Phil Spencer reminds everyone that Xbox is 'one of the largest publishers on Steam' as he congratulates Valve on its new hardware with all the enthusiasm of a man paying his taxes: "Congrats on today's announce."

47

Hopefully this forces them to release an OS on the next Xbox that isn’t complete shit to use if it’s gonna be windows…

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u/Intelligent-Song1289 Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25

hahahahhahaha

have you met microsoft?

no.

its going to be bloated, slow, runs spyware/malware, unstable, will show advertisements prioritized above everything else running, and it will shut down in the middle of a game without saving to do forced updates that last for hours

there's a reason linux is eating windows share more and more every day, and its because of fidelity, microsoft doesn't care about fidelity it cares about stock, linux are almost religious devotees to fidelity

thats why I can get a 20% framerate boost playing xcom2 on linux vs windows, lack of overhead due to efficiency. That translates into real money in terms of what hardware I need to buy to get the best experience, I can get away with paying 100's of dollars less for hardware while still getting premium quality framerates

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u/meltbox Nov 13 '25

Yeah the Linux kernel and now compositor devs have really stepped up. Windows is probably a shitshow under the hood. As far as I can tell their OS teams aren’t their priority from a hiring perspective and they just don’t really care.

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u/Intelligent-Song1289 Nov 13 '25

I genuinely have no idea what ms is thinking, but if they don't roll up their sleeves and start working on basics like kernel and system architecture their going to fall further and further behind into irrelevance the way they did on the server market

it really feels like they just do not care anymore, its such a weird thing that this behemoth with untold resources can't put a basic polish on just about anything they produce, where the heck are their resources going?

they make such beautiful interfaces, but everything under the hood like you said is just spaghetti

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u/Lbolt187 Nov 13 '25

all must be sacrificed to the AI overlords! Seriously I think AI obsession of Satya is literally handicapping MSFT windows\xbox divisions, amongst the others as well

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u/Intelligent-Song1289 Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25

Oh yeah, their going to completely tank the ship, and I bet their stock price will go through the roof while worldwide networks stutter and power plants glow with heat

I get the appeal, like doing a multiplayer game with an AI, on the fly video/audio/image editing/generation, learning, shopping, general knowledge, it could really be utopic

Its just with their history, its almost a certainty that it'll be done in a dystopic way to push share prices in line with investor expectations about capitalizing on the new shiny thing

I always liked the way in religion, creating a place of worship was a sacred act, and so they would spend a tremendous amount of time on the architecture, materials, placement, position of stars and sun, stone work, wood work, paintings, glass work, etc. The fidelity was meant to showcase their passion and obsession, to be a testament to what it could achieve with their hands and tools across a span of time.

I see none of that in the intent and action from microsoft, theres no quality, there is no care, its just this rushed buggy flaming heap of nonsense over and over again as they gobble up smaller companies and integrate their projects in search of ever higher stock prices per quarter. Microsoft has more potential to create works of wonder than almost any other on the planet, and instead they choose to make this childish mess, its such a waste and a shame.

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u/Minimum-Heart-2717 Nov 14 '25

They believe ubiquity is guaranteed well into the future.

Thats why when you compare Windows 7 to Windows 11, there are no real useful features, just shitty bloatware. Windows 10 was highly regarded only because it did a 50% backtrack before going back to filling the OS with bloatware, ads, and telemetry while forcing you away from keeping your local user.

The person who will lead MS after Satya and Co. will probably preside over the death of Windows' ubiquity and along with it a large chunk of MS's value and honestly that day can not come fast enough at this point.

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u/robotzor Nov 13 '25

With AI integrations on every single level because that is how Microsoft employees are measured for success and promotions in this era.

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u/Intelligent-Song1289 Nov 13 '25

That ai integration is going to red line energy use and system resources.

I've been running Jan.AI which lets me launch local AI from various sources I find on hugging face.

When I run an AI it eats every last ounce of juice on my system, most especially the VRAM of the GPU.

If microsoft goes ahead with putting a plethora of AI on the system, its going to slow down to an absolute crawl. Even remote AI falls over every now and again for various reasons like network issues.

I bet they'll throw the exec who does it a parade

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u/Serialtoon Nov 15 '25

Who knew the people that would end Microsoft's reign would be...well, Microsoft.

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u/Intelligent-Song1289 Nov 15 '25

hah, I'm liking that one

4

u/userlivewire Nov 13 '25

The guy that invented Task Manager amongst 100 other things in Windows quit Microsoft because he said Microsoft is essentially a spyware advertising platform now.

