Yeah there's still a bunch that skip, still think this is Xbox's best gen in terms of JRPG support (despite not having exclusives). There's always room for improvement

I was pretty bummed Fantasian didn't have a physical copy on xbox, neither does the upcoming Tales of Graces F (outside Europe). Looking forward to Suikoden and Lunar (please don't be LRG)

So, will Xbox have to exit hardware completely next gen? I believe that, in fact, the opposite will be true — instead of there being fewer Xbox-branded devices next gen, there will be more than ever, but they might not all be built by Microsoft itself. Below Sarah Bond is Jason Ronald, who is now known as VP of Next Gen. Jason is in charge specifically of executing the new Xbox hardware ecosystem from first party. However, there's another individual that the Xbox community rarely talks about, she who actually leads Xbox's hardware ecosystem.

Roanne Sones came to Xbox a couple of years ago. Sones is a 22-year Microsoft vet and was previously Microsoft's Windows OEM lead, responsible for developing partnerships between Microsoft and PC manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and so on. I met Roanne Sones at an event in LA a couple of years ago, where Xbox's initial shoots of a multi-device future started to take shape. In the press area, Microsoft had set up all of the devices that it considers part of the Xbox ecosystem — which goes far beyond the Xbox Series X|S consoles that traditionalists consider as being the "only" Xbox.

Sones' was clearly specifically brought in to help forge Xbox's future, which increasingly looks a lot more like Valve and Steam than PlayStation and Nintendo. Next month at CES 2025, Valve with debut the first non-Valve Steam PCs, in partnership with Lenovo. Xbox's Jason Ronald will also be there, doubtless to discuss how Microsoft is working hard to improve Windows on PC gaming handhelds.

While the Xbox ecosystem arguably has better support than it ever has, third-party support could be boosted even further if it was even more closely aligned with Windows PC, which remains the far bigger platform. Microsoft is currently working towards this goal, and I have it on good authority that the development platform for the next gen Xbox ecosystem will be more Windows-like than it ever has been. Developers will be able to deploy their games to the Microsoft Store across PC and the next gen Xbox consoles more easily than ever, in theory.

Further more, it is my prediction and hope that, by making the next Xbox more Windows-like than ever, for consumers, I would hope that Xbox Play Anywhere becomes a standard requirement for publishers. If "everything is an Xbox" as Microsoft describes, then I need to be able to take my games from this Windows-ified Xbox console to my laptop PC to cloud devices to a Samsung Smart Fridge. Xbox Play Anywhere is the Xbox ecosystem's most underrated feature in that universe Microsoft is trying to develop, and right now, it's fairly limited, especially on games that never arrived in Xbox Game Pass. More developers are opting in without a Game Pass deal, though. Metaphor, Death Stranding, and Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters being a few recent examples.

Furthermore, I would hope that at least for next-gen systems, Microsoft will drop the anachronistic paywall for premium multiplayer games. It would make absolutely zero sense if I could run the Epic Store on my Xbox, and then be asked to pay for multiplayer. Dropping the pay wall for next-gen only might also encourage existing Xbox users to upgrade at a greater cadence than we've seen between the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S generation, too. If this shiny new Xbox device is a PC, then it needs to behave like one — both for consumers and developers.

...And manufacturers, for that matter. Given Roanne Sones' expertise, you'd have to assume that this Windows-like Xbox ecosystem would also lend itself to a licensing model. Manufacturers like Lenovo, ASUS, and others that are building Steam OS gaming devices, would also be able to build their own Xbox OS gaming devices. For Microsoft, this would solve their global footprint issue when it comes to distributing hardware. Microsoft is historically poor at marketing and representing its products with retailers outside of the United States. What if you could get Samsung to promote their own Xbox hardware locally in Korea? What if you could get an ASUS Xbox promoted in Taiwan? Microsoft could keep the spec recommendations tight to ensure consistency for console consumers who expect things to "just work," while also having OEMs develop devices and price points that perhaps have stronger regional appeal.

Predicting The (Actually Very Exciting) Future of Next Gen Xbox Hardware | Windows Central

Yeah its gonna be like the Steam machine but more standardized and more common.

SteamOS on Steam Machines were limited because its a type of Linux OS.

I can see the Xbox OS being a pseudo Windows OS with the capability to run Xbox apps through emulation or streaming.

This is pretty cool because I was expecting something like this.

Xbox, Xbox360 and more titles to be available will be great. Hopefully more Japanese third party support will happen as companies now focus on getting more profit than staying exclusive.

(Except for Vanillaware).

I've been away from VGC for the last 3 months or so, so just wanted to check how you guys are doing here? Do you plan on holding the annual year-end's polls?

As for me, 2024 in general was probably the calmest year in gaming ever. Tales of Arise DLC, Persona 3 Reload, Stellar Blade, SMTVV and unfinished Astro Bot and Metaphor are the only games I played this year. It has never been worse than this for me in terms of games played. Which is kinda ironic given how great 2024 for new releases. I would say the best year of the current gen so far tbh. 2025 seems like it's gonna be more like backlog clean up year, so I'll probably play other 2024 games I didn't have time for next year.

Plants versus zombies 2 deluxe edition is free to claim (it didn't show up on my xbox and was 2.49 but it did as free to claim on pc)

Garden Warfare 2.

PvZ 2 is not on Xbox.

Thought it was literally the same =p

Completed FFVI well it was a trip and no he isn't a dog....

Secret Level should have cut itself down to 10 episodes instead of 15 and have each one be at least 20 minutes long, around the 20-30 minute region to actually give us some substance to a few episodes that end far too abruptly and go a bit more wild with the art-style changes, felt like almost all of them had the same photorealistic art-style. There were a few great episodes and I had fun with a few others but I don't think any of them will stick with me for too long, it is no Love, Death & Robots. Also they could have picked some more notable IPs to start with. The last episode, it was just an 11 minute marketing ad for PlayStation, a waste of an episode, it felt like I was being advertised to but in my face about it, Lol.

Felt the same to me and same for the last episode... I mean what was that :)

The Warhammer one was really good; I would have loved to have the kind of content for less episode but longer too