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[JackMcGunns]

If Microsoft is abandoning Xbox or switching tactics, can someone explain why in the fuck they would spend billions purchasing publishers and developers when they've had all the data, it makes no sense to me

It's like saying Wendy's is exiting the fastfood business. The reasoning? McDonald's is selling better.... yup, no other reason given

 

[systemr123]

100%.

They just needed to do like Nintendo...


Nintendo is the most successful game company, specially compared on how bigger Sony is and how much of a juggernaut MS is: Nintendo doesn't release their games on pc, Nintendo doesn't devalue their games on a cheap subscription service (heck they don't even do sales with big price drops), Nintendo focus on releasing games that their consumers like, rather than going after trends....

Phil Spencer for sure knows that... and yet he decided to do the opposite.

Phil is not here to create, he’s here to destroy everything.

 

[Bojanglez]

It's like saying Wendy's is exiting the fastfood business. The reasoning? McDonald's is selling better.... yup, no other reason given

In this analogy I think it would be more like if Wendy's also already owned the method that all other restaurants other than McDonalds and Burger King use to deliver their burgers and thought that they could possibly offer their burgers to McDonald's, Burger King and every other restaurant. Because the Wendy's brand has some value in the burger market they might also make Wendy's restaurants a franchise that is free to use (or charge a small license fee) so that other restaurant chains can use it to make their own burger joint, but they make sure it is also possible for them (Wendy's) to sell their 'all you can eat' burger service from an area of that restaurant.

Not sure the analogy works

 

[Heisenberg007]

If Microsoft is abandoning Xbox or switching tactics, can someone explain why in the fuck they would spend billions purchasing publishers and developers when they've had all the data, it makes no sense to me

Acquisitions are done on the basis of forecasts. Those forecasts do not always turn out to be correct.

For example, Microsoft projected that Starfield would sell 10 million copies on PS5. They still decided to make it exclusive because they thought that making it exclusive would benefit Xbox more than the revenue generated by selling 10 million copies on PS5.

Did Starfield achieve that goal? Clearly, it didn't.

On top of that, Redfall also flopped. They thought having Bethesda games exclusive would increase their console sales. In 2023, in which they released 3 exclusive Bethesda games, their console sales actually declined by at least 15% YoY.

They had also projected Game Pass subscribers to be nearly 45 million by now. Instead, Game Pass did not grow (confirmed by Phil Spencer), and Satya Nadella even removed it from his CEO bonus criteria.

At this point, most of the projections they did pre-acquisition are out of the window. And that's why we're seeing them switching tactics. Microsoft is no longer willing to subsidize this division.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

i believe it is also tied to the strength of Xbox brand itself. if they continuously able to make awesome AAA exclusive and build reputation that strengthen the branding, not only it would sell the console, it would also add immense value to the services. for me, the real value is not the price of the catalogue foremost, but the worthiness of the catalogue itself that will weight the package price.

their approach of hoping the services will carried whole brand not vice versa is backfired to them. after all the reception of the brand that tied to their quality content is the one will determine how the services will fare. well, its not like they not aware of that, which is why they bought ActiBlizzard but from what i see their sole reason for that acquistion is to strengthen the services foremost, not the Xbox brand itself. bussiness first, branding second.

I was thinking: I got my PS3 as a birthday gift back in 2010. I wanted the console just to play Metal Gear Solid 4. Always thought the franchise was top-notch, and I was itching to play Snake's final game.
But MGS4 is just one game; it got me into the Sony ecosystem, and what kept me were smaller games like Yakuza 3 and exclusives like Ratchet and Clank (1, 2, 3, 4, 5...), Infamous 2, Resistance 2 and 3, Uncharted 2 and 3, GT6, and so on.

Why am I bringing this up? Because every time someone says Xbox games are inferior/bad, people bring up "smaller" exclusives or AAs like High-fi Rush or Penitent. Folks, think about it, these aren't the games that make someone buy a console. It's cool if you know an isolated case of someone who bought it because of them, but if that were the case for everyone, sales wouldn't be so sluggish.

If profits, sales, and subscribers were booming, Greenberg would be the first to make comparisons with Sony and Nintendo on Twitter.

