• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Phil Spencer says he spends ‘zero energy’ on console wars - ‘doesn’t envision’ a time when every Xbox user subscribes to Game Pass

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Sony wanted to buy timed exclusivity before MS bought the entire publisher, so it was at least in part a defensive move.

So what? That's what MS is also doing with a lot of titles.

Also timed exclusives can last as long as Sony pays for it, and Sony exclusives are more likely to exclude PC at launch (see FF16, FF7R, etc). So MS is the lesser of two evils overall.

Same goes for MS paying for these games i mentioned.

I also checked if Jimbo/Herman ever said anything at all about their own third party moneyhats and couldn’t find anything. So it’s not like they have been particularly upfront about it either.

Only Phil loves to talk about these kinds of topics all the time, as if he wants to justify himself every time to the community or something. Just wants to talk up everything and try to come across as the "good guy".
 
Last edited:

anthony2690

Banned
"Phil doesn't engage in console wars."

True4K, The Most Powerful console in the world, and many other terms Phil Spencer has used over the years fuel the console wars and he knows it. Those slogans are designed for marketing and he knows the hardcore fanbase will eat it up and spread it all across social media.

Remember a few years ago where Phil Spencer said they were going to reveal 13-14 exclusives during E3?

He knew Xbox was getting criticized for having a lack of exclusives on social media and specifically used it in his presentation.

If Phil Spencer loves to speak out against console wars, then he should have no problem with speaking out against it among his own employees.
I guess people over think this stuff and get hung up on it, or focus too much on words.

But I personally just see it as marketing towards I assume would've been the One X a few years back?

Me personally, I don't care, I just want to see games I want to play.

The guy doesn't actively argue with warriors, he even shut an xbox fan down, for saying they won't play quantum break because it was coming to pc too, what I thought was pretty cool.

I think people get too hung up over nothing, or are so oddly invested in their platform off choice they take offence over trivial stuff.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
I guess people over think this stuff and get hung up on it, or focus too much on words.

But I personally just see it as marketing towards I assume would've been the One X a few years back?

Me personally, I don't care, I just want to see games I want to play.

The guy doesn't actively argue with warriors, he even shut an xbox fan down, for saying they won't play quantum break because it was coming to pc too, what I thought was pretty cool.

I think people get too hung up over nothing, or are so oddly invested in their platform off choice they take offence over trivial stuff.
You can't say he doesn't engage in it when he fuels the console wars with his words.
 
Spencer and co were the ones who started saying their TFLOP dick was the biggest in the world
Then they dropped the Series S announcement a short time before release … 😆

I still think that was one of the biggest mistakes they made this gen so far but only time will tell.

Anytime Xbox tries to desperately capture the causal market it always ends up back firing on them. You can’t beat your chest and say you have the most powerful console and then release weak “next gen console” next to it, makes no sense.
 
Last edited:

anthony2690

Banned
You can't say he doesn't engage in it when he fuels the console wars with his words.
I think the non stop 4k throughout presentation was pure marketing, that the one X does native 4k.
I remember people joking about how often 4k was said.
I think you're hung up and too invested in your platform of choice that words hurt your feelings if anything.

Advertising your product and advertising something it does, isn't console warring.

This isn't a sega doing genesis does what nintendon't situation lol (what definitely was console warring)
 

Lupin25

Member
I think there is a difference between Phil Spencer the employee and Phil Spencer the gamer. I bet this here is his real opinion and of course Microsoft has to react when Sony tries to buy everything up to kill the competition.

MS had plenty of their own first-party studios prior to Bethesda tho; Many were just mismanaged at times.

They put themselves in the hole for most of an entire generation, because of it. That’s what drove them to purchase ZeniMax/Bethesda.

As Spencer described, he was the, “only one left”.

That wasn’t the competition’s doing.
Because we’re seeing now in ways, how all three platforms can coexist successfully (even with all this consolidation talk).

Now that they have XGP as a true selling point.
Now that they have ZeniMax/Bethesda to fill that void with many studios behind on developing games, they’re in better shape.
 
