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Whats Phil Spencer's master plan for this gen?

MH3M3D

MH3M3D

Member
He's always saying "we have a plan" and he seems to be very confident about it. I think its purely based on providing good services and value. Not so much competing with Sony's AAAA single-player, story-driven games.

Microsoft knows they can't beat them there. You can't just buy a bunch of studios and expect them to compete with Sony's studios that have been around for multiple console generations. It's pretty obvious as both Halo and Gears weren't created by studios owned by Microsoft. They have a lot of catching up to do and many years of of experience is needed to get where some Sony studios have been for a long time.

I'm guessing its all about Game Pass and offering a cheap(er) console. I think they're going to launch the series X at the same price or cheaper than PS5, no matter how much money they lose.
For millions of CoD/Fifa/Free-to-play gamers, getting a series X with Game Pass is going to be a great deal. If they want an even cheaper alternative, behold the series S! I think its a great strategy for them.

What do you think?
 
U

UnNamed

Banned
I think they already know next gen will be a bloodbath in terms of costs and development, so they try to offer as much games as they can on every platform. Quantity and long tails over quality and peaks in sales in launch window only.

This is the same for Sony, of course, they will have the same big problem.

Seems crazy but it have sense.
 
T

TheRaidenPT

Member
Microsoft will only be able to compete on the games around 2022 the earliest.

Only recently did they start acquiring and investing studios even further, and guess what? Sony has been doing that since the first Playstation. At the end of the day we will some good triple A games coming from them but it's definitely gonna take a while.

Honestly I'm not sure how they are going to survive this generation in terms of hardware sales, especially when the hype of PS5 is through the roof as we can see from trailer views and the people attending the online event.

Honestly I hope they continue to invest in the game pass and on the game pipeline and hope for the best.

Oh yeah and they really gotta rework their marketing strategy, their message is completely different literally everywhere from the event to the tweets by Greenberg... No offence but if you gotta come out and explain stuff after the event it means your message didn't pass though clearly.
 
P

polybius80

Member
maybe the plan was convincing people you have a plan

SdPEjyE.png
 
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turtlepowa

turtlepowa

Banned
While Sony has to sell as many consoles as possible, it's all about the Game Pass and getting as many subscribers as possible for Microsoft.
I think Microsoft will go all in with the console prices, because they know they won't sell as many consoles as Sony. So they can afford a loss on every console while it would hurt Sony. And if Sony is more expensive Microsoft wins too, because launch price>all.
 
Klart

Klart

Member
MH3M3D said:
For millions of CoD/Fifa/Free-to-play gamers, getting a series X with Game Pass is going to be a great deal.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

Not a great deal for these gamers.

CoD/FIFA gamers only want to play CoD/FIFA. They don't want a subscription for other games.

Same goes for Free-to-play (Fortnite) gamers. On top of that, FTP gamers have to pay for online gaming on Xbox, not on Playstation.
 
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Dontero

Dontero

Banned
Honestly i though Phil knew what he was doing he seemed to know what good games are under that face but right now i don't kniw wtf they are doing.

From what i see they have Halo last gen game on launch and nothing else. Most of those "console launch exclusives" aren't even coming in 2020 most of those are 2021 so they straight up lie about 23 games on launch.
They went on spending spree before next gen. It should be years before to have games on launch.
 
A

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Kokoloko85 said:
I think Phil was way to passive aggressive.
Him gloating confidence after the PS5 reveal was a mistake. Especially when he’d said at that point PLaystion and Nintendo aren’t competition...
Then changed his tune. Back and forth
Click to expand...
They don't need competition they dig they tomb by themselves and bury themselves in it.MS worst ennemy is MS it's not competition that drives them to the ground it's their stupid decision and overconfident PR talk that has been all and only talk for years.
 
Jadsey

Jadsey

Member
It's a simple plan and one that will make them a tonne of money.

Xbox are selling you hamburger and chips. Cheap, filler food that is quick to consume, quick to forget and will leave you badly nourished.

Playstation & Nintendo? They are selling you a gourmet restaurant night out. Sure you pay more up front, but you have an experience to remember and a feeling of satisfaction.

As a player it gives you a choice and that's no bad thing. Some people just like burgers.
 
PlayVerso

PlayVerso

Member
Phil Spencer's plan gives the feeling that it is to maintain the user base in its services with a lot of content without much ambition to attract more public, since the quality of their exclusives are somewhat far from those of PlayStation, perhaps because they do not invest as much money, in the past games like Quantum Break or Sunset Overdrive did not manage to win many benefits and prefer to focus on IPS like Halo, Gears, Forza ...
 
Compsiox

Compsiox

Banned
I assume everything is being made for the sake of gamepass at this point. I'm not really sure if Phil knows what makes a game good. I think he's prioritizing business opportunities over quality games. I've kinda felt this way for the last 2 years or so. I think he's amazing for bringing Xbox to where it is now but I feel like he and the team don't know how to properly utilize the studios. We'll find out over the next 2 years if they could do it right.
 
vaibhavpisal

vaibhavpisal

Member
Xbox games looked much better than they ever did.

Tons of new ips and fresh ideas.

Only misfire was halo infinite and it's GAAS model likely (they perhaps expect to improve as we play) like destiny and sea of thieves.
 
Compsiox

Compsiox

Banned
vaibhavpisal said:
Xbox games looked much better than they ever did.

Tons of new ips and fresh ideas.

Only misfire was halo infinite and it's GAAS model likely (they perhaps expect to improve as we play) like destiny and sea of thieves.
Click to expand...
I doubt Halo Infinite will be like Destiny update wise.

They'll probably do what they've done in the past. They'll add new multiplayer playlists every few weeks, add some new maps every few months (later on few maps a year probably), and maybe entirely new official modes.

The main difference now is we'll be getting single player content updates. I bet that will be yearly or every 6 months.

This all sounds good to me. Hopefully a year or two down the line we'll look back and be amazed at how full and fun the game is.
 
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T

Three

Member
MH3M3D said:
He's always saying "we have a plan" and he seems to be very confident about it. I think its purely based on providing good services and value. Not so much competing with Sony's AAAA single-player, story-driven games.

Microsoft knows they can't beat them there. You can't just buy a bunch of studios and expect them to compete with Sony's studios that have been around for multiple console generations. It's pretty obvious as both Halo and Gears weren't created by studios owned by Microsoft. They have a lot of catching up to do and many years of of experience is needed to get where some Sony studios have been for a long time.

I'm guessing its all about Game Pass and offering a cheap(er) console. I think they're going to launch the series X at the same price or cheaper than PS5, no matter how much money they lose.
For millions of CoD/Fifa/Free-to-play gamers, getting a series X with Game Pass is going to be a great deal. If they want an even cheaper alternative, behold the series S! I think its a great strategy for them.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
His master plan is exactly what was shown. He doesn't actually care about next gen all that much other than causing a market disruption.

His plan is "I buy a bunch of studios to make crossgen gamepass games to keep people subscribing" .

It isn't "I buy a lot of studios to make next gen games for launch".
His plan isn't about next/'this' gen.
 
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Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
To be able to have ‘the most powerful console on the planet’ as a strap line. On everything.

Despite the majority of multi platform titles looking the same because, you know, parity, it will be ‘play fifa 21 on the worlds most powerful console’ despite the fact it will be identical on PS5.
 
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ZywyPL

ZywyPL

Banned
GP/xCloud is obviously the long-term goal, but they know very well it won't happen overnight, hence Series X, but will slowly but surely push the GP narrative as hard as possible until the hardware won't matter at all.
 
Bitmap Frogs

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
His plan is to keep subscription money flowing.

As long as enough people sign up for gamepass, they can turn a profit while taking an L in overall sales.

And it's the smart thing to do: Nintendo doesn't give a damn about whatever Sony is doing, they found their niche and play to it. Microsoft is doing exactly the same.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
I think MS bought those studios not because they want to turn them into Insomniac or whatever but because they want content, and lots of it, for GamePass. Kind of similar to how Netflix buys content.

Some people said it before but I think it’s obvious that all 3 companies have different strategies this gen, with Sony being the most “traditional” in terms o show they are selling their platform.
 
Dabaus

Dabaus

Banned
The plan is to get as many people subscribed to gamespass as possible before they announce sometime in 2023-24 that they will no longer produce hardware and that xbox is platform.
 
Dee Dah Dave

Dee Dah Dave

Member
Their plan has been great. Best hardware, excellent services. It was now time for it to all come together with a new console launch with their big IP front and centre. But Halo Infinite is an epic fail for reasons unknown and that has put a damper on it all.
 
DavidGzz

DavidGzz

Member
Dee Dah Dave said:
Their plan has been great. Best hardware, excellent services. It was now time for it to all come together with a new console launch with their big IP front and centre. But Halo Infinite is an epic fail for reasons unknown and that has put a damper on it all.
Click to expand...

Fortnite taught us all that graphics matter most. Let's see how it plays out, Dave. We know next to nothing about the full game/features so not sure why people are writing Halo off.
 
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