Shocking news!!!

In all seriousness, I can get behind this. I suspect the dedicated hardware won't last very long, but the platform as a whole should do alright for itself.

I'm aware but as far as things have goner with the platform, you can choose to upgrade to multiple OS's, not only just MS. I don't like the path MS is taking so it's obvious I'll choose one that isn't windows 10.

Yes. And its still working. Well, maybe nor for everyone but it still works.

Because otherwise you have to convince the fast majority of the casual console buying public that they should spend hundreds of dollars on new hardware every 2-3 years?

It looks more and more like MS is going for Steam. They wanted a digital only console and the more they integrate the two, PC and X1 via the windows store, the more they are heading back to their original vision. The only difference is that it won't be as blatant as during the launch of X1.

It won't be long before XBL becomes a part of gaming on the PC with the additional benefit of it working across all their platforms, meaning more for less. It is far too much money for MS to lose out on to, abandon it or ignore from the PC gaming crowd.

I like the idea of it as it will hopefully mean cheaper games digitally hopefully but whether MS does this and how well it compares to steam is a different story.

Spencer reiterated the company’s commitment to abandoning console sales figures, in favour of monthly active user (MUA) data

“We didn’t choose this metric to hide something,” he said. “In fact, we’re more exposed because it shows how many people are actually using our platform and service every month and reporting that publicly. We’ve done it for the development community who want to know how many people they can get to by building these games. This is the success metric that all of you should be looking at.”

 So not revealing the xbox one's hardware is not hiding it's lack of success? haha. Anyway, they are not trying to unify PC and xbox one platforms. First of all, It's windows 10 and not PC. Secondly, windows 10 users with gaming capable PCs will be able to play some xbox one exclusives. The xbox one won't be able to play any PC exclusive games and steam. It's not a unification of anything. It's just them adding more value to windows 10.

I can live with that and it;s not like WIndows will remain that way for all of time either, time changes everything.

Also there are devs out there that are going to support Vulkan so it;s not like there are zero alternatives out there.

I really don't care if it's the only choice, I don't agree with MS's stance at all. Tough luck for me but I honestly don't care for them at this point and I'll game how I've always gamed.

dang I just want xbox to be a totally different product than their windows products. Kinda like the xbox 360. Stop putting exclusives on PC and stuff..

Good on Microsoft to jump on this first.

It works for smart phones, PC's, TV's, tablets, pretty much every other electronic. Prices start high, come down quickly due to faster replacement, up to consumer to decide when to upgrade.

Hoping Sony & Nintendo follow suit (not necessarily with PC but with upgradable consoles)

The idea of upgrading my console every other year or so and still playing all my old games and getting better versions of the new games is extremely enticing. Better than being stuck with the weak consoles we got for another 4-5 years.