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We’ve all had time to digest the This Is An Xbox marketing campaign that landed last November.
It’s hardly as if it came as a surprise. While Microsoft is adamant it’s not stepping out of the console game, the company has been pushing its alternative gaming routes for years - namely via the expansion of cloud gaming.
The This Is An Xbox campaign is simply a succinct summary of what we already knew, that you don’t need an Xbox to enjoy what the brand has to offer.
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Whether it’s via handheld devices, mobiles, or smart TVs, you can access Xbox pretty much anywhere these days.
It’s that former topic of handhelds that I’m going to touch on today because Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of ‘Next Generation’ has opened up about what fans might soon be able to expect from the company.
You can take a look at the This Is An Xbox ad in action below.
As reported by The Verge, Ronald recently attended a roundtable held by AMD and Lenovo centred around “The Future of Gaming Handhelds”.
He hinted that Microsoft was soon planning on bringing the Xbox experience to Windows PCs. Yes, you heard me correctly - not on bringing Windows to Xbox.
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He later explained to The Verge, “We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and as we partner across the industry it’s really about how do we bring those innovations that we’ve incubated and developed in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space.”
“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” he continued.
“What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”
Microsoft may not be leaving consoles behind, but they’re clearly not the company’s primary focus.
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And while some are delighted by that news, others are feeling a tad underwhelmed by the company’s recent moves.
“As someone whose gaming PC is in the living room, this is amazing to hear. Navigating Windows completely with a controller and no keyboard or mouse is extremely difficult because it wasn't made with it as a default input method in mind,” said an optimistic despitegirls.
“This really is just the Windows phone repeating itself all over again in my opinion. I don’t think people want a PC/Xbox handheld device, they just want a handheld that can play great games easily and seamlessly and has access to the best experiences,” replied 24BitEraMan, sitting on the other side of the fence.
We’re certainly in for an interesting few years I suspect.