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[Embearded]

This is the doomsday narrative Microsoft had been painting for a while. Basically, "if you don't let us buy ABK then we are fucked".

Exactly.
This is what some places are using as an excuse and ban people if they speak against the acquisition.

 

[H-I-M]

Just put a reminder in my calendar. Can't wait!

 

[Knightime_X]

Pc (+ Switch) is already is the best option. But Microsoft leaving would be funny, would love to see the consequences.

I think they need each other and don't even know it.
If one acts a fool the other will be quick to take advantage of the opening.
They keep each other in check.

Don't get me wrong, I like both but trust neither.
Nintendo is the quiet kid.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

They don't want to put resources into making quality games, they just want to make a quick buck with low effort and that's been there problem for a decade now.

The passion that went into their first party games during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 gen, innovation like xbox live is what built their fan base but for some reason they forgot about that.

Series S, game pass, buying publishers, etc ... these are all low effort tactics to make quick money.

It's utterly depressing, isn't it. This company sits on some utter gold mines too.

For MS, it seems to be. Think of what this company is sitting on and what we've actually had from them. It's pretty damn crazy when you think of it.

This goes for Sony too, mind you.

 

[March Climber]

I wish Sega were interested in playing ball, they got the IP, if they could get the talent I really think they could have a shot.

…So you want Sega to go 10 ft under then.

I am not sure what Apple would do that could be any worse than what MS has been attempting to do. MS has been exposed. They are not the good guys in the industry.

There are no good guys in this story. There’s simply businessmen making smarter decisions than other businessmen.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Considering all the things that have leaked recently, that'd be a jubilant day for the overwhelming majority of gamers (120M Steam users + 125 million Nintendo users + 125 million PlayStation users).

 

[Xtib81]

That would be bad news. We need strong competition otherwise Sony will rest on their laurels.

 

[Heisenberg007]

You guys will rejoice but really it will suck as no one else will step up. The days of getting in the industry as a platform holder are over. It will only fast track apple and google.

At this point, better Apple than Microsoft. At least Apple has some creativity, taste, and a sense of innovation.

At least in my opinion. I'm okay with the fact that some others would prefer MS over Apple.

 

[yurinka]

Game Pass will never achieve 100M subs. Goodbye, Phil.

 

[Nicktendo86]

fire the baffoon, kill the hw division. go third party
i guess day and date games pass have to go, pretty much impossible to make it work and be profitable.
in a decade or so, we can have something nice.

emailing this to nutella, any additions?

This is the way. Xbox game studios as a third party publisher, with the studios and IP they own, could be a massive success if run competently. Which they wouldn’t be with this clown in charge of course.

 

[trent_the_gent]

When you think about it, it's pretty crazy that they are spending billions to buy other devs when they have a plan to leave the industry if they don't achieve this rather lofty goal.

 

[Drizzlehell]

PC gamers don't care as much about that shit as console ones. Also, fat chance that MS would back out off the gaming market. What a silly notion.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Xbox brand is dead and non-existent in most of the world...

Microsoft should go third-party as soon as possible...

They will never beat Sony on the hardware side, nor Nintendo

 

[Duchess]

100 million subs by 2027?

The world is currently on the brink of a global recession. Should that happen, subscriptions services are definitely one of the things that people will be quick to bin off.

Edit: they'd need to add almost 1.5 million new subscribers PER MONTH to hit that target. It's not going to happen.

 

[xrnzaaas]

They can get fucked if buying all of Bethesda, Obsidian and Ninja Theory only to exit gaming and then what? Sell them to Embracer?

More likely to happen is they renege on their day 1 on gamepass promise. Have a 6 month lag to get people to buy their fp again. If the quality is there, nobody would care that they have to buy games again for xbox.

That's not gonna happen. Backpedalling on day1 releases (whether it's 1st or 3rd party) will result in losing tons of subs. It would pretty much bury the Game Pass project.

MS made quite a few bad choices along the way - offered 1$ Game Pass too often (so people now are hesitant to pay full price) or had that long gap without any big releases. BUT it's been a few years since they've made previous acquisitons, they will have ABK so they should start releasing regularly now and attracting new (and returning) players.

 

[SodaZA]

There's no way Microsoft's board allows Phil to spend $70b on top of whatever it costs to run Xbox only to throw it all away in 3 years. This is Microsoft trying to paint themselves in a more dire situation than they're in.

They spent a crap ton of money buying Nokia only to cut their losses on the phone business
And they spent a good chunk of change on Mixer before axing it

 

[Mr Reasonable]

To be honest we are fucked no matter what, I wish Sega were interested in playing ball, they got the IP, if they could get the talent I really think they could have a shot.