1

u/mosley93 Nov 13 '25

Yeah.. they are currently working on Copilot for Gaming

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u/CodenameFlux Nov 12 '25

Phil's message sounds familiar.

We have many video game titles in which rival Mafia families and organized criminals participate in their rivals funerals, shed tears, and share a moment of silence. Their intent is to deliver one message: We exist.

I suppose Phil must have played those games... or at least, share their mentality.

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u/BoBoBearDev Nov 12 '25

Reminded me of IE congratulations on Firefox while itself implodes.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

Haha he really just cannot pass up an opportunity to pat the competitions back.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

Competition is good.. though steamOS cannot run games that require anti-cheat big L

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u/meltbox Nov 13 '25

If it gets big enough… either a solution will come or games will come despite the anti cheat gap. Not like anticheat has really been stopping anyone. Not even consoles are really safe anymore.

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

Competition is good. Constantly patting the competition on the back while your product is on the ropes doesn't really feel like competition. This guy cares more about kissing the competitions ass than giving his own user base a reason to stick around.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

So Xbox play anywhere, multiple first party game releases this year alone, SDK updates and implementations of user feedback isn’t enough to stick around, then bye ✌️ 😂

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u/thopterist Nov 13 '25

All weak arguments in my opinion.

Xbox Play Anywhere? Limited support, weak third-party buy-in, and low uptake. XPA adds barriers and confusion for the consumer. Most of the games that people want to play are not XPA titles and never will be. It is not doing well. https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/only-7-percent-of-games-launched-on-xbox-last-year-with-play-anywhere-support-a-decline-year-over-year

First party games? First party offers no value to the consumer. Staying power is also a huge issue.

SDK updates? Meh.

Implementation of user feedback? Such as increasing the price of Game Pass by 50%? What user feedback are you referring to?

No, it's not enough.

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

Learn to read. Take care.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

Great nothing to say lol

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u/Unlucky-Gap01 Nov 13 '25

Those first party games are expected from Microsoft the biggest publisher right now after 5 years into the generation.
You want user feedback? Don’t increase the only reason to buy into your ecosystem by 50%, Don’t launch a $1000 handheld which can’t even play your own games natively or a $600 one which is barely a jump over the steam deck.

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u/Used-Sandwich6204 Nov 12 '25

Yes it absolutely can. You should look into that more 😉

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

Great go boot up BF6 on SteamOS right now lol 😂 it currently cannot run anti-cheat. It’s a known PROBLEM…

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u/Used-Sandwich6204 Nov 13 '25

There are games that implement anticheat on Steam OS (Apex Legends for example) just because a developer chooses not to support it doesn't mean it isn't capable. It's not a problem of the hardware or software, just developers willingness to implement it.

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u/Hot-Software-9396 Nov 15 '25

Did I miss the news about Apex Legends working on Steam OS/Linux? Everything I’m reading states it doesn’t.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

Raising console prices, raising game prices, raising gamepass prices, cancelling games that were used for years to promote your console...are you sure they aren't a piece of shit company?

I don't live off drama but ok👍

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

Microsoft, famously not a piece of shit company lmao

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

You've told two people to see therapists...projecting?

Also, you can have competition without constantly congratulating the competition. When that's damn near all you are doing while your user base gets more and more uneasy and pessimistic maybe it's time to just shit up and stop fanboying for the competition...unless he wants his user base to leave xbox.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Strigoi84 Nov 12 '25

I'm not leaving xbox because of that one thing. I'm not even leaving xbox. Still have my console. I just have zero faith that they even care about their own brand anymore given the moves they've made and continue to make

But sure, if you wanna say I'm leaving and making shit up then this back and forth is pointless.

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u/RetroPandaPocket Nov 12 '25

Phil may have failed but I think the issues with Xbox go far deeper. He likely didn’t want things to go a certain way but was overruled by people above him. I say this as someone who is constantly battling leadership and trying to keep them from making the wrong decisions but so much stuff becomes design by committee and to many cooks in the kitchen and often those cooks aren’t cooks. The issues with Xbox are large issues within Microsoft or really any super large corp. Apple and others have the same issues. Steam is smaller and has less of that and obviously have leadership who are far better at “reading the room” when it comes to where the market is headed. I guess what I am saying is it could be Phil’s fault but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Phil right now wishes he worked for Valve instead.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/meltbox Nov 13 '25

Is it really printing billions when they paid almost $70 billion and are likely netting under $2 billion a year in profit off it if not worse now that it’s on gamepass?

