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Microsoft Employee Inadvertently Adds More Fuel to the Xbox Multiplatform Fire - Push Square

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Fatbody

Member
I love poor attempts at trying to conflate different scenarios in order to minimize this.

We're talking significantly different models, but let's take a look at both of the applications you mentioned.

Microsoft Word and the entire office suite runs like ass on MacOS. OneNote is especially worse on MacOS.

iTunes... which is really not relevant anymore is also severely limited on Windows when it came to managing apple hardware.

Now let's go to the heart of your argument. This idea that there is going to be largely a platform agnostic approach to things. This is largely true once hardware becomes ubiquitous and while we're closer than we were with the PS3/360 or PS2/Gamecube/Xbox but we're not there yet and it's a long road until we are. In the meantime we're going to see the formation of platforms as a service that will largely define the next stage of the industry.

Microsoft may become the largest 3rd party publisher, which will position itself to pivot as a platform holder in the future, but Nintendo, Sony, and Valve will have a significant advantage over them, because it can't just be games, it has to be ecosystem, otherwise every publisher will create their own service and platforms.

Sony has a significant advantage over Microsoft in nearly every regard for the future. They can easily put PlayStation Streaming on every TV they manufacture for no cost. They're going to have the only premium video game console on the market which will make them synonymous with gaming. They'll eventually put out a handheld and a PC launcher (probably going further to include MacOS)

Their controllers are going to be synonymous with gaming, so when someone wants to buy a controller for their TV to stream... it's going to be a dual sense or dual sense knock off.

So, it's a big deal.
Regardless of how the software ran on opposite platforms, their existence benefited both. MS got to sell more copies of Office to a smaller yet not insignificant user base, and iPod would never have been the juggernaut it was without iTunes windows support. Anyway, I understand it’s not a 1:1 example(and an ancient one I’ll admit), but my comment was more just reflecting back on a time where such a thing was unthinkable and it ended being not a big deal and both trillion dollar companies carried on. I mean maybe I’m wrong and it’ll send monumental shockwaves through the industry, but at a 3-1 install base ratio or whatever it is, I think the bombs were dropped a long time ago and this is just the logical conclusion to it all.

And even if that scenario with Playstation becoming the de facto streaming service in future comes true, which I would find hard to believe considering unlike hardware that is Microsoft’s wheelhouse and would more likely double down rather than abandon it, Uncle Bill will still get his cut
 
Regardless of how the software ran on opposite platforms, their existence benefited both. MS got to sell more copies of Office to a smaller yet not insignificant user base, and iPod would never have been the juggernaut it was without iTunes windows support. Anyway, I understand it’s not a 1:1 example(and an ancient one I’ll admit), but my comment was more just reflecting back on a time where such a thing was unthinkable and it ended being not a big deal and both trillion dollar companies carried on. I mean maybe I’m wrong and it’ll send monumental shockwaves through the industry, but at a 3-1 install base ratio or whatever it is, I think the bombs were dropped a long time ago and this is just the logical conclusion to it all.

And even if that scenario with Playstation becoming the de facto streaming service in future comes true, which I would find hard to believe considering unlike hardware that is Microsoft’s wheelhouse and would more likely double down rather than abandon it, Uncle Bill will still get his cut

Microsoft doesn't have a large ecosystem, so it doesn't matter that they have the infrastructure if no one utilizes it. Many people are going to continue building their digital libraries on PlayStation, that will want to utilize those libraries and that ecosystem on streaming once it becomes mainstream. That's massive leverage that Microsoft just doesn't have.

Sony has already put out a remote play device which will likely get enhanced to a cloud streaming device well before Microsoft goes to market with one.

Once Sony is ready to market the PS Portal as a cloud device, it's only a matter of time until we get a streaming stick and deals with other TV manufacturers.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
I mean, dude isn't lying... even if this dark cloud over Xbxo wasn't there. MA does own Activision don't they? And Activision releases on PlayStation.
 

pasterpl

Member
I mean, dude isn't lying... even if this dark cloud over Xbxo wasn't there. MA does own Activision don't they? And Activision releases on PlayStation.
This. They even signed contracts re. ABK games with Nintendo and Sony while the ABK acquis was happening. Then we have got Psychonauts , Minecraft. Probably Sea Of Thieves will get to other platforms and any future gaas - money making machines.
 

