Xbox One UIBefore the Xbox One launched in 2013, there was some talk of an inexpensive alternative device shipping alongside the main console. Besides a minor Xbox 360 refresh, nothing of the sort ever came out, but a similar rumor has surfaced yet again recently. And after thoroughly mulling over this set-top-Xbox concept, I’m convinced that it’s a terrible idea.
While a typical hardware redesign seems inevitable for the bulky Xbox One, that’s not what we’re talking about here. This rumor is focused on a limited Apple TV-style “slim Xbox One.” According to Petri IT Knowledgebase, the most recent rumor of a set-top Xbox consists of a streamlined box that only runs Windows 10 apps, couched in wishy-washy language like “it’s not clear if these plans have been scrapped.” Even as the rumor is brought up, it’s thrown under the bus.
Microsoft has almost certainly prototyped something along these lines at some point, but it just doesn’t seem like a viable consumer product under current market conditions. Maybe an Apple TV competitor running Windows would have been compelling in 2010, but it’s a wet noodle in 2016.
Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV are completely mainstream at this point, and all of those boxes run third-party apps of some sort. Offering a hundred-dollar box that can run a subset of Windows Store apps seems overwhelmingly mediocre.
Of course, there are some ways that Microsoft could change up the formula to find a more successful product. I spoke to ExtremeTech’s own hardware expert Joel Hruska, and he said that 14nm die-shrunk Xbox 360 guts could fit into a box roughly the size of the Wii U, even if the Apple TV’s form factor is still out of reach.
It's still unclear if the last iteration of the Xbox 360 used a 32nm / 28nm process.
It’s still unclear if the last iteration of the Xbox 360 used a 32nm / 28nm process.
If we assume that the last version of the Xbox 360 was still built on 45nm, it implies that a 14nm die shrink could pull the architecture down to at least Wii U-level power consumption — if Microsoft went this route at all. A new Xbox 360 that supported the entire digital library out of the gate would turn this into a more interesting concept than “this box lets you play Candy Crush on your TV.” And if it can work as a local gameplay streaming device for the Xbox One (à la PlayStation TV), so much the better.
Along those same lines, it’s possible that Microsoft might want to get into the game streaming business with a service like PlayStation Now. If you could stream 360 and Xbone games over the internet on a relatively inexpensive box, that would likely do well. Of course, that runs the risk of significantly cannibalizing the sales of the Xbox One, so that probably doesn’t make much sense from a business perspective.
In the end, Microsoft is better off letting the likes of the Intel Compute Stick pick up the slack in the living room. If anyone is dying for an inexpensive way to run Windows on their TV, that option is already available, and it’s only going to get better.