I think the Next Xbox should be a $1000 PC alternative

[moonbits]

I don't think there's anything they can do. The stigma against them is so aggressive on all fronts, it feels like even if they did everything right it wouldn't work.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Not really. They could just exit the hardware market. It's really not a great business strategy. If you look at every other example of an expensive boutique console that's existed, they pretty much always fail. Why would this one, that offers absolutely nothing over a computer be different? Especially when something like the steam deck exists that basically does the same thing but is portable and cheaper.

Give me an example of a failed boutique console.

All I can think of is the Neo Geo, and because it’s sold at a profit it’s not a failure.

Microsoft could only sell 5-10 million units, but because it’s at a profit that would still be a success. I’d imagine the fan boys would lap it up.

Xbox can’t be a vehicle for selling games anymore, it’s just not a viable business.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I don't think there's anything they can do. The stigma against them is so aggressive on all fronts, it feels like even if they did everything right it wouldn't work.

I’ve seen enough things succeed even with a rough history to say I disagree.

Controlling the narrative is important. I agree with you that it may just be out of their hands now, but I won’t count them out until they’re dead. If they can’t get back into people’s good graces, that’s their fault for not doing enough, because it is ALWAYS possible. You just need to give people what they want.

 

[moonbits]

sony doesn't do shit, they shit the bed constantly and still sell millions.

 

[Graw]

At least not the same way they have been.

“I sure do love my worse computer with less features, worse console exclusive games than PlayStation, and worse ports because everybody is designing for Sony first and us second! I sure do love owning none of my games because the company i chose to support is the most nasty with that and there’s no alternative forms of ownership like on PC! I sure do love losing features because people are actually trying to do fun stuff with Dev Mode but then it becomes SLIGHTLY too copyright infringing!”

They can’t do that anymore. They can’t be… the other option. They need to stand out AND DO SO IN A POSITIVE WAY.

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2025

I want to point out how much talk this thread has gotten simply from poking the bear of “high price console stuff”.

That’s not what the market wants. If they try to do that, in the midst of bad financial times, it won’t work. It would be a stupid move.

I can honestly say i'm surprised Xbox lasted as long as it did. Even when the original Xbox came out it seemed kind of pointless. Every one after that has seemed equally as pointless. Game exclusivity is stupid and really only exists for business reasons and not technical ones and it's been that way since at least the ps4/Xbox one.

At this point it's more of a moral thing. I'm morally opposed to yet another dumbed down, locked out general purpose computer masquerading as an appliance so you can pay some company money for the privilege of using the hardware you purchased. The entire console market should have died 10 years ago and it's only been kept afloat because people are fairly ignorant about technology despite living in a world surrounded by it and most people have no idea pretty much all modern electronics are just general purpose computers with embedded firmware and software to stop them from utilizing it like a general purpose computer. Consoles, modern smartphones and any of these appliance computers are evil. They're intentionally designed to keep the end users from utilizing their potential. They've been trying to do the same bullshit to desktop PCs over the last few years too with the embedded management engine and secure boot shit.

It really makes me sad young people don't understand the utility and value of general purpose computing because they grew up in a world where corporations have intentionally tried to take it away and will actively simp for corporations to continue doing so and have been fed bullshit about how scary non corporate curated online environments and software is.

Give me an example of a failed boutique console.

All I can think of is the Neo Geo, and because it’s sold at a profit it’s not a failure.

Microsoft could only sell 5-10 million units, but because it’s at a profit that would still be a success. I’d imagine the fan boys would lap it up.

Xbox can’t be a vehicle for selling games anymore, it’s just not a viable business.

3d0, amstrad, Apple bandai, Atari 5200,7800,lynx, Philips cdi, channel F, Genesis nomad, gizmondo, laser active, ngage, ouya, pcfx

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Give me an example of a failed boutique console.

All I can think of is the Neo Geo, and because it’s sold at a profit it’s not a failure.

Microsoft could only sell 5-10 million units, but because it’s at a profit that would still be a success. I’d imagine the fan boys would lap it up.

