The long-term goal is to not have to fiddle with Windows on PC-based consoles.
Everyone who cares about the future of consumer electronics has gathered at CES 2025. An essential part of this future will be the handheld market, which was shaken up by the Nintendo Switch on the console front and the Steam Deck on the PC side in the last decade.
Devices enabling the easy running of Steam and other PC games are arriving in a row from the manufacturers of gaming hardware. The enthusiasm is there, but for now everyone is waiting for Valve to release the Linux-based SteamOS to use on these machines instead of the cumbersome Windows interface.
We already know that Microsoft also wants to release a new handheld machine, but it is still likely to be years away from the release. Now, they’re focusing primarily on the software experience, at least according to Jason Ronald, a member of the Xbox team.
“We’ve been bringing innovations to the console space for a long time. We’ve started teaming up with new partners, and now our goal would be to see how we can bring our console innovations to PC and the handheld market.”
According to Ronald, they have been busy building a flawless console experience for the past 20 years while the Windows team has created a world-class operating system. The task now is to take the best parts of Windows and marry it with a more console user experience.
“We want your game collection to be the focus, and you don’t have to put in the extra Windows work to access your favorites.”
Part of this can be the cleaning of the Start menu and other (from the console’s point of view) unnecessary elements, the construction of an interface adapted to the controller and the design of other small things. It remains to be seen when this will be put together, but the new console-like experience will probably arrive before the mentioned Xbox handheld.
Source: www.pcwplus.hu