The idea of a Netflix for gaming has some fundamental flaws. Movies and TV shows are easy to consume and most games take much longer. Factor in the average time spent gaming for various age groups, software attach ratios of ~10 being considered widely successful for a given platform versus the the price of a subscription service and the popularity of free to play games, it just becomes clear that audience is pretty limited. I think most older people would rather spend $200 a year and their free time on 3-6 games of their choosing per year rather than having a buffet of 300 titles that may or may not have something to pique their interest and most younger players are spending their time in Roblox, Fortnite or the like.

That is EXACTLY WHAT I DID.
I have over 200 hours in Baldur's Gate 3. There wasn't a single game on Game Pass that made me stop playing BG3 until Dead Space Remake. We only have so much free time and attention span to allocate to other things.
BG3 was the only game I bought at full price on release in YEARS.
And I wasn't going to stop playing it just because another cool game showed up. To pull me away from BG3, it would have to be a franchise I love or an extremely good game. Luckily, Dead Space Remake is both <3

 

[DaGwaphics]

Sony is still selling a tremendous number of units, many of which to new PSN users. So somewhat of a difference there.

You'll also notice that Sony hasn't really started their PS+ PC/Mobile push yet, but that will come too.

Still though, PS really isn't forecasting that much growth from PS4 > PS5, so while some of the users will be new that indicates that they lost some of the PS4 base along the way. I wouldn't expect their console sub numbers to change that much in the overall scheme of things. Their revenue from that area will grow, because of the more expensive tiers. Though I do think they are being a little pessimistic with projected sales for PS5, unless they are planning on a short generation.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Still though, PS really isn't forecasting that much growth from PS4 > PS5, so while some of the users will be new that indicates that they lost some of the PS4 base along the way. I wouldn't expect their console sub numbers to change that much in the overall scheme of things. Their revenue from that area will grow, because of the more expensive tiers.

Sony really hasn't put out any real forecasts, I think they said something a goal of at least 120 million units, which isn't saying anything. Possibly due to the pandemic or that they won't drop the price as quickly, but I find it hard to believe that there won't be significantly more units than that sold. Especially with the state of Xbox. That's not something you can forecast.

Once they open PS+ to PC and Mobile, their sub numbers will increase pretty significantly though.

 

[reinking]

It’s not Phil but the whole point of Xbox in the first place. To help ms get a leg in the cloud commerce future. To be a Amazon/Netflix. That was always the point.

They are correct in thinking gaming will go all digital on all devices eventually. They just don’t want to wait long enough for it to evolve organically.

No. The original point of the Xbox was to get into living rooms. They are failing at that so now it pivots to something else. If they fail at that, I have no clue what is next for the brand unless it is to become a third party publisher/service.

 

[demigod]

You are right and I take no comfort from this. The Xbox 360 era was incredible and Xbox blew it afterwards. I’ll never understand how or why.

Easy answer, Phil Spencer. What a colossal fuckup that dude is.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Easy answer, Phil Spencer. What a colossal fuckup that dude is.

The guy who wears T-shirts and "plays" video games?

 

[RoboFu]

No. The original point of the Xbox was to get into living rooms. They are failing at that so now it pivots to something else. If they fail at that, I have no clue what is next for the brand unless it is to become a third party publisher/service.

potato pototo same purpose just the market evolved.

 

[dorkimoe]

marster chief raised me

nfl fever 2002 raised me

 

[RJMacready73]

Acquisitions are done on the basis of forecasts. Those forecasts do not always turn out to be correct.

For example, Microsoft projected that Starfield would sell 10 million copies on PS5. They still decided to make it exclusive because they thought that making it exclusive would benefit Xbox more than the revenue generated by selling 10 million copies on PS5.

Did Starfield achieve that goal? Clearly, it didn't.

On top of that, Redfall also flopped. They thought having Bethesda games exclusive would increase their console sales. In 2023, in which they released 3 exclusive Bethesda games, their console sales actually declined by at least 15% YoY.

They had also projected Game Pass subscribers to be nearly 45 million by now. Instead, Game Pass did not grow (confirmed by Phil Spencer), and Satya Nadella even removed it from his CEO bonus criteria.

