**What if I told you it’s possible to create an Xbox console that could run both Xbox and PC games and still be sold below production cost?** Of course, it would support Xbox Quick Resume for all games. Is it possible? Yes.

Below I will explain exactly how and why. The first part of the article covers low-level technological aspects and the second part covers economic ones. If you’re not interested in the technology, you can skip straight to the second part. However, keep in mind that the technology described in the first part is required for the second part to be feasible. The console must provide security and process control for the idea described here to work. I am a software engineer but I tried to describe everything in language that’s understandable to everyone. BTW. I don’t have any leaks about Microsoft’s plans. I wrote this article based solely on my own experience. Everything described here can be implemented but that doesn’t mean Microsoft will follow this path.

BTW. I apologize for any gramma errors; English isn’t my native language

# Xbox Operating System

Let's begin by explaining how the system works on Xbox console. Many people have probably heard that the Xbox runs on a manager called a hypervisor. Console have a very small operating system that includes the Hyper‑V container mechanism. Let’s call it the HostOS. This system is responsible for controlling hardware, drivers and so on. However, it does not run games or applications like a typical desktop OS. Instead it launches standalone containers using a virtual machine. It also allocates resources to those containers such as RAM, CPU cores and GPU. Each container has own operating system and a single application with its dependencies inside.

When the console boots our HostOS starts a container with Windows 11 and Dashboard application. Nothing special. The HostOS allocates it 1 physical CPU core and around 1.5 GB of RAM. When we launch a game, another container is started but this one is different. A system inside is a minimized Windows 11 with graphics stack trimmed and optimized for DirectX. The HostOS assigns that container roughly 14 GB of memory and 7 CPU cores. As a result, we have three different operating systems in different variants running at the same time. The HostOS can pause any game container at any moment, write its used memory to disk, and then start a different container. This operations is possible because each container have own system and it is isolated from other elements or our console. **This mechanism is called Xbox Quick Resume and it lets us switch freely between games.** This is especially useful when a whole family shares one console.

As mentioned, each container has a single game or application installed. This means that every time someone creates a game or app package, they need some baseline resources. To simplify this process, several base container types were created and optimized for different tasks. There is a container for native DX12 games that contains only the GDK libraries. There is another container with UWP/XAML libraries that includes many more components like HTML engine based on Google Chromium. This container can used with UWP or web apps and simple games. You can it for a standard DX12 but it won't be as fast as native GDK container. The extra features in this container consume system resources so code placed there will have access to only 8 GB of free memory on a Series X. There is also a specialized base container for backward compatibility that contains an emulators for Xbox 360 and  Xbox 2001

# PC Game Support

As you can see, we have very different containers at our disposal. One looks like a console, another like Windows and yet another like a 25‑year‑old PC. It’s therefore straightforward to create another base container designed to run PC games. We only need to place a slimmed‑down Windows 11 in it together with the PC versions of the DX11/DX12 graphics libraries instead of the console GDK. Additionally, the system in that container must simulate a split between system memory and video memory. The next layer inside would be a game launcher such as Steam or Epic. Launchers like Steam consist of a small C++ runtime and a game store that is a web application. To launch a game only the runtime part is necessary. So only this runtime part is used in our PC Game container which save us about 1 GB of RAM. The web portion of the Steam app would go into a separate UWP/XAML container that includes the WebView2 component (Google Chromium). This app would be used only for purchasing games. Splitting the classic Steam app into two separate apps would allow Valve to update store app without having to update games. This gives us a base container where we can install a single PC game.

This is exactly how NVIDIA GeForce Now works. It’s built on a customized Docker environment that operates on the same principles as the Xbox system. NVIDIA created a series of base containers for each store such as Steam, Epic and Ubisoft. At the bottom of the container we have a slimmed‑down Windows 11. The next layer is DX12 or legacy DX11/DX9 graphics libraries and on top a single launcher. This is a base container. A single game is then attached to that container. The container runs on a server that is different from a typical PC. Those servers use powerful GPUs and terabytes of unified memory (HBM). So just like on Xbox there’s a management system that carve out a small portion of those resources. Because we’re simulating a PC here, we need to use one block of memory as 'system' and another as 'VRAM' and PCIe data bus is then simulated. The same approach would be required on Xbox, where memory is also unified.

As we can see Xbox can run PC games without architectural changes. We only need to add a new base containers for each PC storefront similar to what Nvidia did on their servers. PC game packaged this way will be faster than on standard PC but slower than a native GDK which are better optimized. Because PC games will be in containers the Xbox Quick Resume will be supported.

# Risks Associated with PC Games

But PC games also introduce risks. Game developers might completely abandon making native console games and produce only PC versions because those games will work on both  PC and consoles. That would be a negative scenario for players because native games are better optimized than a PC games. GDK games use unified memory, which allows much more efficient use of resources and strong cooperation between CPU, GPU, NPU. All compute units can work on the same data structures in memory. A game designed for a PC-style architecture requires memory to be split into a system memory and a video memory. So CPU can’t cooperate effectively with GPU and a lot of memory is wasted.

To prevent that scenario, we need a mechanism that rewards buying native console games. Those games must always remain more popular than PC games on our console. That will give developers a reason to keep creating optimized console games despite the smaller market. I will present such an idea in the next section

# Economy

Consoles are typically sold below production cost and the platform owner earns money through its store. When a player buys a game or a microtransaction the store takes a 30% cut. In 2020 the Xbox Series X cost $699 to produce but sold for $499. Microsoft could recover that loss only if the player use Xbox Store or Game Pass subscription. But if we allow to use alternative PC stores like Steam or Epic some users might never use Xbox Store. One option is to sell consoles at a profit but that would push the price above $1,000 and we don't want that. Very expensive console could be a complete market failure. So the only viable option is to sell hardware below production cost and heavily promote Xbox Store. This will also help convince game developers to make native console games.

The best solution is to make PC games a premium feature available only to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Similar to how Sony offers backward‑compatibility features exclusively in PlayStation Plus Premium. In this model, nothing changes for console players. They still buy the hardware cheaply and then pay it off by purchasing games in the Xbox Store or by using Game Pass, exactly how consoles have worked for years. From time to time, those users will activate Game Pass Ultimate to play games not available in the Xbox Store such as Spider‑Man or God of War. PC players who decide to buy a console would have a choice. Some people who don't want use game pass could start using the Xbox Store and pay for GPU only to occasionally to play some older games from their PC library. Others who want cheap hardware but intend to completely ignore the Xbox Store would have to pay for Game Pass Ultimate. For people who already used Game Pass Ultimate for years those new PC stores will be yet another bonus. So this situation is fair play to everyone and could even increase number of Game Pass users.

# Summary

Console like this could compete with the PS6 on entirely new terms. It would be cheap and would support not only all Xbox games, including disc‑based ones, but also PC games. You can’t achieve that with a standard console or a classic PC. Hardware like this could be a win‑win situation for everyone: console gamers, PC gamers, and Microsoft. I hope you like this idea. I don't know if MS will create something like that... but it would be nice.

* hardware sold below production cost
* support for Xbox games, both digital and on optical discs
* PC games supported as a premium service
* Xbox Quick Resume for all games
* higher game stability (isolation, no conflicts)
* console security mechanism
* no pirated games
* no cheaters in games
* standard games certification for safety and better quality



How Microsoft could build an affordable console for Xbox and PC Games (technical discussion)