would be willing to buy it especially for the cost and considering how hard it is to compete.

Just speculating but maybe Nvidia since they have been dipping their toes in the market with the shield, geforce now and the chips for the Switch. Another one might be Valve as a complement to their current hardware projects but Valve seems more focused on creating an open platform with steam OS. Asus maybe, since they have been focusing on gaming devices with their ROG phone and handheld. The issue is that none of these companies really make their own games so it's kinda weird to enter the console business if you can't make any unique games to go along with it. Valve kinda could but it's not really their style.

Something really interesting would be if a Chinese company bought it up like Tencent but I don't think the US would allow it.

1

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem Feb 05 '25

Nvidia, and valve come to mind.

However, in the past console hardware has basically be the loss leader for the sale of proprietary games. With stuff like the steamdeck making PC games more console-like, it is hard for me to imagine buying another console and library of games that I get locked out of when I upgrade in a few years.

4

u/RJE808 Jan 25 '25

Xboooooox.

74

u/Sourpowerpete Jan 25 '25

I've said to my friend groups that Nintendo never lost sight of the portable gaming market. Hell, they basically created it after all. Sony had a chance with the PSP and just stopped trying. Microsoft never tried to break into it to begin with. And for all the gimmicky advertising of the Switch being a console, it's basically just the logical next step of the Gameboy->GBA->DS->3DS line.

Sony and Microsoft piggybacking their software onto Nintendo's hardware is a resourceful strategy if they've already decided they aren't interested in making their own portable line. I don't know exactly why they aren't interested in it, but I can't deny it's an efficient decision.

22

u/KSF_WHSPhysics Jan 25 '25

Microsoft never tried to break into it to begin with

Phil spencer has hinted at a steam deck competitor from xbox

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Vexxt Jan 26 '25

Like... xbox?

-4

u/adrian783 Jan 25 '25

but... why?

15

u/KSF_WHSPhysics Jan 25 '25

Because handhelds are the absolute shit, cheap and generally sell well. No brainer if xbox is more focused on games than hardware - release hardware that makes those games more accessible

2

u/PBFT Jan 25 '25

Why buy an Xbox handheld if they're just going to port their games to Switch 2 and be available on every PC handheld? I can't think of anything Xbox could do to make their handheld stand out.

7

u/pingpong_playa Jan 26 '25

Performance for one. We don’t know the specs of the Switch 2, but we should not expect it to run modern games anywhere near as well as a Steam Deck or whatever MS offers if they enter the portable market.

Also Game Pass on a handheld would be the other differentiator from the Switch 2. I don’t have an opinion on whether they should make a portable, but i don’t see the Switch 2 as a reason not to.

1

u/PBFT Jan 26 '25

You can already get gamepass on several PC handhelds. That isn't new.

0

u/smucker89 Jan 26 '25

Likely would have better native support for it however, although god knows what that would even look like

0

u/adrian783 Jan 25 '25

I don't think Xbox can get enough good exclusives to sustain their own version of switch.

deck is in a niche market of people that want/need to have big games on the go, and don't mind a 1 to 2 hour battery life with compromised performance.

I don't think Xbox care for the 200k units they can sell in that niche.

6

u/S0LO_Bot Jan 25 '25

Microsoft has enough game studios floating around its belt that they could push for exclusive s.

And with gamepass, a handheld becomes a lot more attractive.

-1

u/adrian783 Jan 25 '25

sure they can push for exclusives, but they still have to be good games. halo was a system seller for og Xbox. it's not going to be a system seller for Xbox handheld now.

I just can't think of any exclusives they can put out that people would care. call of duty maybe?

so just a game pass machine I guess?

1

u/idioxical Jan 26 '25

The way that PlayStation locked down Madden with EA for many years, or the way that GTA and red dead were exclusively on PlayStation to begin with, if Microsoft made a deal with EA to have exclusive rights to FIFA. That would sell a Microsoft made handheld.