At this point, most of the projections they did pre-acquisition are out of the window. And that's why we're seeing them switching tactics. Microsoft is no longer willing to subsidize this division.

But your talking about multi billion dollar acquisitions based simply on forecasts knowing full well on the console sales front they where being absolutely hammered, it's madness to think that software sales from Bethesda or Actiblizz would actually drive console sales, I imagine the whole thing probably centered around making COD Xbox exclusive as that game would actually drive console sales, still crazy to think of that sort of money being put on a punt.

Tbf Microsoft looking into publishing games on Playstation is a no brainer, they can keep their Halo/Forza/Gears exclusive but games from those other publishers they bought up is just leaving hundreds of millions on the table excluding the massive Sony user base which is increasing year on year out

 

[Heisenberg007]

But your talking about multi billion dollar acquisitions based simply on forecasts knowing full well on the console sales front they where being absolutely hammered, it's madness to think that software sales from Bethesda or Actiblizz would actually drive console sales, I imagine the whole thing probably centered around making COD Xbox exclusive as that game would actually drive console sales, still crazy to think of that sort of money being put on a punt.

Tbf Microsoft looking into publishing games on Playstation is a no brainer, they can keep their Halo/Forza/Gears exclusive but games from those other publishers they bought up is just leaving hundreds of millions on the table excluding the massive Sony user base which is increasing year on year out

Of course, the play was to increase console market share. We now have too much evidence and record of that. Even Satya Nadella's emails are about asking Phil about console sales and whether they are in the ballpark.

There is a reason why Xbox announced Bethesda's acquisition a day before Series X|S pre-orders went live. They expected more console sales.

And COD Xbox exclusivity was obviously the play. That's why they offered Sony only a 3-year deal when Sony had a 3-year marketing period left. They had to extend the deal because regulators got heavily involved and threatened the deal altogether.

And it's important to remember that they bought ABK in January 2022. That was a time when PS5 wasn't available and Xbox S|X were outselling PS5 in the US.

Things changed significantly since H2 2022.

 

[mayham2199]

Of course, the play was to increase console market share. We now have too much evidence and record of that. Even Satya Nadella's emails are about asking Phil about console sales and whether they are in the ballpark.

There is a reason why Xbox announced Bethesda's acquisition a day before Series X|S pre-orders went live. They expected more console sales.

And COD Xbox exclusivity was obviously the play. That's why they offered Sony only a 3-year deal when Sony had a 3-year marketing period left. They had to extend the deal because regulators got heavily involved and threatened the deal altogether.

And it's important to remember that they bought ABK in January 2022. That was a time when PS5 wasn't available and Xbox S|X were outselling PS5 in the US.

Things changed significantly since H2 2022.

Great post. Yea the strategy was clear. They were going to make COD exclusive. That’s why they only offered a 3 year deal. The regulators imo made them give up and work much harder than MS ever expected. I really believe they thought these deals were just going to go through np.

Now by the time the deal is up the brand might be so damaged they can’t take the financial hit of removing COD from PS.

 

[NickFire]

But your talking about multi billion dollar acquisitions based simply on forecasts knowing full well on the console sales front they where being absolutely hammered, it's madness to think that software sales from Bethesda or Actiblizz would actually drive console sales, I imagine the whole thing probably centered around making COD Xbox exclusive as that game would actually drive console sales, still crazy to think of that sort of money being put on a punt.

Tbf Microsoft looking into publishing games on Playstation is a no brainer, they can keep their Halo/Forza/Gears exclusive but games from those other publishers they bought up is just leaving hundreds of millions on the table excluding the massive Sony user base which is increasing year on year out

Just my opinion, but I think that the people who initially pushed for the deal really thought they were taking a bold risk to send console sales through the roof, which would in turn drive GP subs, and eventually lead to their walled garden being the biggest (if not only) garden around. There's really no way to deny that they thought Bethesda would move the needle based on how quickly they made everything exclusive. And unless I misunderstood the reporting or the reporting was wrong, they were only willing to guarantee COD would stay multiplatform for what, a year or two after the Sony marketing deal would have expired anyway? And we also can't just disregard MS's history, or the email(s) about out-spending Sony.