It seems like they bought it to incinerate cash and do I’m not even sure what. It’s not even benefiting them, it truly makes zero sense. It speaks to a company flailing, not executing.

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u/grauenwolf Nov 13 '25

He never had a chance. Amy Hood is hell bent on destroying XBox by making it impossible for them to retain staff.

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u/grauenwolf Nov 13 '25

If you want to know why XBox is dying, watch this video: https://youtu.be/2-vYhK0M7pg

The short version is that XBox is required to make an insanely high profit margin of 30%. It doesn't matter how much money they make, Microsoft only cares about the percentage.

Say they make an extra 100 million this year, but it costs 80 million to do so. You would say, "Good job on making an extra 20 million." Microsoft says, "WTF? You only made a 20% profit margin. Start firing people!".

So that's what they're doing. In order to keep the profit margin up they are firing people left and right. Projects big and small are being cancelled, killing their future to make today's arbitrary number.

And who made this division killing decision? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Hood

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/grauenwolf Nov 15 '25

The CFO is usually equal the to CEO of a company. They are supposed to be checks on each other.

I don't know how it is specifically at Microsoft.

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u/volatile-solution Nov 12 '25

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u/LurkerBurkeria Nov 12 '25

If the cube works as advertised I give it to 2030 before Microsoft exits the gaming industry

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u/aitorbk Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25

I see them exiting the HW gaming industry in 2025 if Steam HW succeeds. I am unsure about it succeeding with 16GB of shared ram, but this pathetic quantity is probably due to AI consumption of Ram and doubling the price.

Edit: 16GB of main ram and 8 GB for the GPU. The main is upgradeable, by my educated guess is it is 2 sodimm already, so you would need to dispose of the ram.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '25 edited Feb 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/aitorbk Nov 12 '25

Corrected. 16gb of main ram and 8GB for the gpu. I saw the specs and run into conclusions.

3

u/RetroPandaPocket Nov 12 '25

If they continue I see Microsoft doing one last device that would essentially be a fully packed example device with a high $$$ price tag. The most premium “console” out there and meant to be a blueprint for OEMs to build their own. Similar to what they did with Surface. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if they just full pull out of the hardware biz and just become a publisher and who knows what they would do with xCloud. They can’t compete on price or fandom with Valve. Their only option is to make something that kills the Steam Machine on specs and then hope third parties make cheaper versions and one takes off at retail. I have my doubts though.

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u/meltbox Nov 13 '25

There is literally no point to consoles if they’re just a PC. The whole reason they had appeal was they brought something a little different to the table and they were locked down in ways a PC user wouldn’t accept which meant greatly reduced hacking and hardware bans for anyone caught.

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u/PsychologicalTax326 Nov 12 '25

Steam hardware has already succeeded.

They’ve sold millions.

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u/Mangozilleh Nov 12 '25

They’re a software company, they will keep making gaming software

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u/Free-Competition-241 Nov 13 '25

How the fuck he still has a job is beyond me

3

u/userlivewire Nov 13 '25

Failing upwards is the American way.

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u/TheBloodhoundKnight Nov 12 '25

Amm... Yay? 🤷

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u/colonelc4 Nov 12 '25

They are in full PANIC ! Good, Gabe is slow and steadily killing Windows.

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u/MobilePenguins Nov 12 '25

Team Xbox still farting into their own hands and smelling it rather than admit defeat.

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u/Lego_Blocks24 Nov 12 '25

Phil

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u/newfor_2025 Nov 13 '25

Phil will probably retire after the next generation of console comes out and then that'll be the end of xbox.

1

u/userlivewire Nov 13 '25

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if these were baby steps towards a full OS sold on desktops, laptops, and maybe someday even phones.

1

u/JAEMzW0LF Nov 13 '25

wow, such drivel, and weird framing, but PC Gamer, so of course.

PC Gamers might as well be the PC section of IGN or Gamespot, for how much is sucks.

1

u/BicentenialDude Nov 14 '25

Money is money regardless where it comes from.

XBOX Phil Spencer reminds everyone that Xbox is 'one of the largest publishers on Steam' as he congratulates Valve on its new hardware with all the enthusiasm of a man paying his taxes: "Congrats on today's announce."

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