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Satya Nadella explains that a PC-based platform that can compete with TikTok is the future.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about Microsoft, a little bit about Xbox and what the CEO of that massive company has in mind for the vision of the future of Xbox. So yeah, Satya Nadella has come out and basically said what they are hoping they can turn Xbox into, which is an interesting thing because anyone who has been sort of somewhat following Microsoft and Xbox recently, it has felt like Satya Nadella has had his part in almost running Xbox into the ground in a similar vein to how they're doing or treating Windows in a way. It feels like Satya Nadella during his time as the CEO of Microsoft has been very, very focused on the business-to-business type of things, maybe less so the consumer side of things, which is why sometimes it feels difficult to support the direction Microsoft is taking because it doesn't feel very consumer-friendly. But anyway, let's dive on in. So yes, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shares his vision on the next Xbox. We built the console because we wanted to build a better PC which could then perform for gaming, and so I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom. So yeah, it feels like every day lately we've had a reason to write about the next Xbox console. If it's not major leaks, it's insiders confirming things or Microsoft themselves hinting at something, and today's news falls into the latter category. In an interview with TBPN, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella talks a little about the upcoming console, and just as various leaks inside another Microsoft executive have implied, it seems to be some kind of hybrid solution between a PC and an Xbox. We also want to do innovative work on the system side of the console and on the PC. You know, it's kind of funny that people think about the console and PC as two different things. We built the console because we wanted to build a better PC which could then perform for gaming, and so I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom. It certainly sounds like Nadella is talking about some kind of intertwining of the formats, which sounds suspiciously similar to the report we wrote about yesterday, which said that the next Xbox console will be able to act as both a console and a PC, depending on how you want it to. Nadella also shared some information about his views on consoles. But at the end of the day, console has an experience that is unparalleled. It delivers performance that's unparalleled, that pushes the system forward. So I'm really looking forward to the next console, the next PC gaming, but most importantly, the next game business model where we have to invent maybe some kind of new interactive media as well. He concluded by agreeing with what Xbox Game Content and Studios Chief Matt Booty said the other day, namely that it is not other consoles that are the biggest competition on the gaming front, but services such as TikTok. Because after all, the gaming competition is not other gaming. Gaming competition is short form video. How do you interpret Nadella's statements about the next generation of Xbox?
Now, I think there are some unusual things here. I mean, do I think that gaming is is facing its biggest competition from short form video? I don't think it really does."
"And I say that because I think, if anything, its competition is against long form video.
You know, you can't exactly knock out a video game in 35 seconds in the time it takes to watch a TikTok clip. A lot of video games take tens and tens of hours to play through.
So when you go into playing, like, for example, even like a midsize game, maybe 12 hours long or something like that, when you're going into playing something like that, you are dedicating 12 hours of your life to that project. Now, to me, that's not 12 hours of TikTok."
"That's 12 hours of whatever else you'll be doing that you could be doing in your personal time. So I've always found that an interesting thing, that games competition is not other gaming. Like, to me, it is. That to me sounds like a loser statement from Xbox, who has lost so much ground to the other rivals out there that they're now like, no, no, no, it wasn't them we were fighting, it was these guys. It just seems like a strange way to frame it really, in my eyes, when you're like, you know, we are a gaming brand, but we're not competing against other gaming brands, we're competing against TikTok. It's like, okay, unusual way to frame it. As for the Xbox thing, I actually think that a console that can tap into a PC platform like Windows is a genius idea because it unlocks the console user base and gives them the freedom of the PC platform, but at a more accessible price and in a more accessible, and this is the key thing, in a more accessible device. Because PCs are great, but they're big and they require certain technology and they require certain ways to hook it up and stuff like that. You don't have a PC sat next to your television in your living room. It's just not fundamentally how it works. And even if you did, navigating Windows software while you're sitting on your sofa is just implausible. So a console that can do that and give you access to Steam library and all that good stuff is a genius idea in my eyes."
"So we'll have to see how this shapes up, but I think this is actually a really smart idea from Xbox. So we'll just stay tuned and see that. But otherwise that's all the time I have.
So stay tuned for the next GRT News, which will be tomorrow."