To me the most interesting question is why they didn't abandon the ABK deal when they were losing market share while the regulators did their job, were seeing stagnant growth on console, and could have bailed for a billion (give or take)? The writing had to be on the wall before each date passed where the buyout fee escalated. I suppose it's "possible" they held out hope that Starfield would help them reverse course on market share losses when the CMA took the arrow to the knee. But I doubt that very much. My guess is that the people above Phil directed him to power through the ABK transaction because they were planning the stuff everyone is whispering / speculating about now. In all seriousness, if the MS board told Phil to scale way back on exclusivity and focus on making money today and tomorrow, what possible excuse could he give them without being laughed out of the room now?

 

[Astray]

To me the most interesting question is why they didn't abandon the ABK deal when they were losing market share while the regulators did their job, were seeing stagnant growth on console, and could have bailed for a billion (give or take)? The writing had to be on the wall before each date passed where the buyout fee escalated. I suppose it's "possible" they held out hope that Starfield would help them reverse course on market share losses when the CMA took the arrow to the knee. But I doubt that very much. My guess is that the people above Phil directed him to power through the ABK transaction because they were planning the stuff everyone is whispering / speculating about now. In all seriousness, if the MS board told Phil to scale way back on exclusivity and focus on making money today and tomorrow, what possible excuse could he give them without being laughed out of the room now?

ABK deal gives them options in the market.

If they want to keep consoling then keeping some of all of ABK's content exclusive could help.

If they want to go 3rd party and abandon/deprecate their console exclusivity then they can be the biggest 3rd party around, and if/when cloud streaming takes off, they can get back into it no problem.

 

[MacReady13]

Yes my friend we are both in agreement that Phil is the culprit. His actions have lead to the pitiful state Xbox is in right now. There is no arguing that when you look at the abysmal numbers they are producing in terms of consoles and games sold. Gamepass has stagnated as well and now they are so desperate they are looking to put exclusives on other platforms…..PITIPHIL…….that is what I would term this whole debacle anymore. I am considering doing the same as you and selling my series x and its games and getting another PS5 while the original models are still in stock. Not a fan of the newer slims.

The Xbox brand (which, lets not kid ourselves, are their CONSOLES) was at it's best and strongest when the 360 was around. And it wasn't cause they had the most 1st party games and a sub service- it was cause they worked well with 3rd party company's and made deals to have games exclusively on their console much like Sony did with the PS4 and doing now with the PS5! Plus they had the best versions of almost every multi platform game!

When Phil comes out and flat out says they've lost the console race due to their mistakes during the last generation, you know you have a weak fucking leader who has no idea what he is doing.

And I am sick of these fools who constantly say that consoles don't sell, enough, sales have stagnated and games cost too much to make! Bullshit. Console sales are fine and you CAN make money from consoles (just ask Nintendo). Do you REALLY need to spend over 300 million on a fucking game? Again, money can be made off games (just ask Nintendo).

Microsoft seem to think they have the biggest dick to swing around and all the girls will come flocking. No one REALLY cares about a sub service. All we want is a console that can play some great 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games. Throw in some great 3rd party exclusives and people will flock to your console. Here you are trying to buy publishers whilst over there, Sony is getting Final Fantasy as a console exclusive and selling consoles and getting complete mindshare of the gaming market.

 

[SlimySnake]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

I think focusing so much on gamepass hurt them because it gave the exec team an out. They were able to show growth for those poor years when they were failing to release games. However, with gamepass no longer a priority, games should take center stage again and we should see the conversation shift to what matters most... games.

However, putting their games on other platforms will undo all that hardwork because it will set the expectation that the games will come to those platforms. Unless they are planning on going third party which will completely rob them off XBL Gold, Xbox Marketplace and Gamepass revenues so that cant be an option either.

 

[DaGwaphics]

ABK was a profitable business, one of the most profitable in the industry. MS bought them as an investment. They declared that CoD was staying multi-platform the day the acquisition was announced, not after they hit regulatory scrutiny. They would have never put that on the table from the start if they weren't willing to make that concession. The ABK investment doesn't seem overly tied to the console sales regardless of how they turned out.