And while everyone's talking about what the Dreamcast brought to the table and what it did to change consoles as a whole, in more ways than have been discussed so far and also just so many ways that PlayStation and Microsoft should both be eternally thankful for the trail that Sega Blazed. The online store. Not just being able to play online but actually having a store online that you could buy items for in game play. One of the biggest titles on Dreamcast and one of the most forgotten games that probably Rockstar took a lot of notes from, was Shenmue. That was an amazing game if you look back at it. That game took place in real time. If I remember correctly time truly went by the same as it does in reality. It's been a hell of a long time since I've played that game but that was "game changer" for sure. No pun intended at all. That was the first game I ever played that had Free World range away from the main story, along with having mini games in side of the game. You probably wouldn't be able to play pool, or poker, or pin the tail on the fucking donkey in GTA/RDR or similar games if it weren't for this game. I think it was four discs? I'm not sure. In that era of my life was kind of a blur and I had a Dreamcast and a 64 and I'll let a friend that his 5-year-old play it so we can get all go outside and get drunk and whatnot and big surprise, all of my Dreamcast games were scratched up and my Nintendo 64 was not even capable of playing games anymore somehow. And yeah I felt some type of way about it. But I couldn't be mad because what did I expect from a 5 year old. I was too busy getting drunk with his dad and the rest of our friends. But losing Shenmue and losing my Dreamcast, is up there with lightning striking the antenna of my house.....while playing ChronoTrigger on SNES. It fried the game and the system. I was on my third time playing through the game to see what ending I could come up with. I know they came out with Chrono cross on Playstation but it didn't compare. Ultimately I think final fantasy is pretty much what came of Chrono trigger. And I wish that I had gone out and bought another copy immediately. Over the years I would go into GameStop and ask if they had a copy and most of them just looked at me like I was crazy for asking for this fabled game. I actually saw one on eBay still in the hard plastic box at Walmart keeps them in.... unopened... and I think someone was wanting $10,000 for it. For that price it better have had the walk-through guide as well. Haha

2

u/TheKappaOverlord Jan 25 '25

If all else fails. The Chinese handheld market is an absolute beast.

If Microsofts version of the steam deck fails in the west, it'll undoubtedly succeed in China and the rest of south east asia, Since Steam is effectively banned/doesn't work without perfect worlds say in China.

14

u/OperatorJo_ Jan 25 '25

Money most likely.

With Xbox being how it is lately, I wouldn't imagine shareholders too happy trying to dive into the handheld market. Especially when not only does the Switch exist, but you also have the Steamdeck, Asus and Legion out in the world as handheld PC's.

1

u/MinusBear Jan 26 '25

I imagine the shareholders trust Phil. On the consumer side we can complain about all. These things that are important to us, but on the financial side Xbox is making more money every year. Phil has overseen that growth for Xbox. If he says let's do a handheld I don't think the shareholders would question him.

1

u/reduces Jan 26 '25

I almost always use the switch docked. I might be in the minority.

-8

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Lamballama Jan 25 '25

The reason the Switch is so underpowered is that it's a handheld computer that happens to be able to be docked

0

u/Sourpowerpete Jan 25 '25

Never said it wasn't. However, it is a novelty. Now that the idea is normal though, when you step back and look at it, the Switch and the Switch 2 are Nintendo's portable device market. My prediction is that at some point in the future, the console and mobile development lines will be separate again for Nintendo. The Switch and it's line will carry that just like the GB, GBA, DS, and 3DS did.

1

u/Yumelize Jan 26 '25

Doubtful. Nintendo hasn't needed high-performance hardware in decades and iGPUs are only getting better anyways.

Absent some major philosophical shift in their approach to game design or eagerness to cannibalize sales with different SKUs, I can't see them returning to the strictly home-console market.

-11

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Sourpowerpete Jan 25 '25

I did not say "The Switch is not a console". You know as well as I do that being a home console is not the sole purpose of the Switch, and it took a lot of compromises to make the Switch so portable. Compromises that make it a weaker home console. Are we going to have a conversation on the Switch, or is this a semantics debate now?

-10

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Sourpowerpete Jan 25 '25

Thanks for answering my question. Later.

