Microsoft's plan for Xbox is to make Windows the 'number one platform for gaming'

With the recent announcement of the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds from Microsoft and the Xbox team, which will introduce a new Xbox-focused version of Windows 11 when it launches later this year, the company gave us our first look at its plans for the next Xbox console and the future of Xbox gaming.

Earlier today, we reported on Xbox President Sarah Bond's announcement that it has partnered with AMD to co-engineer silicon for next-generation consoles. This part of the announcement is business as usual. For generations, Sony and Microsoft have been developing custom CPU and GPU hardware for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

However, this "multi-year" partnership now extends to a "portfolio of devices," including handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally, as the handheld's Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip features prominently in the announcement video from Sarah Bond.

Perhaps the announcement's most interesting and telling statement was when Sarah Bond confirmed that the Xbox team is "working closely with the Windows team to ensure Windows is the number one platform for gaming." This confirms the rumors that Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console will be more like a PC than a console, running a custom version of Windows that will boot straight into an Xbox interface.

This will allow the company and "console" to support multiple platforms, from its Xbox and Game Pass services to Steam, Battle.net, the Epic Games Store, and more. "This is all about building you a gaming platform that's always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to a single device," Sarah Bond confirms.

It's a definite shift for Xbox and opens the door for companies like ASUS to create their own Xbox/PC console hybrids for the next generation. This announcement could see Xbox shift its focus to licensing hardware (and effectively stop making consoles) and focus on software and services, which would see the PlayStation 6 become the only traditional console when it launches.

The good news is that this announcement confirms that even with this shift, Xbox Series X owners who upgrade will have access and still be able to play all of the games they own, as the next-gen Xbox will be backward compatible with existing Xbox consoles. It'll be interesting to see how much of this is present on the ROG Xbox Ally when it launches, as the assumption is that the handheld will double as a test for a Windows PC as an Xbox console.