The Bethesda deal did seem more targeted at improving first-party output. But they were a profitable business as well, but it's hard to get numbers on that.

I don't think there is much of a case for saying that MS bought these companies in error, It seems like they had a good idea where they were at from those leaked documents from the FTC thing.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

is time to let go to this unrealistic dream

I think focusing so much on gamepass hurt them because it gave the exec team an out. They were able to show growth for those poor years when they were failing to release games. However, with gamepass no longer a priority, games should take center stage again and we should see the conversation shift to what matters most... games.

game pass save their asses when it was introduced (cuz they didn't had game)...what else could've they focus on.

just let this sink in:
2023
Bethesda:
Hi-fi
redfall
Starfield

MS:
Forza
Minecraft legends.

80% of Betheda's and MS's output was subpar in terms of quality and reception.

yes, it's about games, quality but also scope. MS keeps falling.

#NoMoreExcuses

However, putting their games on other platforms will undo all that hardwork because it will set the expectation that the games will come to those platforms.

there is no hardwork

Unless they are planning on going third party which will completely rob them off XBL Gold, Xbox Marketplace and Gamepass revenues so that cant be an option either.

Economic pressures are insane.

 

[Interfectum]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

It's too late to turn it around this gen. PS5 is at 50 million which means over a third of the potential console market has made their choice... there's no stopping that momentum. Hellblade 2 and Indy may make a splash on social media and Steam but it's not going to set the console market on fire. Literally the only thing MS could do is buy GTA6 and make it Xbox Series exclusive (no PC launch, no PS5, nothing). I can't think of any other game that would even move the needle.

 

[akaFullmetal]

It's all about the games. Microsoft hasn't had that fomo game since gears and halo from 360 days.
Game pass has now replaced the branding and is why nobody care for Xbox, especially when they are released on PC day one.
Next we now hear Xbox 1st party games coming to Nintendo and PlayStation.
This definitely looks like a transition into 3rd party and streaming.

 

[Heisenberg007]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

I think focusing so much on gamepass hurt them because it gave the exec team an out. They were able to show growth for those poor years when they were failing to release games. However, with gamepass no longer a priority, games should take center stage again and we should see the conversation shift to what matters most... games.

However, putting their games on other platforms will undo all that hardwork because it will set the expectation that the games will come to those platforms. Unless they are planning on going third party which will completely rob them off XBL Gold, Xbox Marketplace and Gamepass revenues so that cant be an option either.

That ship has sailed.

Microsoft committed completely to Game Pass, and now they can't reverse their decision to launch games on GP day one. If they reverse it, their customers will leave them. If they don't reverse it, their profitability will continue to suffer. After all, they are releasing their games on PS and Nintendo to improve game sales, revenue, and profitability.

And this is all before we even get to quality AAA releases: something that almost all their studios are at least one generation behind.

 

[RickMasters]

Once they open PS+ to PC and Mobile, their sub numbers will increase pretty significantly though.

With their current approach to PC….. I just don’t see that happening. Right now there is only a handful of their games on PC and they are drip feeding these releases, a long time after their initial PS release. They don’t have enough games to make a subscription service worth while on PC. And that won’t be the case for years yet. Because They are also too slow to port their games on PC.



When they start treating PC gamers like PS gamers maybe things will change and they drop their games day and date on PC too.

 

[bitbydeath]

But your talking about multi billion dollar acquisitions based simply on forecasts knowing full well on the console sales front they where being absolutely hammered, it's madness to think that software sales from Bethesda or Actiblizz would actually drive console sales, I imagine the whole thing probably centered around making COD Xbox exclusive as that game would actually drive console sales, still crazy to think of that sort of money being put on a punt.

Tbf Microsoft looking into publishing games on Playstation is a no brainer, they can keep their Halo/Forza/Gears exclusive but games from those other publishers they bought up is just leaving hundreds of millions on the table excluding the massive Sony user base which is increasing year on year out

They expected a tidal shift.

The plan failed, and they are instead pulling up Xbox One 1 numbers.