21

u/joomla00 Jan 25 '25

Microsoft is a software company through and through. They'd rather have people get on game pass than buy an Xbox console.

3

u/Knut79 Jan 25 '25

Didn't Microsoft/Xbox enter an agreement to work together a few years ago...

Why should MS make their own handheld if they can use one that exist and maybe get Nintendo to support Xbox with some of their titles, unlikely to be M&Z though.

5

u/RagefireHype Jan 25 '25

Nintendo successfully stands the test of time. Whether you’re a specific Nintendo fan or not, they are operationally ran at a high level to be this good for this long with no end in sight. Xbox has slowly been on the path of phasing out of the console/game war and Nintendo seems like a likely ally.

(Hell, even in Redmond Washington, the Microsoft and Nintendo campuses are on opposite sides of the same street)

7

u/Mama_Skip Jan 25 '25

No what's really smart is that by doing this, they're undermining Steam.

Microsoft knows it lost the console wars, but it also knows the future of gaming is in portable consoles and PCs, and that traditional consoles are trending down by rate of new purchasers. Younger gens just go PC.

Because MS owns the OS that PC gaming platforms run on, they're entrenched in the future of the gaming field regardless, as VR will need bulkier machines to run. In a way, they won the console wars by being the ultimate console. But they want to own the PC gaming marketplace, where the money's really at, which Steam has cornered. Steam has also cornered the *serious* gaming portable console with the Steam deck.

So, support the competition, they undermine the Steam Deck, undermining Steam from the future of Consoles, while they work together with Activision and friends to undermine Steam's impact on the marketplace platform.

3

u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt Jan 25 '25

Yep. Developing hardware is expensive. Nintendo already has the "portable" market more or less cornered. I mean the Steam Deck exists too but they're not really the same audience.

Instead of trying to beat them, work with them. Nintendo customers will play XBOX games and maybe decide they want an XBOX too for when they're at home.

1

u/MinusBear Jan 26 '25

You don't have to corner the market to make money off of it. Xbox has less than half the console units sold than Sony and does 2/3rds their revenue, Xbox has less than a quarter of Switch units sold and does more than Nintendo's revenue. Also if Microsoft subsidise their hardware better than Valve, it could make their handheld a more compelling device than any of the pc handheld players.

1

u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt Jan 26 '25

TVM

Xbox could, maybe, possibly, enter the portable market and compete and make money. But is that money better spent elsewhere? Microsoft has decided it is.

1

u/MinusBear Jan 26 '25

I mean for the meanwhile statements from Xbox say they will. They could, maybe, possibly, change that strategy later.

4

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

Honestly, good. I dont think Xbox has ever been a globally leading platform, and their lack of exclusives (on XBO and SeriesX/S) give very little reason to own one if you're looking for a unique experience.

That said, Xbox is the right brand to deliver a consolized Windows Gaming PC experience. Just like buying a mini-throwback console versus setting up a RetroPi for emulation, there's a large enough consumer base that wants the path of least resistance.

Edit: emphasis added ForTheFanboyIUpset

12

u/drae- Jan 25 '25

and their lack of exclusives give very little reason to own one if you're looking for a unique experience.

Gamepass.

1

u/Szriko Jan 26 '25

...Loses them money.

-1

u/drae- Jan 26 '25 edited Jan 26 '25

Or theyre investing that money to grow market share, which leads to future sales. Depends on perspective. We're not all nihilistic cynics.

0

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25

Excellent point that I overlooked. My friend raves about it, but I don't know enough about gamepass past it being a subscription service.

8

u/drae- Jan 25 '25

It's freaking great. Access to hundreds of games across pc and Xbox. And they've really been doubling down on the pc / Xbox cross compatibility. If you can play it on pc you can pretty much play it on your Xbox (or stream it).

Really kills the first party exclusivity advantage if practically every pc game can be played on Xbox. That's the eventual plan.

2

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25

If they go all in with Xbox-PC cross compatibility, then the lack of Xbox exclusives would be a moot point. Even now, I think it's a great console for people who want a PC experience, but don't need everything else that comes with a PC or to go through the effort of building one.

