So lately, there's a lot of fuss and hate regarding the possibility of two Microsoft's biggest brands merging. Understandably, many Xbox gamers are afraid that MS simply wants to kill the Xbox brand off. Personally I think it's something much bigger than most of us think and it potentially could be the best thing ever happened to gaming industry ... or at least the most revolutionary.
These are my personal thoughts on how this transition should look like in order to be successful:
- Microsoft keeps doing what it does best, developing software. Creates Windows Xbox OS (which is streamlined Windows, focused on gaming), available free for any hardware manufacturer as long as their machines pass the minimum requirements, meaning those machines would be "Xbox certified".
- The Xbox certificate is also granted for any Windows 10 and above machines, again, as long as they pass the requirements. Form this point all certified Windows PCs are fully compatible with any Xbox game, developed for current Xbox OS.
- All Xbox games running under Xbox OS are completely locked in terms of any graphical settings. The same games running under Windows, have those setting unlocked. That would keep Xbox hardware fragmentation to minimum as same as the price of those machines (unlike Steam machines).
- Unified e-shops, servers and services. Xbox live is still available, but not mandatory in order to play online.
- MS is no longer obligated to develop new hardware each generation. All new tech will be supported by software updates. In order jump to next gen Xbox hardware, new Xbox OS will be developed, with new minimal requirements.
Of course this new strategy would save Microsoft's shed loads of money, so it make sense from the business point of view. And if any, MS is the only of big three, who can do it and, if played right, it could work.