 

[FullMetalx117]

2007 was the greatest year for Xbox ever - Gears of War (end of 2006 which kept many of us in 2007 busy). Halo 3 exclusive, Mass Effect exclusive, Bioshock exclusive, The Orange Box (partially exclusive/earlier release? Either way Xbox live was the obvious choice on console), Forza, Crackdown, Blue Dragon, def missing some others. Not to mention COD4 came out this year and again 360 was obvious choice with XBL.

What a fall from grace.

 

[Moriarty1889]

Unless you’re blind or just a total fanboy, the stark reality for Xbox is that they are pretty much done. Once again, like last gen, they are getting destroyed sales wise and once again they cannot put out quality AAA exclusives even with all the studios they have acquired. Back in 2018 they started their acquistions with Inxile, Obsidian and others. What did they do that made any difference since then? Nothing. Now they have Activision and Bethesda and the games that came out this last year were not the hits they had hoped them to be. Hi Fi Rush was a breath of fresh air but Forza was a letdown after six years or waiting. Redfall was a joke. Starfield was not the runaway hit it was supposed to have been either. It all goes back to Phil Spencer. He is the reason for this mess. His pivot to subs and gamepass and completely dismissing the importance of consoles sold to build a base and great exclusives to sell them. He showed how lost he truly is with his utter stupid statements about great exclusives won’t sell consoles and Starfield being an 11 out of 10 wont matter………that IS who he is. MS has continued their decline from last gen and all along knew all they had to do was create new AAA games and focus on their console. Because of Phil, they have done everything other than that. Subs, gamepass, day one PC releases for their exclusives and other stupid decisions has all but killed their brand. The numbers prove this and cannot be disputed unless your so blind or too stupid to see it. Phil Spencer has done more harm and damage to Xbox than anyone else ever has including the weasel faced Don Mattrick. He should have been canned long ago imo but sadly he will remain while Xbox will be reduced to nothing more than an app or sub for every other platform to be sold to. Pathetic and yet sad.

 

[Bry0]

2007 was the greatest year for Xbox ever - Gears of War (end of 2006 which kept many of us in 2007 busy). Halo 3 exclusive, Mass Effect exclusive, Bioshock exclusive, The Orange Box (partially exclusive/earlier release? Either way Xbox live was the obvious choice on console), Forza, Crackdown, Blue Dragon, def missing some others. Not to mention COD4 came out this year and again 360 was obvious choice with XBL.

What a fall from grace.

I remember cod4 and halo 3 had Xbox live servers in its knees in late 2007 around the holidays. I think that’s why they gave out undertow for free? Such a packed time that was. Everything felt new and novel since lots of these franchises were either new, or doing things in a new way.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Easy answer, Phil Spencer. What a colossal fuckup that dude is.

But why do the die hard fans like him so much, if he is vastly responsible for Xbox demise?

 

[Astray]

But why do the die hard fans like him so much, if he is vastly responsible for Xbox demise?

lol no one actually likes him he's just being astroturfed as gaben 2.0

 

[Nydius]

I imagine the whole thing probably centered around making COD Xbox exclusive as that game would actually drive console sales, still crazy to think of that sort of money being put on a punt.

That seems to be assuming an awful lot, namely that COD would drive enough sales that it would propel Xbox into parity with PlayStation. I don't think that would be the case at all. The gap is simply too large.

Besides, making COD Xbox exclusive after spending $70B would be absolute lunacy. If they want to maximize their return on investment, those games need to remain multiplatform like they've been forever. Limiting the audience of a global behemoth property to the Xbox console install base and PC would lead to a shareholder revolt.

At most they'll leverage COD into Game Pass Ultimate subs by eventually making COD "Day One" on GPU. People who are on lower tiers will be heavily marketed to upgrade to get day one access. Xbox will be able to get away with that because they'll still be pulling in cash from game sales on PlayStation and other PC storefronts.

