đź”— The Xbox is dead, long live Windows
Xbox and AMD are establishing a multi-year long strategic partnership.
Two quotes stand out from this presentation by Sarah Bond on the new multi-year partnership between AMD and Xbox:
This is all about building you a gaming platform that's always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.
And:
That's why we're working closely with the Windows team, to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.
This makes it clear to me that the Xbox platform, as a standalone console you hook up to your TV, is done. Xbox is now a brand spanning multiple gaming franchises, running on whatever platform you choose. It’s powered by Windows, which means other stores can also run on this new version of “Xbox.”
As I wrote earlier this week:
At this point, whatever the next Xbox will be, handheld or not, I believe Microsoft is trying to transform their gaming platform into the Android of video games. There will be official hardware, such as Google's Pixel phones, and then third-party manufacturers can go to town and try to put their spin on it.
And it will all be powered by AMD.