Microsoft Working on Gaming-Focused 'Xbox Surface' 7-Inch Tablet

divinox said:

MSFT is not in any trouble if the Surface is a dud. MSFT is in trouble if W8 is a dud. Big difference.

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I disagree... the mobile market is where everything is going. Yes, the desktop is important and will be for a while (especially in business), but I do feel mobile solution like tablets and smart phones will continue to develop grow and reduce the average consumers reliance on a traditional computer.

If MS continues to fail in this area (as they have been) they will get left far behind.

M-O said:

Microsoft? are they still around?

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Yes they sell millions of products every year and a massive company.

frayne182 said:

What are you comparing it to?

Its the best system this generation.

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I'm comparing it to consoles from the past. Before they added all the unnecessary PC features.

I'll be honest, I don't own a Wii or PS3, which is why I'm focusing my rage on the Xbox 360. If those consoles are just as bad then I will say they are equally crap.

frayne182 said:

Interface is great and not ugly at all IMO. Wii and PS3 never changed their interfaces at all.

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If you think the Xbox 360 has a nice interface, you probably think Windows 8 does as well. I guess we just have different taste.

frayne182 said:

Its hardly a crappy system. And I own them all. PS3 is used now only for media services and Blu Ray, Wii is modded to play Super Nintendo games.

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It might not be crappy by todays standards. But I'm an oldschool gamer who just wants to play games. I don't care for all the poorly implemented PC features. When I switch the console on I don't want to see anything besides the game booting up unless I press a button which tells the console to do something else.

Mr.damien said:

Yeah we agree. Windows is an OS console, so it's now time for Microsoft to leave the enterprise market and return to their toys.

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Yeah, so good products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhhtvuZwVg

Ho wait ...

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I really think there's a strong argument for posters age to be displayed next to their username.

Because of COURSE it should be an entirely DIFFERENT DEVICE - duh, why didn't Apple think of THAT!?

Rest in peace Micro$oft, your best OS was Windows 7, now Windows 8 killed it.

Who am I kidding? LET MICRO$OFT DIE

Excellent idea. They are a bit late to the party, but it is still an excellent idea.

XBox sales have been dropping badly, and most people are nowadays interested in more casual gameplay. Plenty of people using iPads or iPhones for games, and the iPod Touch is even marketed as a games computer.

embraceware said:

Newer Microsoft logo for article:
Image

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Still can't believe that someone was payed to come up with that generic bit of twaddle.

gnasher729 said:

XBox sales have been dropping badly, and most people are nowadays interested in more casual gameplay. Plenty of people using iPads or iPhones for games, and the iPod Touch is even marketed as a games computer.

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The "most people" you refer to have never been interested in consoles or actual gaming. For those that play real video games and not just word-scrambles and slicing fruit, portable gaming is still just a shadow of what a console offers.

And the only reason consoles sales are dropping is that they are reaching their saturation point in their life cycle. That doesn't happen with phones and tablets because gaming on those platforms is an just another thing they do. Hardly anyone buys a phone or tablet to play games in the same way hardly anyone buys an XBox just to play music and browse the internet.

And Apple marketing anything as a "games" device is another in their hilarious half-baked attempts at supporting Mac gaming. Saying something plays games is about as far as they go. That's why Game Center is the joke it is.

MS slinging its a** all over the damn place now.
Seriously, other than high end intel chips, fast front side busses and decent ram what type of gaming tablet are they going to make with those ARM chips? It's already damn hard to get proformance out the latest intel chips with all the PC bells and whstles so I am intrigued to see what type of **** they're going to pump out of tech that ain't ready for hardcore gaming.
HALO on a SOC? ****!
Surprise me.
No doub some sub par bs and watered down games will be released.
Name you favorite Xbox game and attach LITE On the end.
Lol!

MacRumors said:

Interestingly, rather than simply being a smaller version of its just-launched 10-inch Surface tablet, the forthcoming "Xbox Surface" tablet will be a gaming-focused device running a scaled down version of Windows.