Last edited:

kyoji

Member
I think there is a difference between Phil Spencer the employee and Phil Spencer the gamer. I bet this here is his real opinion and of course Microsoft has to react when Sony tries to buy everything up to kill the competition.
Sorry man im just not buying it, timed exclusives /full on 3rd party exclusives have always been around, you can trace them back to probably as far back as you want. Some are money hatted some are inheritedly (sp?) grandfathered in historically. So it isnt about Sony buying up everything as much as it is creating more value for said platform. You have to remember Sony was/is already in a very strong position, you cut deals with 3rd party partners because this is how the industry works and its not inclusive to video games either, companys outsource or make deals all the time in other industry’s as well.

Have you not been taking note of current gen xbox timed exclusives that are now expiring? Oh and theres more that arent even released yet that are only timed exclusives or does that not count as ‘buying up the competition?’

which leads to my point i said earlier that i think it wasnt a knee jerk reaction to anything playstation was trying to get signed. When bethesda became available for purchase MS pulled the trigger, because it benefited them. People are mixing two seperate ideas and trying to forge one reality based off the article where sony was reported as approaching alot of studios and drawing a direct line as MS buying beth because of this. MS bought all of beth because ms needs every bit of beth help…they were in a very weak position and to be frank a dangerous one with some glaring holes in there lineup. So zenimax choosing to cash out was a blessing for them and its even more true now if they want to have a shot at keeping content going for sub services. Rather if it works out how they envision it or not is yet to be seen.
 

Fredrik

Member
Well we know what would have happened otherwise:
Sony’s plan was (is?) to use their competitive position to get as many timed exclusives as possible and starve out the competition. You can’t see it as just an offensive move coming out of nowhere and without any context.
They’re all to blame, it’s a move and a counter move. Hard to say who started it. Sony bought Psygnosis, MS bought Rare, Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity, FF7R, etc. And things has happened in the past as well with Ocean and Activision and so on, don’t know the history right now but google archives probably have the answers to many things happening now. Epic is there too doing exclusivity deals. And Apple with Fantasian. Etc. It is what it is, I’ve accepted that I need to have all platforms, it’s mostly annoying I can’t always choose where to play a game.
 

Rivet

Member
Because honestly he's talking about the fight over the cloud servers and reach around the world. He thinks Nintendo and Sony don't have the infrastructure to catch up, while Google and Amazon are in position to step in with their servers.

Which is a somewhat dumb take. You don't have to own cloud infrastructure to use it. NBA 2K servers are now on Amazon cloud (AWS) but Take Two doesn' t own the cloud infrastructure. Cloud is everywhere now anyway.

It definitely makes more money to own the cloud like MS does for Azure, but nothing stops the competition from renting cloud space at all.
 

reksveks

Member
They’re all to blame
Not sure I would use the word blame but maybe you don't use it seriously. Exclusives content/apps has always been a part (not totality) of selling a platform.

Which is a somewhat dumb take. You don't have to own cloud infrastructure to use it. NBA 2K servers are now on Amazon cloud (AWS) but Take Two doesn' t own the cloud infrastructure. Cloud is everywhere now anyway.
I don't think it's about the cloud infrastructure only, I think it's also the ability to monetize the shear scale of attention that those two companies have at the moment. Google sadly has never proven the ability to monetize attention with a consumer facing product. Amazon with its online retail space has proven that slightly however I am not 100% sure cause they don't really give numbers on music or prime video.
 
Which is a somewhat dumb take. You don't have to own cloud infrastructure to use it. NBA 2K servers are now on Amazon cloud (AWS) but Take Two doesn' t own the cloud infrastructure. Cloud is everywhere now anyway.

It definitely makes more money to own the cloud like MS does for Azure, but nothing stops the competition from renting cloud space at all.
It's economically unfeasible to get into game streaming as a platform when you don't own the servers.
 

reksveks

Member
It's economically unfeasible to get into game streaming as a platform when you don't own the servers.
Not sure about that, The margin is obviously going to be lower than the competition unless you are able to more successfully monetize the additional attention. Whether that margin in either case is unfeasible, I don't know.
 
Last edited:

mejin

Member
- Xbox main Twitter account engages in console wars
- Aaron Greenberg engages in console wars
- Xbox employees engaged with guys like Colt and Dealer on Twitter and on their podcast..

Until Phil stops this, then I won't take him seriously about this console war stuff.

Anyone would spent zero energy on anything at all when they have money to pay others to do the dirty work.
 

Mr Moose

Member
"Phil doesn't engage in console wars."

