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

[Dodgykebaab]

I know you all want to disagree with me and tell me I'm wrong and that's fine; but please hear my opinion on the subject first before you dismiss me because I think I make a very good argument to support this idea.

It's not a 10 minute ad revenue grabbing video, because I just wanted to get my opinion across, so I tried to keep it as short as I could.

But I did try to make it entertaining too, so hopefully even if you disagree with me, you at least get a laugh out of this!

But I'm more than happy to discuss anything in this that you think I might have got wrong here

 

[otogirisou]

$1000?​

what the f---?

 

[Dodgykebaab]

$1000?​

what the f---?

I think I had some solid reasons!

But to me it's clear that Xbox being a traditional console has failed, they simply can't be a PlayStation alternative anymore.

I think they should sell their games on Switch 2 & PlayStation 5, and turn there hardware into a high end boutique product and have it actually make a profit by selling it as a product for the subset of PC users that want a simple console experience but not lose their library of Steam games.

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

At that point just build a PC

 

[iamthemilkman]

Nobody's buying a $1K Xbox -- especially when there'll be zero exclusives since "everything's an Xbox."

 

[TheSoulWalker TheSoulWalker]

Genuinely I think Xbox just needs to fix their OS situation. I think the push for SteamOS is getting Windows to finally make a controller friendly Windows OS option made for consoles. If MS embraced Steam as a platform and integrated Gamepass with the platform alongside releasing their games day 1 on steam like they have been, they have the potential to grow past any console war.

 

[Leon]

Video's not loading for me but, absolutely not, the main benefit of console is the price to performance factor, a 1k xbox would make it irrelevant in the face of a pc, which is overall superior to anything microsoft could logically put out at that price, if only for the modullarity.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

To offer some perspective to bring the conversation away from the unanimous “hell no” you seem to have gotten: I think the XBox SHOULD become something new. What I can’t say, but I feel like the brand is dying due to a perceived redundancy of the XBox as a system. They need games, yes, and we can talk all day about their horrible management, but what they really need is a direction to help inspire people to make games.

You are very right that they’ve failed to compete with Sony. Not because they can’t (it’s literally Microsoft), but because the company sabotaged the XBox brand. I mean, XBox began as dark and cool and powerful and edgy. Does that SOUND like Microsoft? I miss that vibe, but that ship has sailed and was never going to fly for long. I can’t offer up specific suggestions, but they need to find a direction that the company, the WHOLE company, believes in which isn’t so clean cut and user friendly. They’ve pushed more people away over a long time than they have brought in because everybody can tell “corporate fake” to some extent. They need a passionate team with bold ideas and the funds to make those ideas a reality.

In short, if they aren’t interested in doing anything interesting, they shouldn’t still be making consoles at all. It’s a lot of wasted resources to keep XBox around if truly nobody in the company believes in it.

 

[moonbits]

I think they should fade away and become a 3rd party publisher.

 

[Gorse]

I think they should fade away and become a 3rd party publisher.

Who would want their game published by Microsoft – especially a Microsoft that already proved it couldn't make it in the first-party market? The company doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the world, especially right now.

 

[moonbits]

Who would want their game published by Microsoft – especially a Microsoft that already proved it couldn't make it in the first-party market? The company doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the world, especially right now.

what the f are you on about lol
they are fine as a publisher, many great games were published by them

they are the ones that convinced Team Ninja to revive Ninja Gaiden

 

[Gorse]

what the f are you on about lol

I completely misinterpreted your post, and am a fat idiot in general. SORRY

 

[moonbits]

I completely misinterpreted your post, and am a fat idiot in general. SORRY

lmao you're good, I'd agree they don't have a good reputation for the Xbox brand, but just being Microsoft Publishing should work out for them.

 

[Graw]

Imagine being this much of a brainwashed consumer that you'd advocate for a crippled thousand dollar PC just for a brand name

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

A few days later, I feel I should add:

Take people’s balking at the price into account. Xbox might be better served to not go against Sony, but to try and undercut Nintendo for the low end market.

