I cannot wait for gaming consoles to die, sorry, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
Bonus? Maybe we can also bury console fanboys, which must be the corniest tribalism I’ve ever seen. I may goof on Linux users, but at least they build all those distros and work together for a common good. I’m in awe of their technical knowledge. Same with PC gamers who build their own systems and indulge in the most minor of details.
But someone who simply bought a console and is now a rabid fan of it? Come on.
But back to consoles, I love the couch experience. I love turning on a box and playing a game without tweaking settings or updating drivers. Instant on, instant play. What I do not love is the outdated belief that consoles and PCs must be two separate worlds.
That belief is not only wrong, it is actively harmful.
The divide is pointless now
To wit, developers already build on PCs. Their tools run on PCs. Their engines run on PCs. Their testing environments are PCs. Then we make them carve out a separate console version that behaves differently, breaks differently, and needs its own patch pipeline. It is like asking a studio to shoot the same movie twice because one theater chain insists on a different aspect ratio.
This is especially brutal for indie teams. They just want people to play their game (confession: 99% of my game playing is indie titles; I don’t care about your Fortnite or CoD). Instead, these indie devs spend months wrestling with certification quirks, platform-specific bugs, and performance issues that exist only because we cling to a distinction that should have died years ago.
I am not cheering for the death of Xbox or PlayStation. I am cheering for the death of the pointless technical divide.
Gamers feel it too. Every time a studio tweets that the console version is delayed, you are seeing the cost of this artificial split. I can’t think of the number of articles we’ve written on Windows Central about some controversy over a console port, e.g., literally yesterday, with the news that mega-indie hit Mewgenics is coming eventually to consoles, while PC fans are having a blast with it today.
So yeah, I do not want consoles gone, I want them to evolve. I want the experience to stay and the technical baggage to disappear. And based on reporting from my colleague Jez Corden, that is exactly where Microsoft is heading.
According to Jez's reporting, the next Xbox coming in 2027 (assuming we can all afford RAM) is basically a Windows PC with an Xbox interface on top. It will run Windows. It will support multiple PC stores. It will behave like a curated gaming PC that just happens to sit under your TV.
This is not a wild rumor. It lines up with everything we have heard about Microsoft’s hardware roadmap and AMD’s next-generation semi-custom chips. It also makes perfect sense. If developers already build for Windows, why not ship a console that speaks the same language?
If this happens, the phrase console port becomes meaningless. Developers build once. They ship everywhere. No more parallel pipelines. No more wasted time.
In one swoop, the company behind PC gaming becomes the ultimate PC gaming company (for both hardware and studios).
Why this matters for everyone
A unified Windows-based Xbox means fewer bugs, faster patches, and more games launching on day one across PC and console. It also means Xbox Play Anywhere finally works the way it should. Buy a game once. Play it on your PC or your Xbox because they are the same platform with different shells.
This is not just good for developers. It is good for gamers who are tired of broken ports, staggered releases, and the weird feeling that your platform of choice is always the afterthought.
Moreover, this Xbox-as-a-PC means companies like HP, Lenovo, Dell, Razer, ASUS, and MSI can all try to make their own Xbox, competing on price and hardware. Right now, you get what Microsoft and Sony give you; that's it. Imagine having an entry-level $400 Xbox and a baller $2,000 option from Razer with RGB and pure power and everything in between.
Yes, Windows has its own problems
Look, Windows can be messy. Updates break things. Drivers misbehave. The OS has a lot of history attached to it, and Windows 11 has done no favors to that reputation. But that is solvable. A locked-down Windows layer already exists in early form on handhelds like the Xbox Ally with the new Xbox App Full Screen Experience (FSE). It is rough, but it proves the idea works. With a fixed hardware profile, Microsoft can smooth out the experience.
I’ve been using FSE on my Lenovo Legion Go 2 and like the experience so much that I cancelled my plan to install SteamOS on it. I think FSE still has a way to go before it’s as smooth and enjoyable as Steam’s app in Big Picture Mode, but what Valve has done with SteamOS is no different than what Microsoft is attempting with the Xbox App FSE: Run a stripped-down OS in the background, launch a full-screen app on top. Done.
If they get the UX right, you get the best of both worlds. Console simplicity with PC flexibility.
Time to kill the distinction
Again, I am not cheering for the death of Xbox or PlayStation. I am cheering for the death of the pointless technical divide that forces developers to waste time and money.
The console experience should live on. The console platform should not.
If the next Xbox really is a Windows PC at heart, then we are finally heading toward a world where developers build once, ship everywhere, and stop fighting battles that should not exist in 2026.
And honestly, I cannot wait.
Over to you
Is it finally time to stop pretending consoles and PCs are two different worlds, or is the divide still worth preserving?
Drop your thoughts below. I’m especially curious to hear from developers and anyone who has wrestled with ports, patches, or platform quirks.
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