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2025 is finally here, and for Xbox fans, that marks another year of dualities.
Microsoft is likely to have its most potent year in first-party content in history.
Xbox finds itself in something of a cross roads in 2025.
Indiana Jones was a game of the year-worthy entry late last year.
Second-party publishing scored major wins with STALKER 2 and Palworld.
Long-time holdouts like Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection, and even Death Stranding arrived on Xbox.
Xbox hardware isn’t selling.
But there was a major elephant in the room to contest with as well.
I feel we should set a better expectation with our fans than that.
“Fans will judge Xbox on words & actions.
Lenovo’s new Legion Go devices made a splash at CES 2025.
Hardware figures don’t tell the full story though.
But that doesn’t mean current Xbox hardware customers are set to lose out.
But, what if it merged with Windows itself?
Steam OS is becoming something of an existential threat to Windows, and the competition should lead to a better Windows product in 2025 and beyond.
Microsoft also has other ways it can grow total addressable users within the Xbox ecosystem, though.
We saw that today,Microsoft filed a patent for generative AI in gameslike Minecraft, for example.
Will the handheld execute the Xbox OS though, or Windows itself?
An odd future for Xbox.
Microsoft’s Xbox store has thousands of games, thousands more than the PC Microsoft Store.
But wouldn’t that potentially throw up contractual issues with publishers too?
I think on content, Xbox will likely have its best year ever fprupcoming games.
On platform, I’m expecting more confusion and concerns for the Xbox hardware ecosystem’s future.
Read more:On Xbox’s strange future
