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It was recently confirmed that Gears of War is coming to PlayStation 5 later this year alongside a new remaster for Xbox and PC, bringing a tentpole Xbox franchise to Microsoft’s rival platform. It’s great for gamers on PlayStation and even those who just love these franchises unconditionally, but some Xbox fans have begun to feel like they are missing out in some way. PlayStation gets seemingly everything, while Xbox players are missing out on The Last of Us or Marvel’s Spider-Man. These are games that are defining the industry right now and it feels like Xbox is sharing a bit more than others. However, that might change in a way very soon.
The Next Xbox Could Feature PlayStation Games Via Steam
A new report from Windows Central reveals some of the decision making for the next Xbox. There was a pitch to ditch backward compatibility for the next Xbox in favor of leaning into Windows 11 compatibility. Thankfully, it seems like that pitch was rejected and won’t be part of the console’s future, but Xbox is expanding in other ways. Xbox is reportedly talking to PC storefronts like Valve to bring a platform like Steam to Xbox. There’s some debate over how this could actually benefit Xbox, as it would mean Xbox is giving people another place to buy their games. However, one key thing here is that it could be a clever work around to bring PlayStation games to Xbox.
PlayStation has ported a bunch of its games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to PC. Essentially, a lot of the biggest PS4 and PS5 games could be playable on Xbox, so long as there isn’t some weird restriction. It sounds like Microsoft really wants to turn Xbox into more of a pre-built PC at an affordable price point, not too dissimilar from Valve’s Steam Machines. This could be a viable way for Xbox to stay in the game as the PC market is becoming increasingly popular and this would be a really easy entry point for people who are intimidated by buying or even building such an expensive machine.
Only time will tell how this all shakes out, but it seems like Xbox is taking some big swings with its next console. We probably won’t see it for another couple of years, but it’ll be interesting to see what the next era of Xbox is as it defies so many traditions of console gaming already.