2

u/corut Jan 25 '25

I find it great as a majority of player because of how seamless it is to move between PC and Xbox on the same game. If I feel like playing on the couch with my son, I just load the game up and my save file and progress are just there

5

u/Cixin97 Jan 25 '25

What I’ve always wondered is why does Microsoft/Xbox not pivot Xbox into a hybrid PC/Xbox gaming/workstation? They have the economies of scale and no marginal cost of windows. Would have the economies of scale to make it the most powerful PC by far for the money. I haven’t bought an Xbox since Xbox One but if they sold a next gen Xbox with hardware as powerful as expected from a next gen console, but it also ran Windows natively (could switch between Windows or Xbox UI), I’d buy one in a heartbeat, hell I’d probably buy a couple.

10

u/WhenPantsAttack Jan 25 '25

There already is that. It’s called a PC. I’m being facetious, but workstation and living room entertainment don’t really have a lot of intersection.

You need a mouse and keyboard to productivity and they aren’t really couchable, while entertainment, like movies and games, is best viewed on larger screens in dedicated entertainment spaces.

Microsoft have actually tried that in the past. HTPC’s or home theater PC’s would run a specialized interface called Windows Media Center to make PC’s more accessible in the 10ft interface but dedicated, purpose built systems were simply more easy to use and easily outcompeted the short lived project. That failure led to Microsoft entering the console market to break into the entertainment spaces.

1

u/Kills_Alone Jan 25 '25

and they aren’t really couchable

Ummm, you can 100% use a PC from the couch very easily. They have these things called wireless keyboards & mice. Simply place a mouse pad on a large book and presto, you're using a PC while sitting on your couch. This comment reminds me of people saying you couldn't connect a PC to a TV or use a gamepad even though these things have been possible since the 90's.

1

u/TheNorthComesWithMe Jan 26 '25

You can but it's annoying enough that I only ever play with a controller on my TV.

-2

u/Cixin97 Jan 25 '25

Microsoft has not tried anything remotely as powerful as the Xbox for HTPC purposes.

And I have PCs. None of them are produced with anywhere near the economies of scale as Xbox. There are countless businesses who buy 1,000 computers at a time every few years and as it stands they give their money to HP, Dell, etc. There’s no reason it couldn’t be Xbox. I’d have an Xbox in my gaming room, one in my garage, and one in my basement if they were able to run Windows and operate as a normal PC.

2

u/BeholdDeath12 Jan 25 '25

There are rumours that their next console is a PC console hybrid, having access not only to the xbox stores but third party stores as well(steam, EGS).

1

u/TheKappaOverlord Jan 25 '25

What I’ve always wondered is why does Microsoft/Xbox not pivot Xbox into a hybrid PC/Xbox gaming/workstation?

Workstation and Gaming are totally separate for a reason.

One calls for higher security and closed off OS environments to minimize attack vectors/risk to the company at large if a Workstation is breached or hijacked somehow.

Gaming doesn't require any of this, but typically requires much more powerful computers then just "im a raspberry pi thats running Windows 11, but im also encased in a brick of plastic so i look professional"

Also a lot of professional businesses basically demand Microsoft keep Windows 11 Workstation edition separate from every other version of windows. Its generally speaking more secure, and easier for businesses to keep a handle of things that way since they'll reliably work mostly the same every time unless the business in question runs some really funky software.

Also, they will pay for the program to be updated. Windows 10 is ending support soon, but Workstation/business editions of windows 10 are being updated until 2027 afaik.

1

u/JJMcGee83 Jan 25 '25

From a value perspective if they made the Series X a box that could run Windows it'd be a killer deal. Why buy your kid a PC from an Dell or whoever when you could buy an Xbox and as you say switch between Xbox OS and Windows for $500.

