The next Xbox is a PC. Well, sort of.
Last week, we revealed that the next Xbox is essentially going to be a PC, and that the Xbox Ally Windows 11 handheld is a “test bed” of sorts to figure out what aspects of the OS need to be improved for that universe. Microsoft is working to boost how Windows handles HDMI, video game shaders, and all sorts of additional things within the Xbox PC ecosystem.
The video above goes into a ton more detail, but here’s what you need to know in brief.
Microsoft’s new GameInput API unifies all keyboard, mouse, Xbox gamepad, and even custom controller models into a single unified interface, which Microsoft says is designed for “low latency and thread safety, including render threads with both polling and event-driven callbacks.”
This new API brings the Xbox’s keyboard interfacing into full parity with Windows, and should allow developers to deliver a more consistent keyboard, mouse, and gamepad experience across devices on a single codebase. It reduces headaches for Xbox Play Anywhere games, much like this next feature.
Microsoft announced PlayFab Game Saves a short while ago, and it’s essentially an extension of its Xbox cloud saves feature, bringing Steam to the party too. Some games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 support cross-platform save files between PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and so on, using bespoke systems.
Microsoft’s PlayFab Game Saves system is offering to take some of the load off developers, handling save file progression between Steam, Xbox, and other ecosystems on their behalf. The service handles file sync and conflict resolution, supports offline play, and is currently available in Preview via the PlayFab Game Manager.
- Xbox Game Package Manager
Xbox Game Package Manager is a new app designed to help developers streamline their game upload process to the Xbox ecosystem. The new app supports both XVC (Xbox) and MSIXVC (PC) packaging from the game’s loose files, and then uploads via browser-based authentication. It also supports multiple languages and multi-team workflows.
The new package manager should improve the workflow for developers targeting Xbox Play Anywhere. Instead of multiple tools, services, and in some cases, teams working towards validating separate versions of the game, the new package manager gets everything ready in a single unified interface. This should hopefully streamline the process developers have to undertake to get XPA working properly without errors on Xbox and Xbox PC. The previous process multiplied potential points of failure, leading to errors and potential pitfalls.
The Xbox Game Package Manager also has a validator auto-update function, which ensures that developers always have the most up-to-date rulesets, which should speed up certification, patching, and reduce failure rates. You’ve probably experienced issues in the past where Xbox versions of patches launch late. This should help improve the situation.
- ARM64 and x64 executables
In the latest GDK, developers can now declare ARM64 and x64 attributes within a single build, enabling native Arm device performance within a single package. Microsoft has been gradually working towards native Windows gaming on Arm devices, and this seems part of that effort.
- Cross-Platform Gaming Runtime
Microsoft has now surfaced the Xbox API for developers who want their games to be able to call into the Xbox authentication and social features while being installed on other platforms like Steam. Developers might want to use this to support cross-platform co-op sessions on PC and on other devices, or indeed, between Xbox consoles and Xbox PC in the future.
A game dev boost for Xbox’s PC-first future
Xbox is also unifying all of its dev tools and features under a new PlayFab Unified SDK, which can be installed in a modular format.
As Microsoft moves its Xbox console gaming environment closer to Windows, so too must its dev tools move. Up until now, Xbox and Windows 11 have had quite diverging tools, which made things like Xbox Play Anywhere a less-than-painless experience for developers to set up.
Microsoft has been gradually improving the experience to the point where more and more publishers have started to consider it a no-brainer, but problems do still persist. Just last week, I spoke to two ID@Xbox developers who were having issues getting their games visible on Xbox PC with the Xbox Play Anywhere designation, despite having performed all the correct steps.
The next Xbox is looking more PC-like than ever, but that comes with a lot of PC-like questions. Microsoft is working towards improving the experience via the Xbox Ally, with things like full-screen gaming apps, NPU-powered auto super resolution, and full controller support for Windows. But uptake on things like Xbox Play Anywhere, synchronizing save files between Xbox console and Xbox PC, has been quite slow — particularly with AAA publishers. Although we do have strong evidence that an Xbox Partner Preview event is coming this month, complete with a heavy emphasis on Xbox Play Anywhere.
Either way, with these improvements, we should begin to see a bigger shift.
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