More to share later this year." Xbox and Microsoft pledge to double down on Windows improvements for gamers, as Valve's Steam OS turns up the heat.

[Windows Central]

Xbox promises to improve Windows for gamers at CES 2025, in fresh comments from Jason Ronald.

More to share later this year." Xbox and Microsoft pledge to double down on Windows improvements for gamers, as Valve's Steam OS turns up the heat. : Read more

 

[fatpunkslim]

Thanks for this article @Jez Corden It's great that there's competition, as it will accelerate improvements on Windows for gamers. Even though Steam OS is currently better optimized in terms of its interface and user experience, it remains less performant and less stable than running games on native Windows. Proton performs emulation, which causes several problems: compatibility issues for some games, especially with anti-cheat systems, sometimes games do not run as well as on native Windows with performance, graphics, or stability issues, and certain features related to DirectX12 are not fully supported.

So if Windows manages to achieve a good level (excellent ?) of user experience, it would be a huge advantage and the perfect solution in the end. Anyway, to release their portable Xbox console, they have no choice; they must release a system truly adapted to gamers and all platforms, Combine the best of the Xbox operating system, often considered the best console OS, and the best of Windows.

 

[Lurking_Lurker_Lurks]

Xbox and Microsoft are saying here what Xbox and Windows gaming users have been for years. Better late than never is neither a compliment nor an insult; it's a statement of fact: better late than never. I like gaming on my Legion Go because it's a windows. It makes me like it more than gaming on my Steam Deck because I can do more, but even then you use the device and just realize Windows could be such a better gaming experience in ways that don't compromise its open ecosystem and freedom.

For example Xbox Game Bar compact mode added your five most recently played games to the home screen and this includes games from across all launchers/storefronts. You can even tell it that whatever you're using is a game and it'll add that (like it added Edge when I did that while cloud gaming on the browser). Now it could improve a lot in this area (like for example it literally just adds the entire Edge app instead of saving like a link to the website (in this case Xbox cloud gaming) so it takes me specifically there), but it actually works really well. On my Legion Go I have the Xbox button mapped to one of the back paddles, and as soon as turning it on (I also turned everything on startup off) I can often just click for the gamebar, select a recently played game, and hop in. If it's an Xbox game I don't even need to open the launcher (Steam games do make me open the launcher and so does Diablo 4). And Xbox Game Bar does it better than Legion Space. The icons look better and it more accurately recognizes and saves the games I play. Now all that said... it's only just the last five I've played? Why? Why not just have a tan in the game bar that acts as my library and lets me scroll for all installed games?

Gaming on Windows doesn't need to be a 1:1 copy for SteamOS. Anyone who wants it to be doesn't understand what makes a market healthy. But Microsoft could serve to have some damn good comepetition that offers gamers the experience they want through value windows does not offer. This leads to instances like this where years later Microsoft is finally listening and taking advantage and incorporating their unique advantage of having both Xbox and Windows got gaming proper. Of course this is all just words still, and I'll wait to see what they actually do, but in general this is just a healthy market starting to form. And competition playing it's role. I hope this leads to more accessible PC gaming overall with improved value and benefits no matter where a gamer chooses to play their games. I also hope this helps invite new gamers, maybe those who haven't even owned a console before, as barriers for gaming (including just an unintuitive user experience and interface) come down. I. Also really hope this trickles down into the console market where they really really need proper competition that forces consoles to wake up and get with the rest of the modern gaming world in terms of value (like no more paying for PS and Nintendo to join Xbox and every PC).

The overall gaming industry desperately needs to break into the zeitgeist proper. It needs new blood. We're really seeing that with costs ballooning and software sales struggling for many third parties. If a gaming push across multiple operating systems can do that, then I'm all in.

 

[pjmlp]

As Windows developer that has been burned by the whole misteps done since Windows 8 with WinRT, UWP and now WInUI, including the complete Windows Phone disaster I am not seeing Microsoft going this right, given how bad the whole desktop development experience has gotten.

While Valve is playing a dangerous game of emulating Windows with their Linux distribution (yes it isn't really emulation), it all depends on how Microsoft will tackle this.

They could try to kill SteamOS devices as they did previously with the EEE PC netbooks, by offering the license with the goal of killing the OEMs desire to look elsewhere.

However Windows 11 mess isn't the same as Windows XP was, so maybe it wouldn't work a second time.

They could also make it harder for Proton/WINE to keep "emulating" Win32/DirectX, but that would be a kind of second UWP, so it all depends on how they approach this attack vector , while keeping studios on board.

Finally, if the execution is too little too late, no one will care.

 

[fjtorres5591]

I think people are reading this backwards: they are more likely bringing Windows games onto the XBOX OS rather than bringing XBOX Games into Windows.

They can do both things easily (Plays Anywhere!) but if they do the latter there is no reason to do XBOX hardware and they already said, repeatedly, there *will* be a new generation of XBOX consoles.

Maybe they do both.

But the best play is to keep the gaming-only consoles as the low and mid end and deliver an XBOX compatible subsystem for Windows at the high end. Brings both Windows and XBOX into a unified ecosystem and dashboard but addressing two distinct markets. Because as Spencer said, you're not going to grow gaming with thousand dollar consoles.

Everybody is so focused on current gen console sales they forget that a ton of people are refusing to upgrade; on XBOX and PS. And on XBOX, you have cloud to console streaming to play current gen on last gen boxes. So maybe instead of thinking of XBOX as a 30-50M box platform (which ain't chopped liver) the addressable market for XBOX games is more like 60-80M+ including cloud.

Because, one more time: XCloud streams XBOX games, not PC games. The more gamers adopt cloud on TV, tablets, phones, or browser, the bigger the market for XBOX versions of games and, of course, for Game Pass. And developers that want to reach cloud gamers need to support XBOX. And the new "stream what you buy" initiative is an extra incentive to look beyond new box sales and look instead to the number of gamers.

Finally, The one question nobody has bothered to consider is what exactly Bond meant when she said they were working on *forward* compatibility.

Might it not mean making current hardware compatible with next gen games? And if they do, maybe the SX stays on the market as the new entry level XBOX and the new box at $600-700 becomes the midrange and gaming PC become the high end XBOXes.

Answer that question and you might see what exactly they are up to.

 

[1078mac]

This should have already been done. They are going to miss the handheld market as well I think. They may have a product, but it will likely not gain traction because their support and iteration is glacial in pace. How is a company this rich and all in on gaming so bad at making a good interface in general (Xbox app) and so behind for small screens and handhelds? Just copy Steam. Make it log into the Xbox or PC gaming interface and then make it possible to shift to desktop mode, but don't make desktop the default boot up for handhelds. It's like they are actively trying to kill their business for how bad their apps and support is for gaming. I have zero faith in MS to get this right. Very disappointing!

 

[naddy69]

"It's like they are actively trying to kill their business for how bad their apps and support is for gaming. I have zero faith in MS to get this right. Very disappointing!"

That's because all MS has is desktop/server Windows. They have NO mobile OS. Windows 11 is not usable on a 6" screen, handheld, battery powered device. Period.

And it never will be.

Whereas iOS is a subset of MacOS. Whereas Android is a subset of Linux. Both are based on Unix, which is BY DESIGN portable (to ARM or any CPU) and scalable (both up and down). Windows is neither and again, never will be.