Xbox (Insider Edition)

Pro

Unify Games
Easy to Navigate
Free

Con

No Big Picture Mode
Low-Res Artwork
Limited Sorting

Ahead of the ROG Xbox Ally X, set for Holiday 2025, Xbox has updated their Xbox PC App to give you a preview of what to expect for the future of Xbox. Xbox is heavily betting their future on Game Pass and branding the Xbox name on other company’s hardware (for example Asus’ ROG Ally and Meta’s Quest VR).

Before we get to the future of Xbox, it seems that they’ve laid off as many as 9,000 employees, or 4% of its workforce today (July 2). They also cancelled Perfect Dark and Everwild games. This is a total of 15,000 people, if you add in MicroSoft cutting 6,000 employees in May 2025.

If you watch the Xbox video gaming trend, it’s clear to me that these reduction in staff that they don’t want to stay in the hardware business… instead, they want to make all their money through the Game Pass services.

Here are some key evidences that I present to you:

Exhibit A: In May 2025, Xbox raised their Series S to $380 and X to $550 and announced all their first-party games are going to be priced at $80, following the trend that Nintendo set with Mario Kart World. Xbox makes the argument that if you can’t afford the $80, the cheaper $20 alternative is with Game Pass.

Exhibit B: In November 2024, Xbox is re-branding and re-defining what it means to be an Xbox. Everything from Samsung Smart TVs, mobile phones, to Amazon Fire TVs, can be considered an Xbox, as long as you use their services on those devices. All these devices use Xbox Game Pass or Cloud Gaming (streaming).

Exhibit C: With the recent release of the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition and the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally, it’s clear to me that Xbox had no intention of developing their own VR or handheld. Sure, they might have suggested some design choices (like the handgrips and Xbox button), but they spent no money in R&D. Both these devices will help drive people to using Xbox Game Pass or Cloud Gaming.

Basically, everything is an Xbox. My PC is an Xbox, because I’m using the Xbox PC App. As I mentioned earlier in the article, Xbox just updated the App. In order to get the beta/preview, you have to join Xbox Insider Program.

The big update is that they’ve incorporated all your (installed) games into the Xbox App. Meaning if you have some Steam or Epic games installed, it will show up in your library (although, as of this writing, there seems to be some bug that is not showing me all my games).

Unfortunately, Xbox is only showing installed games. And you still need to have Steam running, in order to play those Steam games. The cover art is low resolution or sometime missing, and there’s no way of changing the artwork. Still, it’s nice to see them in one place, I just wish they would show all the games I own. GOG Galaxy does a similar thing, except they show every game I own. Unfortunately, GOG Galaxy is a buggy mess (not showing or tracking achievements and constant update error/syncing issues) that I’ve largely abandoned it for the time being.

I’ve many complaints about the Xbox Beta, but it’s a good sign of where it’s going. Hopefully, they’ll polish the interface and allow users to just sign into Steam and install the games natively on Xbox… much like how Movies Anywhere works. For example, if I “own” or have a license to that movie, it will also show up to any device that supports it like Vudu or Apple TV. I love it, because I don’t have to re-buy the same movie again, it’s very pro-consumer. Right now, Xbox’s own Play Anywhere only applies PC and Xbox devices… but I hope they would do the right thing is vice versa, so if you own the game on Steam, it will automatically work on an Xbox. If Xbox will do this, I will be an Xbox fan for life. Seriously, why would I buy title that isn’t Play Anywhere?

So, despite all the layoffs, I think Xbox is headed to a bright future. They don’t have to spend money on developing hardware, instead just branding other people’s handhelds or PC gaming rigs, all while making money through Game Pass.

Depending on the price of the ROG Xbox Ally X, I will most likely buy it. I already own (and love) the original ROG Ally, so I am on board… but they need to keep the price low. I’ve already allocated $500 (by not buying the Nintendo Switch 2), so I am ready for the Xbox Ally!