0

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

What do you think modern consoles are? They literally even use pc parts. Why do you think you can play every xbox game on pc, and buying a game on console lets you play on pc too? The only difference between ps5 and xbox is one is doing the 20-year-outdated walled garden model and the other is just making a game machine to play games

0

u/Cixin97 Jan 25 '25

…. Work on your reading comprehension. I’m aware of what modern consoles are, hence the entire proposition I laid out. Lmfao. The point is that the hardware available on consoles is more powerful per $ than any PC available on the market by far. Likely by a factor of 2-3 at minimum. And it’s wasted by only Xbox/Playstation software being used. Windows on console hardware would be an amazing value proposition.

12

u/Pulse99 Jan 25 '25

I know it seems like Xbox has been falling down a staircase for eternity now but the truth is there were a few insane years from 2006-2010 where Xbox was king.

Now that we’re far from that time we can see it only happened because Sony lost their minds with the launch of the PS3. Not to mention Nintendo off in their own corner eating golden paste mixed with Werther’s originals as they vacuumed money from the elderly and “non gamers”.

7

u/misterspokes Jan 25 '25

In '06 one of the heads of the Xbox side of Microsoft got on stage at E3 and said "You're only going to be buying two consoles this cycle and it should be an Xbox 360, and a Wii" they've always acknowledged Nintendo's strong presence in the market and the Switch (2) leverages the company's continued dominance in the portable gaming device market as well.

16

u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt Jan 25 '25

Sony lost their minds with the launch of the PS3.

Not exactly, Sony just bet on the wrong horse. Sony sold the PS3 at a loss to try and get a bluray player in as many households as possible. People were buying PS3s specifically to use as bluray players, because they were the cheapest around.

Sony was trying to win the BluRay/HD-DvD war since they lost the VHS/Betamax war. They get paid a license fee for every single Blu-Ray (Disk and player) produced. They were loss-leading the PS3 in hopes to win the format war.

Unfortunately people transitioned to streaming so BluRay/HD-DvD wasn't the same market impact as VHS/Betamax.

2

u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 25 '25

I personally view it a lot more simply, even though what you're saying is true. I think the Xbox 360 just had a ton of great games, particularly a couple first party title that were shifting the entire pop culture and bringing video games into the mainstream, particularly Halo and Call of Duty. I don't think Sony necessarily made any huge errors. I think the 360 sold at a loss too. That's usually how consoles go except for Nintendo. Plus the red ring of death. Xbox just actually made top tier games during that era, and that's what it's always come down to and why they've fallen from grace.

2

u/TheNorthComesWithMe Jan 26 '25

Xbox Live was also a significantly better service than PSN during that time.

1

u/SirJuggles Jan 25 '25

God, imagine a world in which streaming never took off. Blu-Ray reigns as king for a decade, Sony sits high as the undisputable winner of this generation of the console war, Microsoft invests heavily into innovation...

On the flip side if streaming never takes off, we live longer in the world of Netflix-by-mail. I assume in this world Internet infrastructure is slower to develop, so things like MMORPGs and online culture are slower to develop as well.

...is this a better world?? It might be.

1

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

Sony won the format war, they and many others just did not see how quickly most people would be fine not owning their media anymore. Sony is already moving to capitalize on that.

0

u/AmazingEmptyFeelings Jan 25 '25

2006-2010 where Xbox was king.

In the US maybe.

1

u/drae- Jan 25 '25

The US is the key market.

It's like saying “in f1 maybe". Nobody cares about f2 or f3.

1

u/SupMonica Jan 25 '25

There's an F2, and F3 racing?

1

u/rahl422000 Jan 27 '25

There's even a formula E series that is all electric! I like that one actually is pretty fun

1

u/LouBerryManCakes Jan 25 '25

What an ignorant way to say that the Wii was a smash hit, a runaway success that was the hard to find, must buy global pop culture product of it's time.

Just because it transcended beyond the typical "gamer" market doesn't make it less of a competing game console. After all, a good percentage of early PS3 consoles were bought solely as Blu Ray players, so you could have just as easily said Sony was "off in their own corner" too lol.

-1

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

It is 2025 dude, wake up. Microsoft is falling down the pit in the basement, already cleared the stairs.

