I’ve been wondering about this idea that Microsoft has been kicking around for many years now. They’ve been saying that with their Xbox platform, they have been working to unify marketplaces and playerbases with the PC gaming world. There have only been two big updates to come to Xbox in the past 6 months. One was built-in compatibility with mouse and keyboard, but since then nothing has really been done with it. The other big update was the ability for Xbox gamers to stream PC games from an in-home gaming PC. Microsoft themselves have also been talking about a Windows update that could potentially allow Windows PC gamers to natively play Xbox games. Plus, the whole xCloud streaming for PC players coming. Also, them announcing in the past year that there would no longer be Xbox exclusives that don’t also come to PC.

Add in recent rumors that the next Xbox would run on a new OS that’s part of the Windows Core OS experience. And another rumor that came out recently with a supposed “insider” saying that there are no plans for the next gen Xbox to have any exclusive games released for it that wouldn’t also be playable on current gen systems for several years.

What if the next Xbox generation is built with an OS that makes it a console/PC hybrid. Almost like a Mini PC that also runs Xbox games?

It would follow suit with the plans that Microsoft have been saying for years to have a universal operating system through their devices. As well as the work they’ve been doing on the current OS in recent years to make porting games from one to the other more and more seamless.

Perhaps the mouse and keyboard update was a predecessor for the next gen console to come out packaged with a mouse and keyboard, backwards compatible with current games that have mouse and keyboard capability. Which as of now, for as much has gone into the addition of that capability, is a very slim number of games.

Also, this could follow the idea of there not being any next gen Xbox console exclusives that wouldn’t also play on the current systems, as unlocking the massive PC game library on the new Xbox would immediately give them a wide breadth of “console exclusive” titles that could only be played on the next Xbox when it releases.

There have been a lot of small hints, statements, and incremental steps toward an Xbox that plays PC games during this current generation and I really think there’s a decent chance they might be finally realizing that goal with the next Xbox.

It’s something I’ve really been hoping Microsoft will pull off eventually. Mostly because I miss PC gaming and can’t justify the purchase of a PC gaming rig.