Xboxhas been having a tough time of it lately, which should be fairly evident seeing as though almost every game it’s makingis now heading over to PlayStation consoles. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Xbox will never catch up to PlayStation on the console front, so it’s been searching for out-of-the-box ways it could possibly gain an advantage.
Steam integration is one such idea that has been floated around by Xbox, turning its next console into what would essentially be a pre-built PC with the reputation of a home console. It would make a lot of sense for Xbox to go in that direction, given its long struggles over competing with PlayStation, and a new video by Xbox announcing a partnership with AMD may have pretty much confirmed it.
Xbox Basically Confirms Its Next Console Is Actually A PC
In a new video uploaded to the Xbox YouTube account(thanksPolygon), Xbox president Sarah Bond announces that Microsoft and AMD have entered a multi-year partnership to produce chips for its next generation of Xbox systems. It’s a pretty standard announcement, but one particular comment made by Bond could have potentially blown the lid off of Xbox’s plans for the future.
“This is all about building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the game you want across devices anywhere you want,” says Bond. “Delivering you an Xbox experience, not locked to a single store, or tied to one device”.
Again, there are a lot of Xbox marketing buzzwords about ‘playing anywhere’, but this is the first time Xbox has claimed that its next generation of consoles won’t be locked to a single storefront. This essentially means that Xbox consoles could support multiple storefronts, opening up the strong possibility of Steam integration, and essentially confirming that its next home console will look and feel a lot more like a PC.
If you’re now sitting there thinking that means you’ll get to experience PlayStation games on Xbox, since Sony has been regularly releasing its exclusives on Steam, then I’m about to burst your bubble. According to Xbox insider Jez Corden, PlayStation has the ability toblock their games on Steam from appearing on certain platforms, and it’s difficult to see the company allowing an ‘Xbox PC’ to have immediate access to a big library of PlayStation games.