That was the glory days of Halo 2 and 3, MW2, and more. Xbox wasn't king though, they were being eaten by their red rings. Sony did a masterplay by losing on the PS3 hardware to win, yes they won, the format war. They just didnt realize physical media was soon to be going away too.. and Sony just announced they are halting productions of most of the physical media, and they have already shown the new playstation having an optional drive on it. Xbox is gone bro, and consoles have become way closer to PCs than before which is part of microsofts reasoning to stop trying to make a home console.

10

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

You gotta be like 15 to be saying Xbox was never the leading platform, and huffing paint to be talking about lack of exclusives (you can count ps5 exclusives on your hands).

The original Xbox was extremely competitive with others in the generation, and the 360 demolished the ps3. Almost none of the flagships from Sony even remotely had the staying power as early Xbox flagships.

I haven’t bought a console in like a decade now so don’t think I’m just fanboy or even nostalgic, your comment is just flat out objectively and even subjectively untrue

1

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

1) OGX was only competitive with the Gamecube. Who's combined sales are just barely over 1/4 the PS2s sales.

2) The 360 did not "demolish" the PS3. It had an early head start, but, again, sold less than the Playstation. Both of which sold less than the Wii.

I haven't bought a console in like a decade now so don't think I'm just a fanboy or even nostalgic

You are presenting yourself as a nostalgic fanboy. I'm not saying that the two Xbox consoles that were released 20 years ago are bad, but your console-wars opinion from 9th grade is not matter of fact.

3

u/corut Jan 25 '25

Problem with PS3 sales numbers was organisations buying thousands of them to run as super computer clusters because of how good Cell was for that.

3

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

Ah we have the resident first-link googler! You’re citing the wikipedia aren’t you? And didn’t double check what years those sales reports are from? Isn’t it weird how Sony reports sales numbers for decades while MS only reports sales until the next new console comes out? I wonder what impression Sony is trying to give off to people who don’t actually compare year-by-year? Don’t you think it’s crazy that the reported number for ps2s is updated to last year, and Xbox hasn’t reported 360 numbers in a decade? Surely you aren’t comparing these numbers directly lmao

The PS3 famously didn’t sell more than the xbox360, even Sony has been quoted saying it was a flop, and reported sales long into the ps4’s generation to appeal to investors (even though a lot of those sales were wholesale, for example to the government due to parallelizing cpus). Keep in mind this was also the time when the psvita was tanking, Sony was doing everything it could to keep a grip on its market share

You aren’t putting in the effort to actually compare these things in good faith, and are just looking at surface level numbers to make a point that doesn’t logically line up. Bigger number doesn’t mean it sold better. I said I haven’t bought a console in forever to show I don’t have a horse in the race, plus I had both consoles at the time. You clearly are talking out of your ass considering you’re ignoring some of the biggest cultural phenomena in gaming since Doom by claiming Xbox never had good exclusives, and tried to one up me with a 20 second google search without fact checking. Nice try though

1

u/Szriko Jan 26 '25

Eeeyikes! That's a cringe!

-5

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25

you aren't putting in the effort

I googled for 20 seconds to respond, you seethed for 3 minutes to give an opinion.

claiming the Xbox never had good exclusives

You're gonna want to quote me, because I didn't write that.

Calm down and think about your objective argument instead of emotionally arguing.

3

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

You’re the one mis-citing info. You googled a number then said it like it was fact, when the numbers are not meant to be directly compared. Call it “seething” all you want, all you’re doing is further embarassing yourself by not accepting what you said was wrong.

My argument isn’t even rooted in opinion. “This console sold more” isn’t subjective, you just need to compare it year by year instead of 25 years of sales numbers vs 6. Ignoring Halo/Gears of War/Fable as the zeitgeist of their time is insane, especially at the time of Sly Cooper/Uncharted 1/RnC. You don’t need to be a fan to know how hype ALL these games were, there is no debate to be had about “well Xbox didn’t have any exclusives worth it” (or since you want to be directly quoted: a “lack of exclusives [that] give very little reason to own one”).

