A quick heads up, for some time now I have been supporting BDSMovement.Net’s call for a boycott of Xbox, as a result of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure support of the IDF and their role in the surveillance of Palestinian civilians. I will include links in the video description where you can learn more about this topic.
While I am going to discuss the next generation of Xbox console hardware in this video from an accessibility perspective, I have not purchased an Xbox game or paid for Xbox Live or GamePass in the past 9 months.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into today’s video topic.
During an interview published last week by Stephen Totilo on Game File, Epic Games Store GM Steve Allison revealed that he expects the Epic Games Store to be available on the next generation of Xbox console hardware on launch day, as an alternative option for purchasing video games.
“We definitely plan to be on the new hardware for Xbox, because, unless their policy or stance on it changes, [Microsoft] are telling us they’re going to welcome that,” Allison said.
“And we’re going be there, like, on day one. That will probably require us to build in whatever their requirements are, some sort of software to support that.”
Obviously, this would be a huge shift in direction for the console video game industry if true. Traditionally game consoles have been largely differentiated by their nature as closed ecosystems – they only run software specially designed to run on that specific console hardware, and sold through the console’s official digital storefront, or official physical game releases.
Rumours have been circulating for a while now that the next generation Xbox is going to basically run a gaming centric build of Windows 11. Looking at the Rog Xbox Ally for a glimpse at this sort of approach, we would likely see a very controller friendly Xbox style interface for accessing games, with the ability to optionally boot into a more traditional Windows mode to access other software or tweak additional settings. Rumours suggest that backward compatible Xbox specific software will still run on the system, but that Windows PC versions of games will run on the machine too, reducing the need to make Xbox specific builds of games.
With that said, Steve Allison seems confident that the Epic Games Store will be available on the next gen Xbox on day one, seemingly as an app that would be accessible in the Xbox style interface rather than simply a Windows executable optionally accessible from a desktop mode. Whether or not that signals support for other PC gaming storefronts like Steam on the machine, this regardless raises a number of interesting questions regarding accessibility for Xbox consoles going forward.
A Lack of Consistency for Accessibility Tags
Right now, one of the biggest accessibility positives on Xbox Series consoles compared to PlayStation 5 or Switch 2 is the console’s implementation of accessibility tags on the Xbox store. When purchasing a game on Xbox digitally you can see a number of accessibility tags that help disabled players to identify which accessibility features a game supports.
While PlayStation also features accessibility tag support on their digital storefront, at present Xbox’s digital store is the only console game store to have been updated to fully match the standardised accessibility tag names designed by the Accessible Games Initiative, a collection of game publishers working together to make accessibility tag language consistent and easy to understand for players.
If the Epic Games Store comes to Next Gen Xbox, that’s a storefront that at present doesn’t feature accessibility tags when players are purchasing games. Perhaps worse in some ways, if Steam were to be made available on the next gen Xbox then there will be actively conflicting names used for accessibility tags across the console. While Steam does support accessibility tags, they have opted not to match the names settled on by the Accessible Games Initiative, meaning that a piece of accessibility support would have different names depending which store on the Next Gen Xbox you were using to purchase the title.
Unless the Epic Games Store decides to add the Accessible Games Initiative’s accessibility tags, or Steam updates their tag names to match the AGI’s standardised terms, this could lead to inconsistent labelling of accessibility features across the console’s digital sotrefronts.
Accessibility Controller Support Consistency
At present, one of the biggest positives to be said regarding Accessibility support on Xbox Series consoles is that any game on the console can be played entirely using the Xbox Adaptive Controller. If you’re a disabled gamer who relies on Microsoft’s first party accessibility controller, you can be confident that basically any game released on Xbox Series consoles can be played using that accessibility controller.
However, if the next generation Xbox console supports purchasing PC games through alternative storefronts, then you introduce the possibility of games being available to purchase on the console that might not be compatible with this accessibility controller. This would potentially include games that only support mouse and keyboard input, but could have broader compatibility implications also.
Will System Level Accessibility Support Work With Alternative Storefronts and Games?
On an Xbox Series console there are a number of accessibility features that can be turned on that function on a system level, but don’t necessarily function once booting into specific game software. Examples of this include increasing text sizes, changing UI contrast, and turning on narration of menu text.
At present, these features all apply when navigating the official Xbox digital storefront to purchase games. The question is, would these system level features be supported when browsing an alternative storefront?
It sounds from the cited GameFile interview like these alternative storefronts might be bootable apps rather than being part of the inherent console UI. The question then is whether Microsoft would mandate specific accessibility support on these digital store apps, or whether they would treat them like they currently treat video game apps on the platform where accessibility standards are optional for developers to implement.
Will Games Cost More From the Xbox Epic Store App?
A strong percentage of profit earned by the companies behind closed ecosystems such as game console manufacturers is a percentage cut of digital game sale prices. If you purchase an Xbox game digitally on the Series X today 30% of what you spend goes straight to Microsoft, with similar percentage cuts also seen on other platforms such as iOS devices.
If the Epic Games Store does become available on Next Gen Xbox on launch day, it’s worth asking if Xbox will take a percentage cut on the sale price of those games, or whether they’ll be happy not to take a cut of sales on a competitor’s store.
While Microsoft is obviously happy not to take a cut of Epic Game Store sales on Windows PCs, game console hardware is typically sold at a loss (with the profit made up on the console maker’s cut of game sales).
On iOS devices we’re currently seeing battles over in-app purchases being more expensive on iOS devices than they are on PC because of Apple wishing to take a cut of sales income. Would we see something similar on Xbox, with it being cheaper to purchase a game on the Epic Games Store on PC, and more expensive to do so on the Epic Games Store on Xbox?
Will PC Games be as Reliably Safe, accessibility wise, as Console Ports?
One benefit present when purchasing games on consoles over a PC is a degree of additional risk minimisation. While not common, I have experienced PC games where an incorrectly installed driver or other device issue has caused problems ranging from a character rapidly spinning causing motion sickness issues, through to unexpected full screen flickering as a lighting effect fails to correctly load.
One of the benefits of console specific builds of games is that those builds are tested on specific known hardware, and tailored to work correctly on them. The same cannot be guaranteed when you make a historic PC library available all at once on a console.
One solution to this would be for the Epic Games Store to introduce an “Xbox Verified” tag, similar to the one seen on Steam for Steam Deck compatibility. While not necessarily viable to check against every past game on their store, new titles being tested on Xbox hardware specifically could help to mitigate potential accessibility risks.
I’m not denying that there are pro consumer benefits to the idea of a home console supporting PC digital game storefronts. There are undoubtedly situations where this would be beneficial to gamers, and potentially even have accessibility benefits for some players. I have accessibility concerns, but they are all concerns which could be overcome.
My main hope is that Microsoft discusses these potential accessibility issues with their third party digital store partners before the new console hardware releases, and that they have answers ready for some of these questions by the time that this next gen Xbox feature is being discussed in a more official capacity.
I do appreciate the idea of more choice for where to purchase games on a console, so long as we don’t make the next Xbox considerably less accessibility friendly in the process.