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This funny. And also just a little sad.

Remember when Microsoft was the 800 pound gorilla? When everyone in tech feared them? When they could snuff out young, promising competitors with just a little marketing FUD? Sure you do.

Zune forward, er, zoom forward to today. Microsoft is trailing badly in mobile, the biggest and fastest-growing computing boom the world has ever seen. They've completely missed the mobile computing boat in both the consumer and business markets. The world has passed them by in mobile, and they show no signs of being able to catch up. And the oddball two-headed Surface RT / 8 with ARM / Intel concept will only confuse, confound, and fragment.

All this while Microsoft is teetering on the edge of disaster with Windows 8. With a bizarre new interface that will confuse consumers. Corporate IT will simply erase and re-image their new Windows 8 systems with XP anyway. They won't waste time and money updating their business software or dealing with XP Compatibility Mode bugs. Nuke Windows 8, pave with Windows XP, repeat.

So what to do, what to do? Aha! Xbox 360 is finally breaking even after losing billions over the years. And that Kinect controller is popular with the kiddies.

So, um....

Gaming! We'll shrink the Surface hardware, slap an optimized version of Windows on it, and sell the thing as a mobile gaming device! You know, just in case the "real" Surface(s) don't sell.

That's the ticket! (OK, maybe it's not sad after all. Just funny.)

ArcaneDevice said:

The "most people" you refer to have never been interested in consoles or actual gaming. For those that play real video games and not just word-scrambles and slicing fruit, portable gaming is still just a shadow of what a console offers.

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carmenodie said:

MS slinging its a** all over the damn place now.
Seriously, other than high end intel chips, fast front side busses and decent ram what type of gaming tablet are they going to make with those ARM chips? It's already damn hard to get proformance out the latest intel chips with all the PC bells and whstles so I am intrigued to see what type of sh** they're going to pump out of tech that ain't ready for hardcore gaming.
HALO on a SOC? Shhhhhhh*t!
Surprise me.
No doub some sub par bs and watered down games will be released.
Name you favorite Xbox game and attach LITE On the end.
Lol!

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The same way Nintendo does it now with the Wii-U.

Go look at youtube videos of the Wii-U.

You can play full blown games on those tablets as long as you are in range. Thats how Microsoft will do it I'm guessing.

Its a cool idea. Concept being "Dad can watch the football game, while son plays Call Of Duty on the tablet."

ArcaneDevice said:

The "most people" you refer to have never been interested in consoles or actual gaming. For those that play real video games and not just word-scrambles and slicing fruit, portable gaming is still just a shadow of what a console offers.

And the only reason consoles sales are dropping is that they are reaching their saturation point in their life cycle. That doesn't happen with phones and tablets because gaming on those platforms is an just another thing they do. Hardly anyone buys a phone or tablet to play games in the same way hardly anyone buys an XBox just to play music and browse the internet.

And Apple marketing anything as a "games" device is another in their hilarious half-baked attempts at supporting Mac gaming. Saying something plays games is about as far as they go. That's why Game Center is the joke it is.

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Oh my god, you are really getting excited about this.

The "most people" I am referring to are just that - most people. Those that "play really video games" are a minority nowadays. It doesn't matter why few people buy an Xbox 360 nowadays (sales are actually lower now than Apple TV! ), fact is that people are not buying it, so there is no money to be made.

I can't quite see why would call Apple's marketing of the iPhone Touch as a games computer as a "hilarious half-baked attempt at supporting Mac gaming", since, quite obviously, an iPhone Touch is not a Mac. I suppose that's due to excitement as well.

The reason why few buy phones and tablets exclusively for games is that phones and tablets do a lot of other things, but for many, games are an important part as well. And for many, games were not part of the reason to purchase, but then they figured out that there were many fun games available.