 

[MacReady13]

2007 was the greatest year for Xbox ever - Gears of War (end of 2006 which kept many of us in 2007 busy). Halo 3 exclusive, Mass Effect exclusive, Bioshock exclusive, The Orange Box (partially exclusive/earlier release? Either way Xbox live was the obvious choice on console), Forza, Crackdown, Blue Dragon, def missing some others. Not to mention COD4 came out this year and again 360 was obvious choice with XBL.

What a fall from grace.Agree completely. And many of those were 3rd parties releasing games on the 360 first and making the best versions! This is when Microsoft went out and made deals with the 3rd parties to release games 1st on Xbox. They even started that with the Xbone. titanfall was an awesome exclusive from EA. Once they fell behind they decided to change course and, in effect, tarnish the brand I truly once loved.

 

[bitbydeath]

That seems to be assuming an awful lot, namely that COD would drive enough sales that it would propel Xbox into parity with PlayStation. I don't think that would be the case at all. The gap is simply too large.

Besides, making COD Xbox exclusive after spending $70B would be absolute lunacy. If they want to maximize their return on investment, those games need to remain multiplatform like they've been forever. Limiting the audience of a global behemoth property to the Xbox console install base and PC would lead to a shareholder revolt.

At most they'll leverage COD into Game Pass Ultimate subs by eventually making COD "Day One" on GPU. People who are on lower tiers will be heavily marketed to upgrade to get day one access. Xbox will be able to get away with that because they'll still be pulling in cash from game sales on PlayStation and other PC storefronts.

“Spend Sony out of business” was their goal. They weren’t concerned about a return on investment, they wanted Sonys consumers and the only way to achieve that is by taking away what makes them money.

 

[Nydius]

“Spend Sony out of business” was their goal. They weren’t concerned about a return on investment, they wanted Sonys consumers and the only way to achieve that is by taking away what makes them money.

"Spend Sony out of business" was Matt Booty's goal. Microsoft is a public company beholden to shareholders and more important executives than Matt Booty.

If they force COD to become exclusive on a console that only has a third of the reach of PlayStation globally; a console where people brag about wait to NOT buy games because "I'll wait for Game Pass", shareholders and top level Microsoft executives are going to lose their shit.

Just because Microsoft has a massive warchest doesn't mean they can do whatever the fuck they want. Shareholders will absolutely decimate them if their decisions impact the bottom line. And taking COD away from the platform where it sells the most year after year will most certainly impact the bottom line.

 

[MacReady13]

If they force COD to become exclusive on a console that only has a third of the reach of PlayStation globally; a console where people brag about wait to NOT buy games because "I'll wait for Game Pass", shareholders and top level Microsoft executives are going to lose their shit.

So all of a sudden consoles are important to Microsoft now? I thought they were stagnating sales wise...
Besides, isn't it more important for Microsoft to get game pass subs higher? Wouldn't making it exclusive to where game pass is active better for those loons at Microsoft?

 

[Jesb]

The fall of the Xbox brand from 360 is pretty epic. We haven’t seen a fall like this since Nintendo went through it after the SNES. The 64 and GameCube was a big fail for them and they managed to come back from it. But I don’t think there’s any going up for Microsoft like others were able to.

 

[bitbydeath]

"Spend Sony out of business" was Matt Booty's goal. Microsoft is a public company beholden to shareholders and more important executives than Matt Booty.

If they force COD to become exclusive on a console that only has a third of the reach of PlayStation globally; a console where people brag about wait to NOT buy games because "I'll wait for Game Pass", shareholders and top level Microsoft executives are going to lose their shit.

Just because Microsoft has a massive warchest doesn't mean they can do whatever the fuck they want. Shareholders will absolutely decimate them if their decisions impact the bottom line. And taking COD away from the platform where it sells the most year after year will most certainly impact the bottom line.

Xbox already impacts their bottom line, and has done so since inception. This move was designed for them to get out from last place by being the “only” place. They bet big and it didn’t pay off.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Sad to say, pretty done. I was excited for the return of creative Sega-style Xbox, but we appear to be in corporate EA Xbox

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

AAA games take 4-5 years to make now.
What that means, is that if they START to make consistent and quality games, the games wouldn't be ready until next gen.

You want quality games coming out in 2024? The games would need to have been properly managed and produced from 2020 onwards. That was actually why Halo Infinite was a shadow of what people thought it was; the early production was so bad that they couldn't use most of it, so the game wasn't really being made until two years before launch and they couldn't even meet shipping date of Series X launch.

There is no time to turn it around. And money can't buy time. I mentioned that in an earlier post of mine that pivots in the gaming industry is now extremely slow, that the Sony PS3 quality-game-release pivot probably can't be done in the modern age.

 

[ProtoByte]

it is funny considering people claimed that the console would sold like hotcake due to the gamepass. but turn out the gamepass sub cant increase due to the console not being sold much lol.

It was so fucking obvious to see, I don't know how there was so much back and forth about it.

Newsflash, people who don't have consoles or gaming PCs don't want to play core games! Putting Gamepass on Google Play or the App Store or the Smart TV menu isn't going to change that.

 

[ProtoByte]

MS can still turn it around with consistent and quality releases. Last year they had the consistency part down with Hifi Rush, Redfall, Starfield and Forza, but not the quality part. This year they will have Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones so pretty decent year compared to 2022 and 2020 when they had nothing.

It's too late. They've long since made their game production pipelines and philosophy adherent to gamepass. The best you can hope for is a creatively sound, but ultimately less impactful projects like Pentiment (see how quickly that came and went in the conversation?). Hellblade 2 is going to be 5+ years in the making and still just an iterative sequel, where the foundation of the first that strong to begin with.

I think focusing so much on gamepass hurt them because it gave the exec team an out. They were able to show growth for those poor years when they were failing to release games. However, with gamepass no longer a priority, games should take center stage again and we should see the conversation shift to what matters most... games.

They mostly abandoned the quality games near the start of the Xbox One, if not earlier.

However, putting their games on other platforms will undo all that hardwork because it will set the expectation that the games will come to those platforms. Unless they are planning on going third party which will completely rob them off XBL Gold, Xbox Marketplace and Gamepass revenues so that cant be an option either.

They're desperately flailing around to find some way to salvage this. Nadella was duped into going all in when the plan was fundamentally flawed.

 

[Belthazar]

If he thinks the growth is on PC Gamepass he's quite a bit delusional.

Most of the PC userbase won't even play the free games on Epic Store because of the experience there being worse in comparison to Steam... Who in their right mind thinks a large enough number of people will pay a subscription fee to play games on the Microsoft Store, which is remarkably worse than even Epic's?

The subscription is simply too expensive for casual players and the store is too shitty for the hardcore crowd.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

You should all want Xbox to do well. The industry can only improve with decent competition.

Get rid of fat Phil then maybe they have a chance

 

[Skifi28]

You should all want Xbox to do well. The industry can only improve with decent competition.

Under normal circumstances maybe, but when their idea of competition is buying the entire industry, they can fuck right off.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

After Forza Motorsport fiasco Turn10 CEO was promoted to lead the entire Xbox Game Studios. That’s how Xbox under Phil operates, just like Spencer people there are constantly failing upwards. I don’t see any hope for the division that is managed like that.

Just look at Sony, they are taking their time to decide who will replace Jimbo and something tells me it would be a candidate with a strong portfolio.

 

[Kdad]

Its been an idea forever but spin Xbox off into its own company. MS can sign a royalties deal to retain IP and provide start up cash. Then let them figure it out on their own and act as a 3rd party.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

You should all want Xbox to do well. The industry can only improve with decent competition.

at this point, xbox centric individuals on social media and YT are kind of accepting the Third Party future.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

They used to share console sales and then they stop doing that.

They used share Xbox Live subscriptions and then they stop doing that.

They used to announce Game pass milestones and haven't done that in a while.

At this point I'm expecting them to bundle all of the numbers I just mentioned into the amount of how many Windows activation keys where used in that particular year and try to spin that as a positive to their investors.

We are proud to announce...the X button has been pressed on consoles over 45 quintillion times! The Xbox controller has that button...as well as our competitors but this shows just how much our mindshare has increased! Everyone is thinking X on consoles!

 

[MasterCornholio]

You should all want Xbox to do well. The industry can only improve with decent competition.

It really depends on what Xbox will offer the industry to be fair.