After Larian’s publishing director, Michael Douse, called the Xbox Series X|S successor “a computer,” Microsoft’s top brass doubled down: the next Xbox will look and act far more like a PC than a traditional console.

For many Xbox fans, the brand feels unfamiliar these days. Since the Activision Blizzard acquisition, strategy pivots have piled up: Xbox Game Pass price hikes, first-party titles going multi-platform (with Halo CE headed to PlayStation 5 in 2026), and a bigger push into cloud play. Together, those shifts have some longtime players feeling distanced from the platform’s identity.

“It’s a PC.” The Industry Already Knows What the Successor to the Xbox Series X|S Will Be

That perception wasn’t helped by the latest “This is an Xbox” ad, which sparked backlash for implying almost any device could be an Xbox. While launch is still a couple of years out, mounting reports suggest Microsoft’s next box will rethink the very notion of a console—leaning harder than ever into the PC mold.

Responding to a new Windows Central report, Larian’s Michael Douse quipped online, “That’s a PC,” with deliberate tongue-in-cheek misspelling. He wasn’t alone. Former Xbox exec and ex-Blizzard president Mike Ybarra added, “For starters, the next ‘Xbox consoles’ are just PCs. Which is fine.”

The report describes a customized Windows PC presenting an “Xbox Full Screen Experience”—a shell akin to Valve’s SteamOS—from which you can launch your full native Xbox library. It’s reportedly backward compatible with every prior Xbox generation, and if you exit the shell, you can run stores and launchers like Steam, Epic, or Battle.net—and even play PlayStation titles on PC.

Xbox president Sarah Bond has already teased a “very premium and very high-end” product—so expect premium pricing. Phil Spencer gives a good hint at the direction to look at the ROG Ally. There’s also chatter that Microsoft may drop the multiplayer paywall on that device, potentially opening the door to World of Warcraft on the next-gen Xbox/PC hybrid.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told TBPN the Series X|S successor is a PC–console hybrid: “It’s funny that people think the [Xbox] console and a PC are two different things. We built a console because we wanted to build a better PC … so I’d like to challenge some of those preconceived notions.” (via Tom Warren).

Source: 3DJuegos