True4K, The Most Powerful console in the world, and many other terms Phil Spencer has used over the years fuel the console wars and he knows it. Those slogans are designed for marketing and he knows the hardcore fanbase will eat it up and spread it all across social media.

Remember a few years ago where Phil Spencer said they were going to reveal 13-14 exclusives during E3?

He knew Xbox was getting criticized for having a lack of exclusives on social media and specifically used it in his presentation.

If Phil Spencer loves to speak out against console wars, then he should have no problem with speaking out against it among his own employees.
Ed4M8_fXsAEDOXT.jpg

This is still funny 4 years later :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Of course it's possible, that's what Sony already does with PlayStation Now.
Playstation Now is on a smaller scale, especially with the quality (10 Mbit/s, while Stadia is 30 Mbit/s and Geforce Now is even higher). If Sony wanted to scale this up properly (tens of millions of users, high quality), it likely wouldn't be worth it.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Playstation Now is on a smaller scale, especially with the quality (10 Mbit/s, while Stadia is 30 Mbit/s and Geforce Now is even higher). If Sony wanted to scale this up properly (tens of millions of users, high quality), it likely wouldn't be worth it.

Netflix, Apple, Disney, HBO or other game streaming services or even other big cloud services, all running on different cloud servers from different companies. These platforms are developed for companies to rent those spaces with their own hardware. The point you want to make makes no sense. You don't have to have your own data centers at all, otherwise Netflix or all the other major services in the world would have their own data centers around the world.

This has been discusses so many times, and still some people don't get it.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Netflix, Apple, Disney, HBO or other game streaming services or even other big cloud services, all running on different cloud servers from different companies. These platforms are developed for companies to rent those spaces with their own hardware. The point you want to make makes no sense. You don't have to have your own data centers at all, otherwise Netflix or all the other major services in the world would have their own data centers around the world.

This has been discusses so many times, and still some people don't get it.
While you’re partially right, video streaming a) isn’t impacted by latency and server distance nearly as much as game streaming and b) doesn’t require specific server configurations unlike game streaming.

There’s a reason why all game stream services are only available on specific countries (even XCloud and GeForce Now).
 

MonarchJT

Banned
By removing third party games from other platforms.
What a hero!
Honestly from a gamer point of view in this moment I don't think there is any company in the gaming world comparably as pro consumer as Ms is right now.
Till last year one could still cling to the doubt that releasing AAA games on gamepass would reduce their quality quantifiably , but after this year, after Forza 5, Flight Sim, Psychonauts 2, Halo Infinite, AoE and comparing to others releases...Ms games been all highly rated games (and highest AAA mc score of the year) even this doubt can no longer be used against their model. If one detaches himself from the blinders of the brand preference, what remains are games launched at 80 euros (Sony) or 60 (Nintendo) vs Gamepass that for almost 100 euros (you can find offers like this) you take home 1 year of GP Ultimate which definitely gives you a lot more than just a single game.At this point I am almost happy with the disaster that has come about thanks to Don Mattrick's incompetence without the failure of the Xbox One we would not have had the change of the division top managers, the change of the hardware development team that gave us the one x, the series x and the s and above all we would not have had Gamepass and the unification of the two great Ms gaming platforms, Windows and the xbox. There will always be detractors and people critical of how Spencer is handling the division but from my point of view Xbox has never been in better hands. Let's remember that Spencer was the only one to do open Microsoft's mythological "war chest" and convince Nadella to spend (leaving out the smallest) something like 7b in a single acquisition, an honestly unthinkable expense for any another player in the gaming industry.
As for Spencer's words ... and leaving aside the nonsense about the console war, I agree with him, the world of video games will inevitably shift to services.that are subscription and streaming and surely the releases will be more hw agnostic, obviously, as he has already said, there are few companies in the world that can compete in the world of the Cloud and related services and among these (due to lack of funds) there are certainly no Sony or Nintendo.
 
Last edited:

reksveks

Member
So now it's PS Now that isn't sustainable lmao
Could use the argument that Sony doesn't give enough data on it for us to figure it out or they haven't said anything about its profitability/sustainability sarcastically but it would be a bit of a shitpost.

I do wonder what the ARPU of PS Now and how much revenue it generates. Absolutely max of 90m a year bases off the ratio of ps+/now and the total network revenue (which also includes more than just ps+/now). I suspect that is enough to cover PS Now.

