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Yeah my hopes arent high for full xbox/pc parity. Xbox Play anywhere would be their best investment youre correct.

What they should do is start integrating games retroactively into the program like they did with 360 backwards compatibility.

This would allow for almost no engineering debt and would increase value for people in the ecosystem just like they did before. Then users would be willing to more fluidly switch between Xbox and PC based hardware, regardless of game compatibility on either device.

I would still kill to play my OG xbox and 360 games on a PC one day though.

This is essentially my understanding of the state of things too. The caveat is that compatibility/preservation are stated to be at the forefront of Xbox's strategy, but implementation and parity with PC system features is a deeeeep rabbit hole of engineering issues they might not be willing to confront in the long haul.

Yeah, time will tell. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Oh and as for the paid multiplayer experience... If microsoft recedes their subscription requirement for xbox games... They will be the heroes of gaming for years to come(even though they are the ones that started the trend in the first place lol)

However I do not see this happening. 12 million gold/core subscribers at ~$5-10/month each. They cant justify giving up that income just for "good PR"

I agree they are aware of what their position should be in the current gaming space, but i also agree they are going to fumble hard on some fronts because their intentions are ultimately motivated by profit.

Chasing immediate profits will distract from what their goal should be in order to succeed in the long run, which is optimizing user experience and value.

The reason Steam/Valve is so successful is because user experience is clearly their #1 focus. Hopefully Microsoft sees that clearly now with SteamOS biting at their heels.

Yeah it all makes sense from their business perspective, but from a current xbox users perspective, losing compatibility for new hardware isnt appealing.

The extra steps are for current pc/xbox users that already have hardware. Why upgrade without increased functionality? A streamlined experience could be enough for some, but definitely not for me at $700+.

Updated your post i see lol

Yeah they care mainly about gamepass, which is why im worried they dont have the motivation to thoroughly flesh out this push for cross compatibility. Why when they can make you pay more to stream everything?

Also, i believe the amount of money they get from players just paying for the privilege of playing online is bigger than most people think. Its also the gateway into gamepass... "Im already paying monthly for multiplayer, why not $5-10 more and get more games to play too?" They almost certainly will not abandon that revenue stream.

As for the price of this device, it can be anything as long as it has the right value, but we will see what that value actually becomes...

But the only thing that makes this new system exciting is the merger of Non-PC Xbox games onto a PC platform. Anything else is just what we already have... A PC.

The flexibility people want is to play the games they have already paid for within the Xbox ecosystem.

Losing your games with new gen hardware is a thing of the past. New hardware rarely has a killer app nowadays that would make losing playability of up to 4 generations of games worth it. Thats why all new consoles have backwards compatibility like PC.

Also the xbox-only library is NOT small. Forgetting disc games... I have 900 digital games on my series X spanning from the OG xbox. ~40 of those are currently apart of the Play Anywhere program. Sure alot of those games have PC ports but xbox isnt going to source that version of the software from a random source and add it to my library for free. Youre right they will have to emulate.

Giving a "Tough Shit" to current xbox players and their libraries is not going to bode well, and this product will just look like another PC with extra steps for current players.

It will really have to streamline alot of shit that i dont entirely have faith they can streamline to make the value proposition of subscription worth it imo.

We know they will attempt to maintain the current status quo of paying for multiplayer.... So that will enshittify the PC gaming experience. My bigger fear is that we wont get true compatibility of all pc and xbox games so they will lean on streaming which will also require a subscription.

Thats what i dont get, if i end up having the option between an xbox/pc that charges me money to play multiplayer games that i can play for free on my SteamOS PC or windows PC.... Why would I buy that xbox/pc system?

This is already the reason i began divesting in xbox consoles.

I dont think you understood the focus of my post. I am asking HOW they plan on going about it. People want to ignore the fine details, but they will ultimately determine the players experience...

Example - Will this "PC" allow me to install the PC bedrock version, java version, xbox 360 version, xbox one version or XSX bedrock version of Minecraft simultaneously and manage PC files/mods as i do on windows 11?

More importantly is it going to charge me money to play multiplayer and even LAN like my Xbox currently does?!?!

There are so many details making this messy for microsoft that people arent considering. Yes we all want a PC/Xbox merge, but they will almost certainly misstep in ways that will creates headaches for users.

I am hoping they handle it well, but if Microsoft's mistakes in the past are anything to go by, this is going to get ugly before it gets better for their users.

Same here,

My concern is how their focus on increasing value for shareholders will get in the way of increasing value for their player base.

If we are lucky they will invest in the future of their brand by making a huge value proposition for the players, and it hopefully wont be centered around streaming or locked behind a subscription...

Offline play with bots, not server dependent... Its a multiplayer game with mtx. Its not an Online-Only service game.

You could consider it a service game of sorts, but it isnt the toxic sludge that Destiny 2 and Marathon are/could have been.