[STEAM] Why Microsoft’s next Xbox should just run Windows already

[Steam 0]

Yesterday,

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confirmed that it's not abandoning the home console market just yet. In

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, Xbox President Sarah Bond highlighted a "strategic multi-year partnership with AMD" that will include "our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands." But while we know that the "in your hands" part will include devices

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, there are still few specifics about what exactly

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has planned for its future living room consoles (aside from what Bond calls "the next generation of graphics innovation").

Reading between the lines a bit, though, we wouldn't be surprised if

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was getting ready to finally tear down the thinning wall separating gaming PCs and gaming consoles. A Windows-based, living room-focused Xbox capable of running generic Windows games could accentuate

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's strengths in PC gaming while papering over many of the company's recent struggles in the home console market.

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The once-bright line separating PC gaming and TV-based console gaming has been deteriorating for years. On the hardware side, bespoke console chips and development environments long ago gave way to

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that are simpler and easier for developers to work with. And on the PC interface side, efforts like

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and

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have strived to make playing on a PC with a handheld controller into a more console-like experience.

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