The best of Windows is running more than just games that got ported to Xbox, and at better settings.

It’s a lot more than that. SteamOS isn’t just Steam Big Picture Mode. There’s some special sauce in there to capture the active window so that you never lose focus of the game window and such. If you just run a Windows machine set to boot into Steam Big Picture on startup, you’ll find lots of times that you have to break out a keyboard to Alt+Tab for a variety of reasons that SteamOS never encounters. And given the other problems Windows has introduced over the past decade, that’s the least of their problems now.

The timing is because CES is happening right now. Microsoft has been eyeing this use case since at least the launch of the Steam Deck.

It sounds like you can.

I had the Win 2. You needed fairly large pockets, and I wouldn’t really trust its build quality there anyway.

A decade or more ago, I thought surely that was what the app was going to do, considering Humble would package Steam + Android keys in the same purchase back then.

I think it’ll be softer for a number of reasons, but “softer than one of the most successful consoles of all time” is still a high bar to clear.

Rumor has it that’s exactly why this launch got delayed. It’s been in production for months now.

Yes, I think it’s going to be quite expensive. They’ve been saying it’s going to be an enormous leap in performance, and that’s not going to come cheap.

The Switch 2 and this console will be separated by about a year.

Optimus is sweating bullets right now.

Maybe they wouldn’t bother if they could get Game Pass on someone else’s console.

Is it Assassin’s Creed: Shadows? Because a failure by Assassin’s Creed standards is still pretty damn successful.

You can’t run a Windows executable on an Xbox as things stand. That’s the difference that a lot of us are expecting to go away.

If it is a PC like many of us expect, then its use case is that they want to outdo the SteamOS experience and also provide compatibility with games that rely on kernel-level anti cheat.

They might just stick with Xbox Prime.

I try to keep it down to a few categories.

There are always a few fighting games I’m playing; typically Skullgirls, Guilty Gear Strive, and Street Fighter 6. When a new one comes out, I tend to spend a few dozen hours learning it before moving on.

Then there’s a story/campaign game. Right now, it’s Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Then there’s a “shut your brain off”/“second screen”/“podcast” game. Currently that’s Borderlands. It doesn’t mean that I’m always listening to something while playing it, but it does mean I don’t have to think too hard to enjoy it, and I can consume it like junk food. I may not have the highest opinion of these games, but it’s good to have some of them as palate cleansers.

Then there’s whatever game I’m in the middle of playing co-op with friends. Currently that’s V Rising.

The above is what my plan is, but it rarely goes that way. Often times I’m in the middle of a campaign/story game, and then the new, shiny thing came out before I finish it, and I can’t help myself but to start up the new one too, so I’ve accumulated a running total of other games I’m in the middle of and haven’t finished. As for time management, mine is a DINK household, so there’s plenty to go around, even after social gatherings and such, but our schedules tend to be fluids that will expand to fit their containers. I’ve begun to arrive at something similar to an Agile board, if you’re familiar with software development. I’ve got a number of games that I intend to finish before the month is out, and based on HowLongToBeat data, I’m estimating how much time I’ll probably have to play them and how long it will likely take me to finish them. This is a new development for me from the past few months, but it’s starting to pay dividends…then again, that may also have to do with new releases slowing down at the end of the year.

It still seems strange to say that there’s nothing to be excited about (except for all the stuff to be excited about), you know? And even if we were only talking about AAA games that were already announced, Monster Hunter and GTA would still be sucking all of the oxygen out of the room for 2025.

And Bloodlines 2 graduated beyond development hell. They gave it to another developer, a developer known for walking sims, and it looks like they’re making something like a small-scale vampire Dishonored rather than an RPG.

Well, I didn’t think the scope of this conversation started and ended with AAA. I largely agree with the pessimism for AAA, but some good stuff still comes through, like Indiana Jones and Shadow of the Erdtree this past year. Things you might consider AAA that I’m still looking forward to this upcoming year include Death Stranding 2, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Judas, Civilization, Mafia, and a couple on the borderline like Avowed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Outer Worlds 2. Truthfully though, the games I’m probably most excited for are Mina the Hollower and Mouse: P.I. for Hire. Then after that, there’s the likes of Earthblade, Descenders Next, Duck Detective’s sequel, Knights in Tight Spaces, and more. I don’t consider them to be any less exciting just because the developers spent less money making them.

And if I might save you some heartbreak now, unless it’s a morbid curiosity, the latest gameplay videos for Bloodlines 2 look very far removed from Bloodlines 1.

Well, I don’t know that you necessarily represent the consensus with that pessimism. There’s Civilization VII, Avowed, Split Fiction, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Monster Hunter Wilds coming right in the beginning of the year. Grand Theft Auto 6 has a real shot at making it this year, plus the inevitable Switch 2 launch lineup. There’s a lot to be excited for right now before we even get to Half-Life 3s and Silksongs.