At returning to making consoles?

 

[Killjoy-NL]

100 million subs by 2027?

The world is currently on the brink of a global recession. Should that happen, subscriptions services are definitely one of the things that people will be quick to bin off.

Edit: they'd need to add almost 1.5 million new subscribers PER MONTH to hit that target. It's not going to happen.

Don't forget that MS has now stated that they might put an end to Xbox if GamePass doesn't grow big enough.

That should boost confidence in the platform. /s

 

[Cyborg]

I will say anything to pass this later we will be too big to fail or to reverse the decision.

 

[SNPlayen]

They might as well give up now

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

So there's a risk they could push through an all digital future, then exit gaming and a few years after shutdown the service and you lose access to your fake digital games library forever.

Yet the digital lovers still rejoice at the death of physical games.

 

[Famipan]

If Sony didn’t have to compete against the rich Microsoft with their bleeding Game Pass, Sony would get a larger playerbase who prefers console gaming over PC or more kids focused Nintendo.

There would be an increase of PC players with access to free online to consider though, especially with Steam Deck sequels and potential Steam home consoles. Therefore I hope Sony would consider offering basic online gaming and save data syncing for free.

 

[Duchess]

Don't forget that MS has now stated that they might put an end to Xbox if GamePass doesn't grow big enough

I honestly don't see that happening. I reckon they're just being a bit dramatic there. You never know, though.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I honestly don't see that happening. I reckon they're just being a bit dramatic there. You never know, thothough

If you think about it, they've already said it, so the seed has been planted.

That's quite a gamble if it was just being dramatic.

 

[Robb]

It’s hard to take these things seriously imo as they’re still performing their play to look weak.

I don’t buy it.

 

[Bigbelly]

I don’t see how this will help us as consumers tbh.
But I’d rather they invest in studios then just buying shit.

 

[Rien]

Still see people defending Phil. Even the leaks of nastiness doesn’t stop people shilling for Xbox.

 

[paulyboy81]

Already been mentioned, but take this all with a huge pinch of salt. Microsoft have been trying to paint a deliberately dire picture of their future prospects for a while now with a view to getting the ABK deal through.

They're not going anywhere.

And those rejoicing it could happen are off their rocker. I know people think they want to see Microsoft fall on their arse, but leaving Sony to single handedly run this segment of the market by themselves is bad fucking news.

The Sony of today would look very different without Microsoft having a crack at the market for the last 22 years.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

Everyone cancel gamepass

 

[FunkMiller]

“Let us control the games industry or we’ll leave the games industry.”

Come on, Phil. You big fat doofus.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Already been mentioned, but take this all with a huge pinch of salt. Microsoft have been trying to paint a deliberately dire picture of their future prospects for a while now with a view to getting the ABK deal through.

They're not going anywhere.

And those rejoicing it could happen are off their rocker. I know people think they want to see Microsoft fall on their arse, but leaving Sony to single handedly run this segment of the market by themselves is bad fucking news.

The Sony of today would look very different without Microsoft having a crack at the market for the last 22 years.

Everything would look different today if past events went differently.

All we can do is look at what's happening today and it's ugly on MS' side.
Anything other than that is hypothesis and speculation.

 

[yamaci17]

xbox/microsoft don't understand that most people opportunistically use game pass to hit some games they play and then run off. me and a lot of my friends do this. we will never be the "monthly subscriber" customer they envision us to be. never. and I'm pretty sure more than half of subs come from such people like us

game pass model is simply not sustainable.

I say the same thing for ea play pro. it is not sustainable. i paid 5 bucks (local price) to play dead space remake + nfs un bound + jedi survivor. 3 games that I will never ever play again, nor I will need to. it is just a broken model. I won't sub to ea play pro for years, never ever. even if i were to pay the non localized price of 15 bucks, it would still be a a steal. 15 bucks to play 3 aaa games for 1 months, finish them and never look back..

most people like me stacks games (2-4 games) and play them back to back and escape the sub.

i do the same with netflix (hence why it is also unsustainable)

I just see no value to see hold me there. why would I keep paying for ea play pro for example? or Netflix, once I'm done with it? no point. that's why they will never achieve those "active subscription" goals unless they can mythically output 2-3 80+ metacritic games EVERY month which is impossible

i will gladly do the same with ubisoft + sub lol. i will hit new ac game and run off. they're just ruining game's sales

 

[Banjo64]

Well.. now we know what will happen if the CMA definitely terminates the ABK deal

Yeah, they should do the whole world a favour.

 

[BbMajor7th]

I get that competition is good for business, but Sony is 10-1 with XBOX in some markets and there's little to suggest an about-turn. Arguing that XBOX keeps Sony humble is increasingly like arguing Bing keeps Google humble. I suspect the only thing that XBOX competitors are actually worried about is them buying up any more of the industry - I doubt they're too worried about them bringing better products to the market.

