What is an Xbox? Microsoft’s latest vision for gaming might spell the end of traditional consoles

See that image of an Xbox ad down below? It’s been causing a bit of a stir in the games industry, and not just because that cat looks way too big for its carrier. 

Rather, it’s that it seems to be a declaration of intent from Microsoft to shift our minds away from ‘£300 box that sits under the telly equals console’ and towards a much broader view of what constitutes a gaming device. 

Like, much broader. VR headsets, TVs, Amazon Firesticks and even your phone are now, apparently, all Xboxes. So basically: all detectable matter in the universe is now a games console of some sort. 

Meanwhile, in a recent Bloomberg interview, Xbox boss Phil Spencer (no, not the one who helps Brits buy houses) said there are “no red lines” on which of the company’s first-party games turn up on other consoles.

These are big, bold moves from the company that just completed a spree of big money buyouts of triple-A studios and publishers. Microsoft’s current position is so influential that its vision for the industry more or less becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

What’s the problem, then? Playing Xbox games on your phone, or in VR, doesn’t feel like a bad thing at face value, but nonetheless there’s something disquieting about the platform holder shedding the very definition of what we previously thought of as a games console.

Xbox does have more hardware releases planned, namely a handheld gaming device and a new traditional ‘console’ for the change-averse scaredy cats who don’t like the idea of getting their Call Of Duty fix directly from their telly. 

However, the new ad seems to be getting us ready to shed our previous notions of console gaming, and, by extension, the way it usually evolves through the release of sequentially more advanced boxes of hardware, on which you play exclusive games intended to lure you into a particular ecosystem. 

And if they’re going to do that, the least they can do is throw in a bento box to sweeten the deal, frankly.