Xbox and Windows have always been siblings under the Microsoft corporate umbrella. But recently they’ve gotten a lot closer, with the Xbox Game Pass featuring tons of PC games and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally—a Windows-powered device—getting that official Xbox branding. But what’s the next step? Adam asked former Xbox team member Mike Danseglio on the latest PCWorld YouTube video.

To be more specific, Xbox consoles are generally running some kind of Windows software as a base, but with so many layers, optimizations, and interface changes that it’s impossible to tell from a user perspective. And crucially, an Xbox only runs Xbox games—you can’t load up published PC games or other Windows software on the console.

Mike thinks a customizable Xbox console, running Windows with an Xbox interface and with some custom hardware options, would make more sense now. Let Xbox be the interface, not the closed-down console. Microsoft has already been leaning this way with its “This is an Xbox” campaign. You can still preserve the Xbox experience while allowing advanced users the option to customize their devices.

Is that likely to happen? Probably not. While it seems likely that Xbox and Windows will get even closer in the near future, simply making Xbox into an alternate “skin” for Windows is probably a bridge too far for the kind of company Microsoft is right now. I’d love to be wrong about that. After all, Microsoft needs an edge in the console market as Sony and Nintendo continue to dominate.

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Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld