This is what the future of Xbox looks like

Microsoft's latest console, the Xbox One X is off to a solid start, beating the PlayStation 4 Pro in its launch calendar week by a significant margin.

Subsequently years of struggling behind PlayStation in terms of hardware ability, Microsoft'south Xbox is now firmly in pole position, delivering a $500 box that non only trounces the PlayStation 4 Pro for 4K video game visuals, but delivers additional features like UHD Blu-ray, HDMI-in, and 4K game DVR. The Xbox 1 Ten is just hard to fault, at least on newspaper.

A lot of the conversation surrounding Xbox has now turned towards its first-party games line-up, which isn't catering to the maturing "core" audience in the aforementioned style Sony appears to be, with photorealistic games like God of War, The Last of U.s.a. 2, and Expiry Stranding on the roadmap. By comparison, Microsoft hasn't committed to announcing titles coming across 2022, and the ones that are on the fashion, namely Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, and Land of Decay 2, probably won't get the same attention as a gritty, narrative-heavy realistic open world championship like PlayStation's God of State of war or Horizon Goose egg Dawn might.

Also, there'south the issue of services and the uncertain future of Windows to talk over. With Groove Music abruptly shut down, many accept rightly wondered if Microsoft even so has the will to compete for consumer'southward attention in other areas. Is Movies & TV on the fashion out too? What about Cortana on the Xbox with Kinect killed off? And what happened to Xbox One Ten VR?

Here's everything nosotros think we know nearly the future of Xbox, pulled from insider knowledge, various Xbox exec interviews, and general gaming trends.

Games, games, more games

This is the role you're nigh probable interested in. What's the condition of games at Microsoft Studios?

With Xbox head Phil Spencer promoted to the senior leadership squad, yous can firmly expect investment in first-party, line-up defining games to increase, just it will most likely exist a few years before we see that investment materialize. Now that Spencer is an Executive Vice President, he can pitch strategy directly to CEO Satya Nadella, without having employ Windows Executive Vice President Terry Myerson as a go-betwixt for both strategy and budgeting.

1 of the reasons nosotros haven't heard more about Microsoft's futurity roadmap for Xbox exclusives is quite literally cold feet. After high-profile cancellations including Scalebound, and Fable Legends, and notable delays from Crackdown 3 to Bounding main of Thieves, Microsoft is playing its cards more closely to its breast, waiting for specific evolution milestones to be locked in before announcing launch dates.

Crackdown 3, coming in 2022 (hopefully).

I know from conversations with people working at Xbox that the company is aiming to bring more "core" games to the table, so expect to see some announcements in that sort of vein at 2022'south E3 conference.

Spencer said in recent interviews as well that Microsoft was looking to either build new studios, or acquire existing ones. There has been a few rumors revolving around PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' programmer BlueHole Inc. as a potential acquisition target, but nothing has materialized equally of writing. If true, that should give you an idea of the type of games Microsoft is interested in building.

"Games equally a Service" has been a hot push button topic in contempo months, due to the creeping influence of free-to-play (or pay-to-win) elements in $60 premium games. In some respects, Microsoft got alee of the curve with these sorts of mechanics on console, introducing a dedicated fashion into Halo 5 dubbed "Warzone," which revolves effectually wanton carnage using Halo 5's about powerful weapons and vehicles – that you lot earn (or pay) for the right deploy via card packs.

It looks like loot crates are hither to stay.

Microsoft seemed to sidestep criticism for these systems by leaving them in a self-independent game fashion. Halo 5's "Arena" PVP system is the pure Halo feel players look and beloved, where the just involvement from paid loot packs comes in the form of cosmetic customization. Microsoft repeated the tradition of separating boodle packs and a "pure" multiplayer experience in Halo Wars two likewise, splitting out a split up Blitz mode where players could either earn, or pay their mode to stronger units.

The upcoming open-earth connected run a risk Sea of Thieves is expected to use some form of in-game loot crates too. Information technology's unfortunate that premium gaming has come to this, but considering Microsoft's relatively gentle approach to these systems in previous games, coupled with the massive backlash against more aggressive monetization seen in contempo titles like Battlefront Two, I recall it'south fair to look that Microsoft will continue to be conscientious most how it approaches "Games as a Service." That's not to say Microsoft volition only build service-type games, though.

Age of Empires Definitive Edition is on the fashion, along with Age of Empires 4.

Microsoft is besides working on Age of Empires IV to serve a relatively niche, but passionate, hardcore RTS fanbase. The company also poured funding into other non-live experiences, such as upcoming open globe zombie apocalypse simulator State of Decay two, activeness RPG Cadaverous, and the recent side-scrolling breakthrough risk Cuphead. Xbox has a want to cater for as many types of audiences as possible with its games, and that's likely to proceed.

Deject and Xbox Live services

The promotion of Spencer to the senior leadership team shows a not bad deal of religion and back up for gaming at Microsoft in general, and it fits correct into Microsoft'south wider cloud-commencement strategy. Microsoft has already been able to shift one of 2022's biggest games, PlayerUnknown'due south Battlegrounds, over to Windows Azure for its live services, ditching Amazon in the process. More companies could follow adapt.

Microsoft made a huge deal virtually "cloud powered" computation at the start of this generation, but it has still to materialize in whatever meaningful way, salvage for the A.I. mobs in Titanfall. Crackdown 3 is supposed to exist launching with cloud-powered destruction physics, only the promised multiplayer tests were indefinitely postponed, and nosotros haven't heard much about cloud compute since. I'm not sure whether Microsoft is still pursuing cloud-powered computation for future titles, outside of multiplayer services, but if Crackdown 3 is successful, we could encounter more investment in this surface area. For the nearly office, Microsoft will be using the cloud to increase appointment on Xbox Live.

