The next Xbox platform isn't some super powerful 8K console, or a streaming box, or xCloud, or a Windows PC.
Or rather, it's all of those things and (quite possibly) more.
But it appears the real place where Microsoft wants to funnel its customers is through Game Pass - the subscription service that provides its fans with hundreds of games for a monthly fee.
This is not a new thing. We've been discussing it on Gamesindustry.biz now for months. But this weekend's X018 fan fest in Mexico was the most public display of its strategy we've seen so far. Two hours of Game Pass ads and announcements, with just a sprinkling of other AAA non-Game Pass games to satisfy the reluctant subscriber.
If Microsoft continues on this trajectory (and judging by its rhetoric and investment, it's likely it will), then the firm will care as much about which platform you're accessing Game Pass through as Netflix is bothered about which device you're watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on. Indeed, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that gamers will be able to play Sea of Thieves - via xCloud - on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 in the not-too-distant future.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...future-of-xbox