I've loved Xbox since day 1 of the original. It gave me a pc experience with that secret sauce dripping over dual analog. The original Xbox was possibly my favorite console of all time. 360 convinced me after around 2 years and Oblivion but before Skyrim released I had already joined the PC Master Race. At the time of Xbox One it became apparent that Halo 5 and Killer Instinct were the only Xbox Games I cared for. So yeah. Even I don't care if Xbox dissolves and if they did I'm pretty sure every Xbox fan would build a PC and be happy.

The Convergence and Direct X topics are on point like pencils.

Xbox is a branch of Microsoft. Xbox games are coming to PC more, even launching the same day. I think Xbox will essentially just be PC games in the future, if that makes sense. Like buying a Steam Machine. You can get an Xbox for $300 OR shell out a grand or so for a high end PC, either way you still play an "Xbox" game.

The only companies willing to make a deal like that are ones in serious trouble.

the facts youre mentioning are obvious so the main question for me always is: why are so many gamers supportive of todays Xbox platform if they like consoles? If you like consoles why you should support a company who doesnt like consoles since day 1? It was always so obvious for me where Xbox was heading regardless if they win or lose the generation.

I do think MS will make another Box which will run a real windows and label it as console because the millions of Xbox Live users who pay for online are something they cant let go, so further down the line you will have less and less of a console experience.

This. Either way Microsoft will have your money and in the end is that all that matters? 

No because if MS actually leave the Console business(stop making Xbox's) they won't support Sony as in they won't release their games on Playstaion and instead focus all their energy on PC gaming while expanding MS Studios in a publishing role to get more Windows exclusive games to push their platform.

Wouldn't it be quite risky for MS to drop xboxconsole altogether and compete with steam? Xbox is a strong brand and consoles seem to be popular.

but more seriously:

The end of Xbox brand? No.

I think MS will give up the Xbox HW, but they will bring the Xbox brand to Windows 10 as a Gaming Service. They begun already to melt it together. Slowly and carefully to bring the Xbox One console (HW) fans to the Win10 Platform. I mean you can connect the Xbox One controller to a PC, with Crossbuy as platform feature they will release the Xbox One games on Win10 PC.

Conclusion: The end of Xbox HW is near, but the brand is moving to the Windows PC world :)

they surely can't compete with ps4 but they have the chance to do so in the next gen of consoles as they did last gen.
I think that console business has a lot to offer to companies like MS and Sony. Just think of the economic mess sony is in and the only cash cow for them...PS4.

Hopefully MS will invest big time for the next gen. Instead of selling kinect sensors and vr they should make a insanely powerfull console with ssd drive huge amount of ram, gpu and cpu power. It is very important for their next system to be developer frinedly like Xbox 360. For god sake they are into software business. They should develop the proper dev tools to make game development piece of cake

Microsoft has a really big advantage over Steam: They own the Windows OS. Steam failed to establish their linux-based OS, and most of Steam users have to use Windows one way or another. And there are more Windows users in the world than Steam users, so right off the bat they have a bigger potential userbase.