 

[Krieger]

"Hey guys, if we don't achieve this nearly impossible bullshit goal to satisfy our own greed and ego we will just fucking end our gaming division altogether So let us already buy the biggest publisher and drag them down to hell with us "

I want the CMA to kill the next proposed deal so fucking hard right now, just to piss off Microsoft.

 

[GamesDontSuck]

It's lies. They ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Ozzie666]

Microsoft to open a kick starter or go fund me?

 

[Drell]

I get that competition is good for business, but Sony is 10-1 with XBOX in some markets and there's little to suggest an about-turn. Arguing that XBOX keeps Sony humble is increasingly like arguing Bing keeps Google humble. I suspect the only thing that XBOX competitors are actually worried about is them buying up any more of the industry - I doubt they're too worried about them bringing better products to the market.

"Let us buy Nintendo or we can't compete"

 

[hyperbertha]

This could very likely be him lowballing his companies position to look like the victim.

 

[Stafford]

All these folks here praying for it to happen, willing it into existence. Are you for real? Whatever rocks your fucking boat I guess. Look, I am not the biggest PS fan at all, but I sure as hell wouldn't want them gone from the console market.

Also, the man is trying to get ABK for Xbox at all costs, he's likely being overly dramatic here.

 

[Heisenberg007]

All these folks here praying for it to happen, willing it into existence. Are you for real? Whatever rocks your fucking boat I guess. Look, I am not the biggest PS fan at all, but I sure as hell wouldn't want them gone from the console market.

Also, the man is trying to get ABK for Xbox at all costs, he's likely being overly dramatic here.

Unlike Microsoft, PlayStation and Nintendo are not destroying the gaming industry for "career moments."

From my perspective, because Microsoft is trying to destroy and corrupt the hobby I love the most, they can f off right away for all I care.

 

[SirTerry-T]

MS was one of the big barriers for others getting in, they effectively killed Sega.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Fingers crossed this happens and someone else joins the console business. Samsung, Apple, Google, Amazon, Valve etc. Anyone else would be better

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[Three]

No, he didn't say that.

The 100m goal is for FY29, FY30, which is roughly calendar 2030, 2031.

The thing about 2027 is that he wants the PC/Cloud subs to increase. Hence the "off-console" comment.

The "off console" means "from console" in that sentence. Like saying we want to make money off of that. Off doesn't mean non here.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

 

[BbMajor7th]

"Let us buy Nintendo or we can't compete"

The funny part is that Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all had their tanks parked on Sony and Nintendo's lawns for most of the last decade and the two smaller companies just keep on trucking, gaining market- and mind-share while the others struggle for purchase. Something reassuring about the fact that an enormous war chest doesn't automatically buy a seat at the table in this industry.

 

[Bojanglez]

xbox/microsoft don't understand that most people opportunistically use game pass to hit some games they play and then run off. me and a lot of my friends do this. we will never be the "monthly subscriber" customer they envision us to be. never. and I'm pretty sure more than half of subs come from such people like us

game pass model is simply not sustainable.

I say the same thing for ea play pro. it is not sustainable. i paid 5 bucks (local price) to play dead space remake + nfs un bound + jedi survivor. 3 games that I will never ever play again, nor I will need to. it is just a broken model. I won't sub to ea play pro for years, never ever. even if i were to pay the non localized price of 15 bucks, it would still be a a steal. 15 bucks to play 3 aaa games for 1 months, finish them and never look back..

most people like me stacks games (2-4 games) and play them back to back and escape the sub.

i do the same with netflix (hence why it is also unsustainable)

I just see no value to see hold me there. why would I keep paying for ea play pro for example? or Netflix, once I'm done with it? no point. that's why they will never achieve those "active subscription" goals unless they can mythically output 2-3 80+ metacritic games EVERY month which is impossible

i will gladly do the same with ubisoft + sub lol. i will hit new ac game and run off. they're just ruining game's sales

I agree broadly with this. The worry will be that if they see this behaviour they will start to do what some streaming services have done and stopped releasing complete content and make you wait week to week. I imagine people at MS are cooking up ways to deliver games episodically as we speak so they can stretch out the 'engagement'. I imagine people will then just wait for the game to have its final episode released and binge. Starfield has probably taught them that people will pay to be part of the day 1 conversation, but I suspect that % will decline over time as there is so much content coming out on so many platforms it is near on impossible to operate in that way.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Nice to see an actual goal here to restore balance to gaming.

 

[mejin]

Poor trillionaire Evil corporation.