So in ten years Xbox won’t exist as a brand at all? I agree. No need to take the bet.

I think what you’re describing is exactly what Microsoft is doing. Except I think it’s incredibly short sighted from a business, consumer, and brand perspective.

IMO, It’s basically the brand equivalent of seppuku.

With no functional distinction between Xbox and Windows, you just get the entirety of the Xbox ecosystem silently competing with all of Steam. But even worse: it’s now just the word Xbox on Windows. And everyone really hates Windows at the moment. It’s bleeding OS marketshare to Linux like nothing I’ve ever seen.

So they want to put the entirety of Xbox recognition on a Platform (PC) that their console users won’t be familiar with, and the OS they’re integrating it with is actively losing users. Mostly to Linux. Which Steam has an entire OS built on top of that anyone can use for their games for free.

So the consumer choice for PC users will be between:

• Steam OS based on Linux for free. Runs all steam games and has a desktop mode for all other apps.

• Windows 11 for $hundreds, smaller pool of games + worse performance.

I don’t think people are going to choose option 2 just because the word Xbox is in it somehow. Some might, but this is just HBO becoming MAX all over again, but without the escape plan of returning to HBO.

Destroying a console AND brand just to compete with Steam with an inferior product is incredibly dumb, and incredibly Microsoft.

Slapping the Xbox name onto the ass-end of an overpriced and confusingly named steam deck clone is definitley the funniest way to kill the Xbox brand.

I mean Nokia had the NGage which was designed to look like goat-c, so the bar IS high.