It would be fair to say that Xbox has endured mixed fortunes in the last month. The Tokyo Game Show and the reveal of Forza Horizon 6 (not coming to PlayStation at launch, by the way) were followed by a price hike for Xbox Game Pass, which came just after Microsoft did its best to price itself out of the console market.
Then, as if to compound the issue, the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X didn’t get a price until the eleventh hour, and then dropped at an eye-watering $599 and $999. Is the legacy of Xbox to be one of pricey hardware and services, then? Not quite. I think its story runs into the next generation. Let me explain.
Is this an Xbox?
Microsoft’s biggest issue, dating back to the rollout of the Xbox One, has been how it messages its plans. That console, which should have been a slam dunk after the Xbox 360 catapulted the brand into the global consciousness, launched atop a wave of mealy-mouthed, confusion-inducing communications.
Does it need to be online? Yes. Can you share games? Yes, but also no, because people would have to be part of your family plan. Do you have to have a Kinect? Yes, and the price is higher than the PS4 because of it.
And, while that was now 12 years ago, Microsoft hasn’t really learned from those same mistakes. When it came to releasing games on PlayStation (a necessity given the cost of game development and wanting to find as wide an audience as possible, Microsoft let the rumor mill and leaks spring eternal before confirming that four games would come to Sony’s system.
That then shifted again - some games would land day-and-date on PS5, and there were no barriers to even allowing something like Halo to cross the fence.
Imagine our surprise, then, when Xbox finally hit upon a strong messaging beat. “This is an Xbox” became a memeable catchphrase in the same way “Xbox Game Pass is the best deal in gaming” was parrotted by many online (including from this writer, but more on that later).
The idea is simple: thanks to Cloud Gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere, you can play Xbox titles on your phone, tablet, PC, VR headset, and even an Amazon Fire TV stick. It’s a smart idea, albeit one that essentially removes the need to buy an Xbox console for those with a good enough PC.
But it gets you in the ecosystem that Microsoft, to its credit, has been pushing to build seemingly every year, gradually (and not without some frustrating closures along the way), since current Xbox boss Phil Spencer took over.
No, it’s not
The trouble is that, when an Xbox handheld hits shelves, even at its sky-high price, there’s now a reasonable expectation that it can play Xbox games.
And it can…sort of. But only if the game in question has Play Anywhere support which includes a PC version as well as a console one, or if you’re happy to stream your games to the system.
Despite what Good Morning America may suggest, you can’t technically play Xbox console games on it.
Good Morning America gets confused and claims you can play Xbox console games on the ROG Xbox Ally. Literally the most important thing to know is the one thing their report gets wrong. pic.twitter.com/Jv2giVSeIZOctober 15, 2025
It’s yet another asterisk next to a handy marketing slogan - “This Is An Xbox” (that’s actually a PC) will sit alongside “Play it on Day One with Xbox Game Pass” (as long as you’ve got the right tier that has day one launches).
The discerning Tom’s Guide reader will know all this regardless, but if you’re a grandparent or parent shopping for a new console this holiday season, you could be opening a can of worms gifting a $999 Xbox console (which Microsoft itself describes as an Xbox) to an Xbox gamer only to find they don’t have anything to play natively on it.
So what next?
When Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass, it didn’t take long for discussions to turn to whether the company was abandoning the gaming space, having seen its returns seemingly diminish against Nintendo and, primarily, Sony.
It’s perhaps telling that it feels like Xbox is the only one of the three where a rumor seemingly takes on new life, pushing Microsoft to confirm that no, its billions-of-dollars investment in AMD for the next console generation isn’t being sidelined just yet.
And yet, I think if Microsoft could be onto something. The rise of handheld PCs has blurred the lines between console and more traditional PC gaming, and now more than ever, users have libraries spread across different systems and launchers.
Announcing its AMD partnership, Microsoft said, “This is all about building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device."
Will the next Xbox essentially just be a PC that runs the ROG Ally X’s full-screen Xbox mode and taps into launchers like Battle.net and the Epic Games Store as well as Steam, while also offering Game Pass?
It sure sounds like it. Do I trust Microsoft to clearly annunciate the virtues of this approach, though? I’m not so sure, but time will tell.
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