Fatbody

Member
Microsoft doesn't have a large ecosystem, so it doesn't matter that they have the infrastructure if no one utilizes it. Many people are going to continue building their digital libraries on PlayStation, that will want to utilize those libraries and that ecosystem on streaming once it becomes mainstream. That's massive leverage that Microsoft just doesn't have.

Sony has already put out a remote play device which will likely get enhanced to a cloud streaming device well before Microsoft goes to market with one.

Once Sony is ready to market the PS Portal as a cloud device, it's only a matter of time until we get a streaming stick and deals with other TV manufacturers.
But in the case of game streaming, I don’t think the ecosystem of owned digital libraries really matters all that much because there will always be a required subscription with an included library associated with it. That’s where Gamepass could thrive and actually be the “Netflix of Gaming” that they’ve always wanted because the barrier of entry is so low and the value is so high regardless of what someone may or may not have already purchased on one platform or another. The average casual normie sees the app on their TV and what will be marketed isn’t “Play all your favorite games from the 2010s you possibly may own”. It’s “400 games (including some big ones on day one) for 15 a month with the push of a button”.

Now sure, you and I would probably see added value in being able to incorporate our existing purchases into a cloud service alongside the subscription because this is gaming forum and we probably have a combined game library worth the price of a mid range automobile. But cloud is going for a much broader audience and is mostly a blank slate for those people.

It’ll come down to the network quality of the service first and foremost because it has to be near perfect for it to even work. Then it’ll be the quantity and quality of the subscription library, which every subscriber will have access to. And lastly the marketing and partnerships, which Microsoft could focus more on if they weren’t wasting so much time and resources trying to sell two boxes that most don’t seem to want. If anything, continuing to focus on the losing hardware battle could take away focus from cloud which they are in a very unique position to dominate if it ever were to take off.
 
But in the case of game streaming, I don’t think the ecosystem of owned digital libraries really matters all that much because there will always be a required subscription with an included library associated with it. That’s where Gamepass could thrive and actually be the “Netflix of Gaming” that they’ve always wanted because the barrier of entry is so low and the value is so high regardless of what someone may or may not have already purchased on one platform or another. The average casual normie sees the app on their TV and what will be marketed isn’t “Play all your favorite games from the 2010s you possibly may own”. It’s “400 games (including some big ones on day one) for 15 a month with the push of a button”.

Now sure, you and I would probably see added value in being able to incorporate our existing purchases into a cloud service alongside the subscription because this is gaming forum and we probably have a combined game library worth the price of a mid range automobile. But cloud is going for a much broader audience and is mostly a blank slate for those people.

It’ll come down to the network quality of the service first and foremost because it has to be near perfect for it to even work. Then it’ll be the quantity and quality of the subscription library, which every subscriber will have access to. And lastly the marketing and partnerships, which Microsoft could focus more on if they weren’t wasting so much time and resources trying to sell two boxes that most don’t seem to want. If anything, continuing to focus on the losing hardware battle could take away focus from cloud which they are in a very unique position to dominate if it ever were to take off.

People continue to conflate streaming with subscription, they don't mean the same thing.

GamePass is never going to be the netflix of gaming because Microsoft isn't going to be able to sustain the cost of 3rd party content, without which they'll never be able to grow to scale.

The most comparable service to what GamePass is GOING to be is EA Play Pro and to my knowledge that's not catching on fire.

The consumer level barrier of entry is low for streaming via subscription, but the demand and tech isn't at all there today. The average casual normie has no interest in playing games from the 2010s, especially not Microsoft ABK and Bethesda games.

Cloud quickly replaced physical media for movies, tv, and music because the physical barriers there were already really limited and the content is easily consumable.

You still need a controller and a display to game. There's not a ton of benefit in cutting out the console, particularly because adjusted for inflation they're not really that expensive.

The value proposition isn't there today and it won't be for a long time.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I mean, dude isn't lying... even if this dark cloud over Xbxo wasn't there. MA does own Activision don't they? And Activision releases on PlayStation.

And they have multiple continuing Bethesda games like FO76, ESO that need updates as well.

In all fairness, it seems like he just took the platforms off because of how that blurb was being weaponized online.
 
Phil has said time and time again, Activision Blizzard games will always be multiplatform, nothing changed there. Not to mention all the other games they’ve put on other platforms. People need to chill and stop overreacting in both camps.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Lets go boys!
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Did you know Peter Moore’s the final boss in Perfect Dark Zero. He even takes his shirt off.


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Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Lets go boys!
Yeah, you like that.

Not quite as flagrant as the character I.N.E.P.T. in Yooka-Laylee / The Toybox though.

 
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