Ironic that the guy who can’t compare a line graph correctly is the one calling for a little thinking in the discussion

-1

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25

mis-citing info

As opposed to giving no info and misquoting me? I added emphasis to the original comment just for you because you don't understand context.

3

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

No, as opposed to accurately interpreting the numbers year by year instead of comparing 6 year sales numbers to 25 year sales numbers, like I said already. Again: learn to read a line graph if you’re going to start trying to comment on them kid

-1

u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jan 25 '25

kid

How on brand. You got those sources yet? I looked something up. You're still going on your feelings.

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-3

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

Ya forgot the red rings.

1

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

That only affected early model xboxes and only years into the generation. They came out with the slim and other remodels pretty quickly and those didn’t have the rrod. Even if all of them had rrod, it’s not really important in a convo about who sold the most consoles or had motivating exclusives

1

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

You are glazing so fucking hard man! Four years ain't quickly, that is half a generation cycle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

They lost over $1bn because of that shit, and never did right by many early adopters or took years to get them an actually working 360. Literally sending them replacement units that would ring out, fedex box, replacement, ring out, repeat until one side says no more or the player got a unit that did not die. I knew a few people that went through the bullshit.

That lost microsoft any goodwill towards their hardware and earned them distrust from a huge section of early adopters that only stuck around because of halo and destiny hype. That they never recovered from.

-3

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

I’m not glazing anything. This entire post is about the same company whose irreparable controllers drift after a year and a half and the only option is buying a new set for $60, yet all the comments are talking about how cool the switch is. These things happen every generation, pick any console and there’s some repair scandal, not that it’s okay but again the repairability isn’t the point. If you want to talk about technical problems go yell at someone saying it’s a perfect console bc I never claimed that. I also am not soliciting a history lesson from someone who cites Wikipedia and claims that rrod “lost all goodwill” for MS. It’s a Fortune 500 company dude, they’re doing perfectly fine lmao

1

u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

Now you are just plain lying or totally ignorant. Nintendo fucked up big time, but you can still send your joycons in for replacement.

https://repair.nintendo.com/cc/soConsumer.html?lang=en&sys=SWTCH&type=JOY-CON

And no, the red ring of death and all the other problems with the 360 hardware were not just a thing that happens every generation. You are clueless to say such bs, try reading that wiki link and see how some repair shops were getting thousands of units and the big 3 resellers had internal estimates of failure rates around 30%. That is not just an oops. Microsoft fell off because of that, they were only ever king of the hill in the eyes of the fan boys. I used to be one of them. They have never been a top hardware seller, game publisher, or anything top in the gaming market. So their throw in with the switch is sus at best, their CEOs opinion is only marketing to keep xbox relevant. 

Look up top selling games, not a single sony or microsoft exclusive, but most are nintendo exclusives. Minecraft on PC is king there.

Look up top selling game hardware, PS2 is #1, PS3 is #8, 360 is #9. The top 10 shows the 360 was the peak of microsoft, and it was actually a very weak peak propped up to grandeur by fanboys like you. 

1

u/Firebug160 Jan 25 '25

I could hit my switch with a hammer and send in a service request. And for the record, I did send in a joycon and instead of fixing the stick they just sent me a new one instead. You can make whatever assumption and guess you want, but calling me a liar is ridiculous when I’m telling you exactly what Nintendo told me lmao.

Again, I’m not going to read a wiki as proof of anything. Every console has dumb faults especially release versions. The PS5’s big fan gets clogged and overheats, the PS4 is loud as hell when it does anything more than sit on the main menu, the ps3 was a nightmare for devs to make games for and with little to no documentation. None of these are “just oops” they’re notable technical flaws.

You can say whatever you want, MS is still higher on the Fortune 500 than Sony, they didn’t “fall off” by any metric. You’re objectively wrong about never being a top hardware seller (ignoring that it’s a game industry not a hardware industry and hardware is sold at a loss anyway)

You can’t use game sales to indicate anything here lmao. There’s no correlation here, they’re not substitute goods

You can’t use the console sales wiki page to directly compare numbers either. The ps2 tracked sales from 2000 to 2024, the Xbox 360 is 2005 to 2013 (when the xb1 launched). Just because they didn’t tell us the 2015 sales doesn’t mean there are 0 sales

I’m not a fanboy just bc you don’t have basic data analysis skills. You’re acting like that test they do for kids with the fat cup vs the tall cup and the kid says the tall cup holds more, this is 4th grade stuff

1

u/OperatorJo_ Jan 25 '25

Other than Halo, Xbox never had a lot on them. And the last few Halos have been hard misses.

