Only future would tell if it was a good thing to kill the Xbox brand.

No not really.

Steam sales are the same. Console versions sell far more than their Steam counterparts. Alot more. Showing alot of people prefer console gaming instead of playing Battlefield at better settings. Putting some games on the Xbox PC is just giving existing PC owners the chance to play exclusive games if they want them.

Based on the articles and doom and gloom around the internet I expect Xbox One sales to drop to nothing and Xbox exclusives on PC to outsell the console versions 5:1. Because everyone claims they have a PS4 and gaming PC. Or Wii U and gaming PC and are buying them on PC.

When in reality, the Xbox One sales will not change for the worse and very few will but the PC versions. Because the internet is funny.

Either way, Microsoft doesnt have it easy on both scenarios.

If they keep the Xbox as a console, there will always be a Playstation to compete with them, which is without a doubt the stronger videogame brand worldwide.

If they make a PC/Xbox fusion ala Steam Machine, they will also have to compete with the behemot called Steam.

I wish them the best, i hope they push forward the industry and keep it positive to us gamers.

What exactly do you mean by that?, MS has a pot in the PC market and has done for years, Sony had their own once with a ahrdware and game company but shaved both fof and since then decided to ignore the core PC market while MS seeks to regain it. I don't see a single console brand being a massive world ending threat to a market that has stayed alive for 3 decades.

"The Windows platform is about freedom of choice"
LOL!

well i always thought that this would be the last true "generation" of consoles for msony and that the brands would turn more into services than hardware.

ms's vision is clear and frankly i don't like it. it has it's up side but the downside is having to use ms for everything and i just don't like ms products that much.

sony is moving slower than i thought they would but they are still investing into psnow and i like that version of a service much better so long as sony pulls a netflix and supports every device possible and now just their devices. i just wish they'd start releasing ps4/2 games and not just ps3 games.

So, MS doing what's it's doing ( whatever that is, still undetermined, and changing an an almost daily basis ), bringing all/some of it's exclusives to windows pc, is going to end the console world as we know it? Because Microsoft has said so? Hyperbole much? Lots of crap opinion in the article. Thanks all the same for the post Nate.

I wish M$ would just start making Cable boxes already. Who even games on Xbone anymore? People just use it for multi-tasking entertainment these days. This gaming crap is just something to do when we get really bored. It's time to put that stupid bitch X1 from Xfinity in its place and take over. X1, what kind of lame name is that?

Hey look, another article that totally misses why consoles are popular. This one even goes a step further and greater overestimates MS pull in the gaming market.

MS is making the kind of money in the console market that they should be, so they are trying to fix that by selling games on PC. Unfortunately for them,the PC gaming market is even less welcoming than the console market.