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Chris Dring at GDC: Xbox sales flatlining in Europe, majority of Xbox games coming to PS5 at some point, MS putting less focus on GamePass

zedinen

Member
YouTube

With Xbox, I've heard from a very prominent company and one not so prominent that Xbox's performance in Europe is flatlining. You can follow our monthly coverage in the games market and you can see Xbox's sales are falling and it's fell all throughout last year and it's falling even harder this year.

The major company who released a big game last year said they don't know why they bother supporting it.

We've mentioned in a previous podcast that retailers are considering or have began cutting back Xbox stock on their shelves, hardware & games... and now you've got third-party publishers going: "We're putting a lot of effort into creating an Xbox Series S/X version of a game where to be honest with you the market for us is PC and PS5"

And with Xbox putting some of the games on PS5, I understand the majority of them will be coming across at some point, assuming, you know, it progresses as Xbox believes it probably will.

I think Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer.

And that was the thing that came out of GDC for me, because I always just thought, I've always been of the belief that it is the Game Pass delivery system, it's got a good UI, it's got a good controller, if you like Xbox games it's probably the best way to play them, etc.

I thought it would be fine but then I didn't really factor in that some developers and publishers might just go, yeah I don't, you know, is there any point? And that is when you can lose it.

I was watching Michael Pachter's podcast and he was talking about how it's all about GamePass for Xbox, yet I've actually been hearing that Microsoft's been putting less focus on GamePass.
 

Tsaki

Member
"We're putting a lot of effort into creating an Xbox Series S/X version of a game where to be honest with you the market for us is PC and PS5."
Below is a photo of said executive getting interviewed by Dring.

eJjIiYc.png
 
Yup - all chatter i've heard since Jan/Feb RE: 3rd party relations, especially in light of the 3rd party XGS game releases news coming out, is that 3rd parties are openly talking about pulling support outside of the (going to become increasingly rare) 3rd Party GP deals. Even said as much back in Feb. on here that 3rd parties were having meetings to discuss potential plans for platform support going forward in light of them going 3rd party.

Since then, all i've heard makes it sound like the 3rd party pullout starting from next year will become increasingly noticeable.
 
The major company who released a big game last year said they don't know why they bother supporting it.

We've mentioned in a previous podcast that retailers are considering or have began cutting back Xbox stock on their shelves, hardware & games... and now you've got third-party publishers going: "We're putting a lot of effort into creating an Xbox Series S/X version of a game where to be honest with you the market for us is PC and PS5"

If this isn't the biggest sign of a brand slowly dying i don't know what is.

PS6 will be the only running the show alone. Even if MS releases a console, i don't see how they can turn this around. They know this. Otherwise their games wouldn't be on Playstation now.
 

cireza

Member
MS are dumb beyond comprehension. I have quite a bit of games on Xbox and physical games as well, but they are alienating all efforts from the past two decades.

If Xbox disappears then so be it. What can you do when they are making dumb decisions one after another ? This is especially disappointing as Sony certainly hasn't been amazing this gen, they had a good opportunity to gain ground but failed miserably.
 

Kerotan

Member
MS are dumb beyond comprehension. I have quite a bit of games on Xbox and physical games as well, but they are alienating all efforts from the past two decades.

If Xbox disappears then so be it. What can you do when they are making dumb decisions one after another ? This is especially disappointing as Sony certainly hasn't been amazing this gen, they had a good opportunity to gain ground but failed miserably.
Just buy a PS5. It's gonna have all the Xbox games anyway.

Devs at this point need to just cut Xbox Series S support especially with games gonna need a ps5 pro version. That console never should have existed.
 

cireza

Member
Just buy a PS5. It's gonna have all the Xbox games anyway.
I am not planing on supporting Sony though for various reasons. I will stick with MS as they have always been the only relevant company in terms of good hardware (lol @ Nintendo), so MS better turn this shit around. Otherwise it will be Nintendo and retro consoles, which honestly is largely enough considering the free time I have available anyway...
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
i don't see how they can turn this around.
Having a steady supply of good games would be a great start. Look at Sony last year, they had one heavy-hitter in Spider-Man 2. Xbox was poised to have 3 and Hi-Fi Rush as a nice bonus. 3/4 ended up being complete flops or massive disappointments.