Casual game playing is a huge market, much bigger than the "serious" gamers (that expression always makes me laugh) market, so Microsoft is doing the right thing here (always assuming there is truth to the rumour).

Is this going to be the Zune of portable gaming? Probably. I don't see a huge future for these gaming machines as smartphones and tablets are going to be ubiquitous even for kids very soon.

these guys are still trying?

Probably be the "Surface" for their Microsoft Smart"Glass" technology for xbox. Everything makes sense now.

Apple TV hasn't outsold the Xbox 360 lol

Xbox has sold over 70 million units world wide and is on the tail end of its life cycle.


Apple TV has not sold that many.


Microsoft is shifting its focus from sales of the 360 to a new console. Clearing out stock as shown with another $50 price drop.

I actually like the idea of my Xbox being an entertainment system. Hell even Nintendo the once thought of true gaming platform is shifting to that as well. Offering Netflix, HULU, etc on their Wii-U.

B777Forevar said:

Sad thing is, the PS3 has no games.

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You can't be serious.

End of the day Nintendo is still king of the portable gaming market and their DS and 3DS.


iPod Touch, iPad, and all other portables are playing catch up with their angry birds and Fruit Slicing games.

They got to get more serious if they want to bust into the true gaming market.


Nintendo is already combating the "extra" things a tablet can do By including broswer, netflix, downloads, etc in the DS

frayne182 said:

Apple TV hasn't outsold the Xbox 360 lol

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What does an Apple TV (streaming media device) have anything to do with an Xbox 360 (game machine)? Irrelevant.

Take away all the users who bought the XBox 360 for playing games, and then you'd have a fair comparison.

bbeagle said:

What does an Apple TV (streaming media device) have anything to do with an Xbox 360 (game machine)? Irrelevant.

Take away all the users who bought the XBox 360 for playing games, and then you'd have a fair comparison.

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gnasher mentioned that The Apple TV out sells the Xbox.

Thats why it was mentioned.

Oh my god, you are really getting excited about this.

The "most people" I am referring to are just that - most people. Those that "play really video games" are a minority nowadays. It doesn't matter why few people buy an Xbox 360 nowadays (sales are actually lower now than Apple TV! ), fact is that people are not buying it, so there is no money to be made.

I can't quite see why would call Apple's marketing of the iPhone Touch as a games computer as a "hilarious half-baked attempt at supporting Mac gaming", since, quite obviously, an iPhone Touch is not a Mac. I suppose that's due to excitement as well.

The reason why few buy phones and tablets exclusively for games is that phones and tablets do a lot of other things, but for many, games are an important part as well. And for many, games were not part of the reason to purchase, but then they figured out that there were many fun games available.

Casual game playing is a huge market, much bigger than the "serious" gamers (that expression always makes me laugh) market, so Microsoft is doing the right thing here (always assuming there is truth to the rumour).

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gnasher729 said:

Oh my god, you are really getting excited about this.

The "most people" I am referring to are just that - most people. Those that "play really video games" are a minority nowadays. It doesn't matter why few people buy an Xbox 360 nowadays (sales are actually lower now than Apple TV! ), fact is that people are not buying it, so there is no money to be made.

I can't quite see why would call Apple's marketing of the iPhone Touch as a games computer as a "hilarious half-baked attempt at supporting Mac gaming", since, quite obviously, an iPhone Touch is not a Mac. I suppose that's due to excitement as well.

The reason why few buy phones and tablets exclusively for games is that phones and tablets do a lot of other things, but for many, games are an important part as well. And for many, games were not part of the reason to purchase, but then they figured out that there were many fun games available.

Casual game playing is a huge market, much bigger than the "serious" gamers (that expression always makes me laugh) market, so Microsoft is doing the right thing here (always assuming there is truth to the rumour).

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There's still a market for aaa 59.99 titles.

Vendors continue to have record breaking sales.