You don't have to have your own data centers at all, otherwise Netflix or all the other major services in the world would have their own data centers around the world.
I don't agree with the persons comment about having to own servers to make it feasible but just thought the following was interesting to add that Netflix does have a network of its own hardware in certain places but Netflix does it for QoS reasons mainly I think. Need to find the article on it.
 
Netflix, Apple, Disney, HBO or other game streaming services or even other big cloud services, all running on different cloud servers from different companies. These platforms are developed for companies to rent those spaces with their own hardware. The point you want to make makes no sense. You don't have to have your own data centers at all, otherwise Netflix or all the other major services in the world would have their own data centers around the world.

This has been discusses so many times, and still some people don't get it.
Video streaming is a whole different beast.

Netflix is also kinda known for its shitty quality. Average streaming is often sub 10 Mbit/s there.
 
Last edited:
Sorry man im just not buying it, timed exclusives /full on 3rd party exclusives have always been around, you can trace them back to probably as far back as you want. Some are money hatted some are inheritedly (sp?) grandfathered in historically. So it isnt about Sony buying up everything as much as it is creating more value for said platform. You have to remember Sony was/is already in a very strong position, you cut deals with 3rd party partners because this is how the industry works and its not inclusive to video games either, companys outsource or make deals all the time in other industry’s as well.

Have you not been taking note of current gen xbox timed exclusives that are now expiring? Oh and theres more that arent even released yet that are only timed exclusives or does that not count as ‘buying up the competition?’

which leads to my point i said earlier that i think it wasnt a knee jerk reaction to anything playstation was trying to get signed. When bethesda became available for purchase MS pulled the trigger, because it benefited them. People are mixing two seperate ideas and trying to forge one reality based off the article where sony was reported as approaching alot of studios and drawing a direct line as MS buying beth because of this. MS bought all of beth because ms needs every bit of beth help…they were in a very weak position and to be frank a dangerous one with some glaring holes in there lineup. So zenimax choosing to cash out was a blessing for them and its even more true now if they want to have a shot at keeping content going for sub services. Rather if it works out how they envision it or not is yet to be seen.
He already said so many years ago and i honestly think this is his real gamer's opinion, but if the comeptition tries to buy everything your company has to react. Spencer would bring Game Pass to PlayStation and Switch if he could. Microsoft's goal is to sell their services to as many people as possible and Sony's goal is to sell as many hardware as possible.


I really think Spencer is a gamer who hates exclusive deals and console warring, but in reality you just can't do everything you personally would like to do.
 

reksveks

Member
Spencer would bring Game Pass to PlayStation and Switch if he could. Microsoft's goal is to sell their services to as many people as possible and Sony's goal is to sell as many hardware as possible.
I think in-game purchases would be the thing that they would get stuck on. I don't think MS would want to give up that revenue cut.
 

kingfey

Banned
I knew phill words is gonna piss off certain people here.

Google and Amazon are still MS competitor. Not Sony or Nintendo.

These guys have bottomless of money. Just because their cloud system aren't kicking up now, doesn't mean they are out the race.

Once they buy ubisoft, EA and other publishers, you will see how dangerous they are.

With the direction gaming is going to, MS has the right to be careful from them. Because it will be the cloud wars in the future. Sony and Nintendo doesn't have a leg in that competition.
 

kingfey

Banned
By removing third party games from other platforms.
What a hero!
Yes, like locking ff7R on Sony system, and not letting pc players play

What a shitty argument you have here.

Bethesda games were mainly pc and Xbox. Playstation got it in the ps4 era. So they aren't losing anything.

Plus you can play xbox games for 1$ according to the people here. So how does that lock up their games? Especially when the other platforms needs 500$ console for that.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
I knew phill words is gonna piss off certain people here.

Google and Amazon are still MS competitor. Not Sony or Nintendo.

These guys have bottomless of money. Just because their cloud system aren't kicking up now, doesn't mean they are out the race.

Once they buy ubisoft, EA and other publishers, you will see how dangerous they are.