Even this year, Sony has to rely on third-party timed exclusives such as FF Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and Stellar Blade. What does Xbox have? Fucking Senua's Saga, a 6-hour interactive movie.

Nintendo was in a much more dire situation and turned the ship around. Xbox Game Studios have a billion different developers and they can't deliver one good game. Best throw in the towel now if it's the level of effort they're gonna put.
 
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jm89

Member
Why? Just get a PC. It's gonna have all the PS5 games anyways.
Well the way things are going at Xbox, their exclusives very likely could end up day one on playstation.

So playstation will very likely become the platform to get everything that makes it way to consoles day one.

So if you want everything(not the pc specific stuff obviously that never make there way to console) straight away playstation will be the best platform. Of course if you want top of the line performance then that's a different story.
 
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Every move they make pushes people from buying the system resulting in them making a move that pushes people from buying the system resulting in them making a move that pushes people from buying the system....

You'd think this is Brewster's Millions 2 where the goal is to see how fast you can tank your hardware division in record time.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
lol nonsense. Sales split show 15-20% sales go to Xbox. 55-60% go to PS5 and the rest of the 15-20% go to PC in UK. So if they stop portin games Xbox, might as well stop shipping games on PC.

20% might sound low but sometimes it comes down to whether or not you are profitable. So if they skip Xbox, they better hope to make that up on PS5 and PC. And good luck with that.

MS just needs to kill gamepass because they have trained their users to not buy games and wait for them to show up on gamepass. Xbox userbase always used to spend more per user than the PS userbase up until the X1 era. It was only after gamepass did we start to see lower spending on the box. Kill gamepass and you will see people spend more.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
lol nonsense. Sales split show 15-20% sales go to Xbox. 55-60% go to PS5 and the rest of the 15-20% go to PC in UK. So if they stop portin games Xbox, might as well stop shipping games on PC.

20% might sound low but sometimes it comes down to whether or not you are profitable. So if they skip Xbox, they better hope to make that up on PS5 and PC. And good luck with that.

MS just needs to kill gamepass because they have trained their users to not buy games and wait for them to show up on gamepass. Xbox userbase always used to spend more per user than the PS userbase up until the X1 era. It was only after gamepass did we start to see lower spending on the box. Kill gamepass and you will see people spend more.
You tell ‘em Phil!
 

Topher

Gold Member
Speaking of that, Phil did yet another interview and seems like he can't stop thinking about a handheld

https://www.polygon.com/24108660/xbox-handheld-console-phil-spencer-interview

Made a thread...
 

TheBomb

Member
It’s like Apple and Android cell phones. One is ahead, but both are profitable. Nintendo and Sony are the same. Nintendo is way ahead, and then there is Sony. Sony still makes money. Microsoft doesn’t have a sizable consumer base to make money even though they are a 3 trillion dollar company.
 

Fredrik

Member
I am not planing on supporting Sony though for various reasons. I will stick with MS as they have always been the only relevant company in terms of good hardware (lol @ Nintendo), so MS better turn this shit around. Otherwise it will be Nintendo and retro consoles, which honestly is largely enough considering the free time I have available anyway...
Buy a PC. You’ll get the Xbox games plus eventually the Playstation games as well. Games look and run better and you have mods too. No need for consoles, except Nintendo.
 

Elios83

Member
The only future for Xbox hardware is as an optional Microsoft-branded gaming line. Basically something like Surface.
Their future is as a leading multiplatform publisher and if they sort out their development and control quality issues they can be really successfull here. Hardware is just a lost cause.
 
Yup - all chatter i've heard since Jan/Feb RE: 3rd party relations, especially in light of the 3rd party XGS game releases news coming out, is that 3rd parties are openly talking about pulling support outside of the (going to become increasingly rare) 3rd Party GP deals. Even said as much back in Feb. on here that 3rd parties were having meetings to discuss potential plans for platform support going forward in light of them going 3rd party.

Since then, all i've heard makes it sound like the 3rd party pullout starting from next year will become increasingly noticeable.

I said this from the moment they announced those games on PS5...

You can't expect other third party devs to support your dead, useless platform once you decide to go third-party...

You are basically asking devs to fund what is now one of their COMPETITORS....

It's crazy to even think about it
 
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