Non gamers probably see less of this though, since pc games are really not purchased in brick and mortar stores. Consoles are still there but even so, many purchase digitally.

Been to steampowered.com lately?

I would certainly wager the income from aaa games is much greater than that of mobile tablet phone games. You just can be serious or you just don't follow gaming.

SockRolid said:

This funny. And also just a little sad.

Remember when Microsoft was the 800 pound gorilla? When everyone in tech feared them? When they could snuff out young, promising competitors with just a little marketing FUD? Sure you do.

Zune forward, er, zoom forward to today. Microsoft is trailing badly in mobile, the biggest and fastest-growing computing boom the world has ever seen. They've completely missed the mobile computing boat in both the consumer and business markets. The world has passed them by in mobile, and they show no signs of being able to catch up. And the oddball two-headed Surface RT / 8 with ARM / Intel concept will only confuse, confound, and fragment.

All this while Microsoft is teetering on the edge of disaster with Windows 8. With a bizarre new interface that will confuse consumers. Corporate IT will simply erase and re-image their new Windows 8 systems with XP anyway. They won't waste time and money updating their business software or dealing with XP Compatibility Mode bugs. Nuke Windows 8, pave with Windows XP, repeat.

So what to do, what to do? Aha! Xbox 360 is finally breaking even after losing billions over the years. And that Kinect controller is popular with the kiddies.

So, um....

Gaming! We'll shrink the Surface hardware, slap an optimized version of Windows on it, and sell the thing as a mobile gaming device! You know, just in case the "real" Surface(s) don't sell.

That's the ticket! (OK, maybe it's not sad after all. Just funny.)

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I think that you are basing all of this on an assumption that Microsoft is shooting from the hip and their long term plans are not carefully thought-out. Having spent some time with windows 8 and the developers toolbox, that doesn't seem to be the case at all. I know I am preaching to the wrong audience with this, but it's hard to spend any real time with their architecture without feeling that everything is meticulously thought and mapped to a much bigger picture than is currently in view.

That said, I don't quite understand the reason for the Gaming Tablet either, but in my recent experience, I find it hard to believe that it is not a carefully thought out piece of the yet to be seen bigger picture.

As I have said before, I'm not at all what you would call an MS fan (I'm a Mac guy for a reason), but I am wildly impressed with what I am seeing and looking forward to seeing more of the bigger picture. This is not a "me too" endeavor for MS, they are striving for the next big step, and that's pretty cool.

I agree that Windows 8 will not be widely adopted at the enterprise level, but that is more due to the nature of Enterprise IT, and not related to Windows 8 at all. Smaller business will adopt it, and enterprise may wait until the next iteration. However, the surface pro tablet I believe will be widely tapped into by large businesses, if for no other reasons than it is the first tablet suitable for complete IT administration and integration with existing systems. I know that my local County Government is all over it for those reasons, and I am sure they are not alone.

everything-i said:

I think the jury is going to out on this for a while. In my opinion Metro on the desktop is a poor working environment and touch screen monitors are tiring to use too. Others may disagree and I think it will be interesting to see what this interface becomes over the years for desktop/laptop usage. There is definitely a lot to be said for tailoring an interface for its platform and I think using the same interface everywhere is not the ultimate way forward.

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I don't think touch screen monitors will be the way this goes (except in certain business applications). But one interface for all platforms could work. Take, for example, Apple's trackpad. It is essentially a small version of the screen. One can imagine with a few improvments how it could be scaled 1:1 with your screen and where you touch on the pad reflects as a 'click' on that same location on the screen. This, or some Minority Report/Kinect system, is where the 'touch' system for desktops could ver well head.

bbeagle said:

What does an Apple TV (streaming media device) have anything to do with an Xbox 360 (game machine)? Irrelevant.

Take away all the users who bought the XBox 360 for playing games, and then you'd have a fair comparison.

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Microsoft has been advertising employment opportunities for engineers to work in their cloud based television platform. It might be more relevant than we know.