With the direction gaming is going to, MS has the right to be careful from them. Because it will be the cloud wars in the future. Sony and Nintendo doesn't have a leg in that competition.
You probably mean server war right?
Because Sony have had the psnow for a while as well as streaming from your console since the ps3 and Nintendo while behind still have games that are played on cloud.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
So now it's PS Now that isn't sustainable lmao
Sony rent the servers and is for this reason that still psnow isn't available in most of the counties. Also if you increase the user exponentially (psnow currently has too few users to quantify its quality in the long run).. let's say X3 and you don't improve the bandwidth and the hw the quality is forced to decline
 
Last edited:

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
While you’re partially right, video streaming a) isn’t impacted by latency and server distance nearly as much as game streaming and b) doesn’t require specific server configurations unlike game streaming.

There’s a reason why all game stream services are only available on specific countries (even XCloud and GeForce Now).

Bernd Lauert Bernd Lauert R reksveks Chukhopops Chukhopops

The point is very clear, and you can ignore video streaming services all you want, but it's all the same in the end.

You do not need to have your own data centers.

The fact that people still don't get this in 2021, then you have been sleeping under a rock for more then 15 years.
 
Last edited:

FranXico

Member
Yes, like locking ff7R on Sony system, and not letting pc players play

What a shitty argument you have here.

Bethesda games were mainly pc and Xbox. Playstation got it in the ps4 era. So they aren't losing anything.
Both Oblivion and Skyrim were released on the PS3.

Comparing timed exclusive games to buying out a publisher along with all its IP, then "calling out" a shitty argument LOL
 
Last edited:

MonarchJT

Banned
Bernd Lauert Bernd Lauert R reksveks Chukhopops Chukhopops

The point is very clear, and you can ignore video streaming services all you want, but it's all the same in the end.

You do not need to have your own data centers.

The fact that people still don't get this in 2021, then you have been sleeping under a rock for more and 15 years.
you don't need it..for sure ... you don't need to drive your car too if you pay for a driver.we are talking about businesses that try to make money not to make people happy by losing out of their own pocket. Take psnow for example and ask yourself why in MOST of the countries isn't available. You have your answer
 

kingfey

Banned
They've released dozens of games on PlayStation Consoles for over a decade

You're talking utter shite
Every publisher released games on those systems.
We are talking about which system they belong to. The systems that identify those games.

Final fantasy, metal gear solid are Playstation games. Despite them being sold on pc/xbox. In that regard, bethesda games are primarily pc. And primarily xbox console.
 

kingfey

Banned
Both Oblivion and Skyrim were released on the PS3.

Comparing timed exclusive games to buying out a publisher along with all its IP, then "calling out" a shitty argument LOL
Is marrowind on Playstation? Is fallout 1 and 2 Playstation?

I dont have argument on the buying publisher's. That is still a shitty ms move.

I have argument against people who says bethesda games are Playstation. The majority of bethesda fanbase are in other systems
 

reksveks

Member
You do not need to have your own data centers.
I didn't say that.

The point is very clear, and you can ignore video streaming services all you want, but it's all the same in the end.

They aren't all technically the same. Some will use CDN's from their cloud infrastructure provider, some will go to another level like Netflix.

P.S. found a good netflix article on their setup

How Netflix works
The following diagram illustrates how the playback process works:

Netflix_1.png


1. OCAs periodically communicate health, routability, and content availability to the cache control service.
2. A user on a client device requests playback of a title from the Netflix application.
3. The playback application services check user authorization and licensing and then determine which specific streaming assets are required to handle the playback request, taking individual client characteristics and current network conditions into account.
4. The steering service uses the information stored by the cache control service to select the best OCAs the requested video assets should be streamed from, generates URLs for these OCAs, and hands the URLs over to the playback application services.
5. The playback application services handover URLs of the appropriate OCAs to the client device and video streaming starts.

Some of these OCA are actually embedded with ISP's to ensure better uptime and reduce latency.

 
Last edited:

mejin

Member
Every publisher released games on those systems.
We are talking about which system they belong to. The systems that identify those games.

Final fantasy, metal gear solid are Playstation games. Despite them being sold on pc/xbox. In that regard, bethesda games are primarily pc. And primarily xbox console.

Nowadays there is no game that would sell better on Xbox with a PS Version in the market.
 
Every publisher released games on those systems.
We are talking about which system they belong to. The systems that identify those games.

Final fantasy, metal gear solid are Playstation games. Despite them being sold on pc/xbox. In that regard, bethesda games are primarily pc. And primarily xbox console.

Do you think today's kids, teenagers or young adults give a fuck about what was exclusive 20 years ago?
 
Top Bottom