Xbox can’t be a vehicle for selling games anymore, it’s just not a viable business.

The 3DO, though it failed for a variety of extenuating factors.

Many more expensive handhelds that could “do more” but didn’t have the games to balance out the price.

Sega Saturn, much as I love it, failed the optics game in the wider world thanks to a high price and perceived low power.

The 3DS initially had issues with a high price, leading to Nintendo taking drastic measures to lower it and bring people back in. The PS3 was much the same. It didn’t become what it ended up being until Sony lowered the dang price and offered games that people wanted.

 

[fake-kun]

I can honestly say i'm surprised Xbox lasted as long as it did. Even when the original Xbox came out it seemed kind of pointless. Every one after that has seemed equally as pointless. Game exclusivity is stupid and really only exists for business reasons and not technical ones and it's been that way since at least the ps4/Xbox one.

At this point it's more of a moral thing. I'm morally opposed to yet another dumbed down, locked out general purpose computer masquerading as an appliance so you can pay some company money for the privilege of using the hardware you purchased. The entire console market should have died 10 years ago and it's only been kept afloat because people are fairly ignorant about technology despite living in a world surrounded by it and most people have no idea pretty much all modern electronics are just general purpose computers with embedded firmware and software to stop them from utilizing it like a general purpose computer. Consoles, modern smartphones and any of these appliance computers are evil. They're intentionally designed to keep the end users from utilizing their potential. They've been trying to do the same bullshit to desktop PCs over the last few years too with the embedded management engine and secure boot shit.

It really makes me sad young people don't understand the utility and value of general purpose computing because they grew up in a world where corporations have intentionally tried to take it away and will actively simp for corporations to continue doing so and have been fed bullshit about how scary non corporate curated online environments and software is.

People just want to play video games without having to deal with PC bullshit, and I say this as someone who vastly prefers computers as my gaming platform.

 

[Graw]

People just want to play video games without having to deal with PC bullshit, and I say this as someone who vastly prefers computers as my gaming platform.

Don't the much cheaper steam decks come with a steam frontend installed that acts pretty much like a console ui?

 

[moonbits]

not everyone wants to be a turbo user, calling it ignorant is whack.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

The 3DO, though it failed for a variety of extenuating factors.

Many more expensive handhelds that could “do more” but didn’t have the games to balance out the price.

Sega Saturn, much as I love it, failed the optics game in the wider world thanks to a high price and perceived low power.

The 3DS initially had issues with a high price, leading to Nintendo taking drastic measures to lower it and bring people back in. The PS3 was much the same. It didn’t become what it ended up being until Sony lowered the dang price and offered games that people wanted.

Fair call on the 3DO, but Microsoft comes in with around 20 million fans before they even show their hand.

I don’t agree that the Saturn was a boutique console at all. It was a traditional console which followed the standard business model of selling at a loss at launch.

But I see anyone else showing a way Xbox hardware can be profitable.

Microsoft are simply no longer in a position to subsidise the console price with game sales; so I don’t see any other way the Xbox hardware can be a viable business if the machines are not sold at a profit.

Then also they need a reason to exist. If Xbox is not an extremely high powered box, there is no reason to own one, because every other price and power bracket has a far more popular product Xbox can’t hope to beat.

 

[Bomberman]

Dead brand. I think they should stick to the series s model and just launch before PS6. Strong but affordable with pushing gamepass and subsidizing gamepass by porting games to PS5 since they sell well there.
OFC Microsoft has absolutely no idea the direction they want to go. They want two SKUs of handhelds, to legacy Xbox OS, to merge PCs and consoles etc.

The whole point of a console is to have it easy to play. A PC console hybrid doesn't make sense. Especially at 1k. Why not just build a PC at that point.

Problem Microsoft has is that they put too much money into acquisitions and boxed themselves into a subscription service model. They can't afford exclusives at this point so being affordable and consumer friendly is their best option.

1k for a console is absurdity. Nextbox needs to be the budget console. The consumers spoke and Series S outsold series X (not trying to hate series X as that is the model I picked a refurbished series x).

