Jez Corden: Next Xbox Generation Will Be A “Reference Design” for Manufacturers to Make Their Own Devices –

ksdixon

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22 Jun 2022
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Honestly... You know those Surface built-into the body kickstands; and their keyboards that are super thin, double as a screen protector/lid cover, and connect into the bottom of the tablet, and are recognised as plugged-in?

Give me both of those on the back and bottom side of a "Microsoft Surface Xbox" version of an Ally - so that its not a Bluetooth-paired, too-slow-to-keep-up-with-inputs keyboard, or arsey touchscreen typing like on phones/tablets, that we can set it down, open kickstand and do real typing on it.

With the mobile data LTE version included in the OS, and MS have a shot at making an almost modular device which has touchscreen, pen support, real typing with pressable keys, mouse, game control buttons, call functionality that's not already adequately addressed by also carrying phone on your or with Phone Link app, Skype/People/linked-in/teams hydra, Messenger/Google's windows desktop apps...

A not yet fully realised device paradigm shift, melding together the functionalities of laptop, tablet, phone and gaming device.

But being a Surface/Duo fan, somehow I don't think MS are gonna be able to finesse it all together.
 

Entropi

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22 Jan 2023
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This sounds wildly illogical. What third-party vendor would want to take the huge risk and razor-thin margins from Microsoft?

Unless the devices will sell for 800+ dollars which makes them DoA.
 
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Wing84

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7 Feb 2024
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Very interesting. I'm curious to know:

- What elements can the manufacturers differentiate their Xbox hardware from other manufacturer's Xbox hardware.
- Will the Xbox brand just be something like Intel's Ultrabook brand where the manufacturers' devices have to apply certain modern specs?
- Will Microsoft provide these manufacturers with a special launcher? If so, can one rip said launcher and put it on their non-Xbox branded Windows device?
- Will Microsoft create a Halo* Xbox device that go balls-to-the-wall with the specs and price?
- Now that the Surface team is handling the Xbox hardware, what happens to the original Xbox hardware team?
 

Swolf712

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This sounds wildly illogical. What third-party vendor would want to take the huge risk and razor-thin margins from Microsoft?

Unless the devices will sell for 800+ dollars which makes them DoA.
Unless they're really pivoting to Xcloud and these things are no different than Roku devices. Just the necessary hardware to stream and maybe some storage for a few titles? I could see that being a thing.
 
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VillaiN

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This sounds wildly illogical. What third-party vendor would want to take the huge risk and razor-thin margins from Microsoft?

Unless the devices will sell for 800+ dollars which makes them DoA.
Its a has written fail all over it. MS ll exit hardware side in next 4,5 years.
 
27 Jun 2023
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Yeah it is stupid because consoles are sold at losses (except Nintendo) & then make money from their storefronts & subscription services , 3rd party manufacturers wouldn't have their own storefronts or subscription service so would have to charge more for the console to actually make a profit from it
 
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Swolf712

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Yeah it is stupid because consoles are sold at losses (except Nintendo) & then make money from their storefronts & subscription services , 3rd party manufacturers wouldn't have their own storefronts or subscription service so would have to charge more for the console to actually make a profit from it
Again, the only thing I can think is that they might be licensing out an Xcloud streaming device design a la Roku devices and maybe making one big dedicated console for downloading/local play themselves.

That's about the only way I can see this making sense.