Crackdown 3's multiplayer building devastation uses remote servers to add together additional computational power.

To this finish, Microsoft already has baked new features into Xbox Alive — including Mixer streaming, Clubs, Tournaments, and Looking for Group — only the apps that ability these services outside of your panel are deadening equally molasses on Android, iOS, and fifty-fifty on quad-core Core i7 Windows x PCs.

Microsoft will be looking to improve these systems and services going into 2022, with particular attention paid to Mixer, a fledgling streaming service with the lofty goal of competing with Twitch, which thoroughly dominates the game streaming space. Microsoft hopes that innovations in interactivity will assistance Mixer along, just in the future, the technology that powers Mixer's extremely low latency between viewer and streamer could end up in other products.

Phil Spencer has previously teased the introduction of a Netflix-similar game streaming service for Xbox, allowing gamers to play their games remotely over the net via video feeds, similarly to PlayStation At present. Microsoft has already been pursuing this kind of futuristic scenario, simply found the costs to be prohibitive, and the experience to exist sub-par. As global internet speeds increase, coupled with Mixer's low-latency infrastructure and existing interactivity systems, it's non difficult to envision how it could evolve to eventually let you lot stream your own games to yourself, to any device – maybe even competing consoles.

Microsoft'south new Xbox Game Pass service gives you admission to dozens of titles for a low monthly fee, eventually, peradventure y'all'll be able to stream the games from the internet too.

I wouldn't expect an "Xbox Now" service to arrive in the near futurity, and it won't replace local Xbox hardware fifty-fifty more than long term either (Microsoft is already working on the side by side box). Just know that Microsoft is definitely exploring this concept.

Later Groove Music'due south abrupt closure, volition Microsoft's movies and television digital services the next to be killed off?

Speaking of live services, what about Movies & Goggle box? After Groove Music's sharp closure, you might exist wondering whether Microsoft's movies and television digital services might be next to join it in the great digital afterlife. However, we don't believe that this is the case.

Microsoft was able to provide DRM-free versions of purchased music on Groove, just doing the same for purchased films and Television receiver shows would be a logistical and, potentially, legal nightmare. Non to mention for heavy users, like myself, storing hundreds and hundreds of videos would be merely impossible. Similarly, refunding the millions of dollars worth of purchased content to existing users would besides be prohibitively costly. And simply put, we've heard from multiple sources that Movies & Tv set is a assisting venture.

The fact is, with Groove, few people were using the streaming service due to competition from Spotify on mobile platforms, and the simple fact few people use their TV sets to stream music. They practice notwithstanding, use their Xbox to buy and rent media from the store on a profitable basis.

Some of the criticism falling on Xbox's media business correct now is the lack of evolution and development. Amazon Video and Netflix both now support 4K on Xbox One, while Movies & Telly has a rather pathetic pick, despite Microsoft's big push with the Xbox One X. Additionally, Disney has built upwards a new consortium, assuasive users to purchase movies and shows from any store forepart, and apply them across whatever platform, dubbed Movies Anywhere. Microsoft's absenteeism from this service is notable, but we've heard that the company is working to set this state of affairs. Information technology sounds as though the Xbox squad is looking to meliorate on this aspect of their overall offering, and so stay tuned for that besides.

VR and other Xbox features

Finally, Microsoft is still working to bring some other features to Xbox. In that location'due south a complete overhaul of Avatars on the fashion, which has been delayed into 2022. The new Avatars will be far more customizable than the current incarnation, allowing people to limited their identity far more accurately than the express options available now. We've besides seen some evidence that Avatars could somehow link into Remix3D.com, assuasive users to customize their ain 3D models using Windows ten apps like Paint 3D.

The Xbox backward compatibility library is expected to expand too, including both Xbox 360 and original Xbox games into the mix. The next wave of OG Xbox games is expected to arrive early on in 2022, and the Xbox 360 program receives new games every few weeks every bit usual.

1 segment of gaming that remains unknown is VR.

Microsoft announced the Xbox One X with heavy references to VR, stating that the specs were chosen specifically to enable high-allegiance VR experiences. Since then, strangely, Microsoft scrubbed all mention of VR from the panel's marketing, leaving united states with a relatively uncertain idea of when (or indeed, if) information technology will come up to Xbox 1.

Microsoft has stated that it would like to make the headsets wireless before bringing it to Xbox, as to not interrupt the menses of living room use, i.east. non having cables draped all over the identify. It's a noble effort, only for those wanting VR today, it leaves u.s.a. without a business firm date for when Xbox One X will see VR. We tin simply hope we'll get some form of update in 2022.

The futurity looks vivid

The biggest takeaway for this year'southward Xbox effort is the promotion of Phil Spencer to the senior leadership squad, and by extension, the entire Xbox team. For the Xbox squad to have a direct line to shape and influence the entire Microsoft ecosystem is a huge watershed moment, and should not exist taken for granted by any Xbox fan.

More games are coming, more features are coming, and importantly, more Xboxes are coming. It seems unlikely that Microsoft will permit Sony to outpace it in the ability argument in the future, putting an emphasis on Xbox client's desires and needs above everything else.

It's a great fourth dimension to exist an Xbox fan. I firmly believe that the electric current team running gaming at Microsoft is ready, and crucially, finally fully able to bring near an exciting future for all gamers in this ecosystem.