It sounds stupid because of Nintendo’s dominance, but the way I see it is this: people right now are hyper aware of price. Emulation, piracy, and even retro gaming has grown to such prominence for a single key reason: we all want games, and we don’t want to pay as much. The PS5 is $500, rarely going on sale. The Switch is $300, $50 more for a better screen, and has the “Nintendo tax” that people often complain about. PC gaming is seen as cheaper once you get into it thanks to Steam sales and better emulation access, but the price of high end PC gaming outweighs the savings for many people, especially those who just want to play a few games.

The point is this: nobody right now is offering a “deal”. This entire forum is filled with folks who are jaded by the sheer amount of price gouging by dang near everybody in gaming. If XBox was to swoop in and be a real “consumer friendly” option, then it might swing them into a newer, better position. I know: we all scoff at the idea of Microsoft being “consumer friendly” but that’s just us. The general consumer cares about a good deal. Xbox tried that this generation with the S, but the marketing was absurdly poor and muddled. If they present one single clear message: “all the games with none of the cost”, then I think they might have a shot.


Again however, XBox is just a name. The people who built that name and made it mean something are all long gone. A team at Microsoft would actually have to care about offering something cool again for them to have an impact, and I don’t know if they have that in them at this point.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Take people’s balking at the price into account. Xbox might be better served to not go against Sony, but to try and undercut Nintendo for the low end market.

I did think about that, but I couldn't see a full business plan for that. You can buy a Series S from Facebook marketplace for £100 2nd hand, and people are still not buying them. And the few that do only get it for GamePass which is a financial black hole for Microsoft according to the FTC leak.
------
I'm pretty sure many people here are just reading the forum headline and just commenting "NO WAY!", without actually listening to why I think a boutique machine is the only viable business route left for them.

But it's so simple; in gaming you either make your money from selling games and subscriptions or you make it by selling hardware.

If you put Steam on your system you are not going to make your money selling games because all the money goes to Valve, so automatically the console needs to be sold at a profit.

PS5 Pro is sold at a profit and that's $700. Microsoft claim their new console will be more powerful.
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I don't see how people expect Microsoft to make money from a Powerful Steam enabled console, and if it's not powerful it's not worth having Steam on it.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I genuinely think Xbox as a brand is done. Which sucks because they dominated much of 6th-7th gen

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Imagine being this much of a brainwashed consumer that you'd advocate for a crippled thousand dollar PC just for a brand name

Maybe that's their way of coping that they use a ROM site.

Dear Microsoft, if by any chance you read me here, I may or may not have downloaded a few of your ISOs from the Repo, but Bill my beloved, I swear to you the next 1000$ I'll spend will be for you.

I promise. XOXO.

 

[Graw]

Maybe that's their way of coping that they use a ROM site.

Dear Microsoft, if by any chance you read me here, I may or may not have downloaded a few of your ISOs from the Repo, but Bill my beloved, I swear to you the next 1000$ I'll spend will be for you.

I promise. XOXO.

I think it's just young people who never got to experience a world where corporations aren't trying their hardest to turn every computer into a locked down appliance they control.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

Imagine being this much of a brainwashed consumer that you'd advocate for a crippled thousand dollar PC just for a brand name

Well done for not listening to my opinion.

I never said I wanted this. I said it was their only viable business move left.

If you had bothered to listen to my opinion before just making shit up, you'd have known that though.

 

[Graw]

Well done for not listening to my opinion.

I never said I wanted this. I said it was their only viable business move left.

If you had bothered to listen to my opinion before just making shit up, you'd have known that though.

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.

 

[Ethernoh]

Yeah like Graw said, they could exit the HW market and be like sega, or better yet, focus on gamepass and be the netflix of videogames...

A 1K xbox is not a better deal than a 1000k gaming laptop/PC.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

This, all of this, is why I said what I did.

People don’t trust Microsoft, people don’t trust AAA gaming, people don’t care trust any of that. When people are BEGGING for you to leave the console space, that’s when you know you’ve messed up.

That’s why I am saying they need to offer a deal. Things are too expensive right now. If they can SOMEHOW offer a plan that is profitable for them while also being a deal for the consumer, people may be drawn in.
They just need to actually TRY to act like they care about the consumer, because they haven’t offered a deal in a long time. Other than GamePass, but the love is gone for that and the cracks are showing.

 

[moonbits]

nobody is begging for them to leave, competition is always good but they can't compete anymore in hardware.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

nobody is begging for them to leave, competition is always good but they can't compete anymore in hardware.

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.