 

[ThatOneLum]

Looking at the way that things have been trending for a while, it would make more sense to me if they shifted solely to producing handheld PCs in the vein of the ROG Ally or the Steam Deck.

Clearly, the form factor is popular, and with their Xbox (play anywhere) shit they'd have people who were only console gamers entering the PC space with a decent starting library of games to play on there. Easy enough to see how they'd package it with Xbox Game Pass or w/e to entice more consumers, then start releasing their games on Nintendo platforms full force.

I feel like aiming upmarket when they don't have any upmarket prestige to rely on would be an insane move for the company to be honest. Apple gets away with premium prices because it's spent the last 40+ years convincing everyone that its stuff is top-tier with the branding, design, and ecosystem.

Microsoft feels more like the "You still wanna run that same networking software from 1998? Sure go ahead homie, we've bodged a work around together" Not the sort of company who'd you buy overpriced crap from (much, anyway.)

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Nextbox needs to be the budget console.

Which they will again have to sell at a loss, while no one buys games, and Game Pass continues to be a complete money hole.

Not really a good business model as far as I see.

 

[GardeniaSky]

No one is going to be able to afford that shiny new console

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

People just want to play video games without having to deal with PC bullshit, and I say this as someone who vastly prefers computers as my gaming platform.

People don't know what they want. Nowadays they need an influencer or an algorythm to tell them what to buy.

They barely know what they *dont* want. They could literally be told to eat shit and only realize it doesnt taste that good after the fact.

 

[DeadVoivod]

Why not make it modular? Sell a base model for like 300€ and sell modules (not Apple overpriced) and let people be able to change CPU, GPU, SSD or internal memory with just a swap. That way you can spend your 1000 bucks if you chose so. Enable Steam support and good is.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Why not make it modular? Sell a base model for like 300€ and sell modules (not Apple overpriced) and let people be able to change CPU, GPU, SSD or internal memory with just a swap. That way you can spend your 1000 bucks if you chose so. Enable Steam support and good is.

Because then you lose the benefit of being a console.

One example would be that games could no longer ship with complied shaders

 

[DeadVoivod]

Because then you lose the benefit of being a console.

One example would be that games could no longer ship with complied shaders

Does it need to be a "console" though?

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Does it need to be a "console" though?

It doesn’t “need” to be, but if the goal is a viable business I can’t see it.

The parts would need to be substantially cheaper than PC parts to entice that market. So really you’d need a 70+ million user base before you could get whole sales prices to that.

 

[Yousef]

While I absolutely agree, I think this has been done since the PS3 days quite frankly. The only difference is a different OS. If a new console comes out and you can migrate your steam library to it, I’d see that as a good thing even though it’s never going to happen. Alternatively, a console that lets you access the game’s files ALA steam deck would be very handy. Could be useful for downloading games from archive.org. Although the issue with that is compatibility. It’d be interesting if an Xbox consoles would have automatic compatibility with a windows game, or just download 360 roms on it cuz the 360 games on the Xbox backwards compatibility program store are all just roms.

Also yes, I’m a big supporter of consoles replacing PCs. Especially compact consoles that would be easy to carry around.

 

[Bomberman]

Which they will again have to sell at a loss, while no one buys games, and Game Pass continues to be a complete money hole.

Not really a good business model as far as I see.

With Nintendo switch 2 being 450$ and PlayStation also taking up a premium mantle.

Xbox’s best bet next gen is to be budget friendly especially since they are pushing a subscription model.

The pc/console hybrid is a terrible idea imo. Xbox has the opportunity to carve themselves a niche in the market as the budget friendly system.

 

[NotGodlike]

I think having both console interface AND desktop one is the best of both worlds because you can use your console with its simple UI, but at the same time access desktop features and do whatever. Xbox almost does it alright with how it allows you to install UWP and some store apps (even emulators), so I wish the idea would be more expanded, to allow flexibility. And having the console be compact enough to carry of course