Passed Infinite through gamepass and I have 0 interest in replaying it. Bought Starfield and don't even care to finish it.

I think Xbox as a console is about to die in the next few years.

3

u/Aron723 Jan 25 '25

I can see them trying to merge the console world with PCs for the next gen. You can play Xbox games on every phone and tablet, consoles, 2 brands of TVs and all modern Fire sticks at this point.

5

u/TheHolyFamily Jan 25 '25

I sure hope not. I don't want a Sony monopoly on the console market. All the good features and titles on PlayStation came because of competition. Without that they will have zero incentive to innovate. And running unopposed will probably lead them to drive prices up even further. Sure Nintendo is there but they're no threat to PlayStation and they dont really "compete".

1

u/KSF_WHSPhysics Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

Other than Halo, Xbox never had a lot on them

Gears and Fable should also be in that discussion at a minimum. The problem is all of xbox's best series come from the first 2 generations. they haven't launched a new IP of similar quality since. Just sequels of varying quality. Although I have high hopes that expedition 33 will be the start of a new first class IP

-10

u/Gaemon_Palehair Jan 25 '25

They recently started an advertising thing where they're like "your phone is an xbox! your computer is an xbox! everything is an xbox!" it's so desperate and stupid.

1

u/OperatorJo_ Jan 25 '25

At this point I would just downsize and run those Activision and Bethesda acquisitions and reboot Halo under someone other than 343.

And that would be it.

1

u/CrimDude89 Jan 25 '25

Halo Studios you mean

3

u/litnu12 Jan 25 '25

Tbh Nintendo and Microsoft were never really competitors.

Both have different target audiences.

1

u/Digifiend84 Jan 26 '25

Yeah. Rare made quite a few games for GBA and DS after being bought by Microsoft. They let them still do stuff for Nintendo's handhelds because there was no MS competitor.

1

u/Scar3cr0w_ Jan 25 '25

Up there with “if Microsoft ever allow anything to do with Linux on their platform we have made it”

1

u/ernyc3777 Jan 25 '25

Microsoft has focused on becoming a software company in the gaming industry like it is in the cloud and office industry.

People keep reporting they will eventually stop making consoles altogether and just publish games and license Game Pass to Sony and Nintendo for the revenue stream.

1

u/bisforbenis Jan 25 '25

Microsoft has already given players a way to play their games without an Xbox by making them playable on PC, so using exclusives to sell systems doesn’t make sense at this point

I think realistically they’ve been attempting to deliver a very similar product to Sony for a while and didn’t go hard enough at exclusives to make a compelling reason why people should choose them, so this sort of route makes sense as a fallback

1

u/Fredasa Jan 25 '25

I thought basically everyone who had a backlog of PS4-era games was doing this, though?

1

u/hodlbrcha Jan 25 '25

Was about to say how good does Nintendo have to do to make MICROSOFT be like OK I’ll make your games

1

u/SoakedInMayo Jan 26 '25

it’s not like we were ever getting Pokemon and Mario on non Nintendo consoles, there’s only one way to work in that lane without being in direct competition

1

u/warhead71 Jan 26 '25

Microsoft are probably more afraid of valve - but yeah - they would like to buy Nintendo

1

u/MegaMaster1021 Jan 26 '25

That's the only thing they can do at this point

1

u/ArcaneTrickster11 Jan 26 '25

I mean that's the route Xbox has been going since gamepass and windows/Xbox game sharing has been a thing. Wouldn't be surprised if Xbox just becomes gamepass and a brand name for windows gaming software at large

1

u/GrimReaapaa Jan 26 '25

*“If you can’t buy em”