How could Xbox turn things around in Europe?

[Hue]

@Widey85

Given how popular PC is in the Asia-Pacific region compared to the rest of the world (DOTA2, Starcraft, World of Warcraft etc. are huge in the region and all PC-only), can definitely see Xbox making more moves to push PC Game Pass there.

It’s why I’m a bit surprised they’ve let Sony steal the march on cosying up with many of the big Korean and Chinese developers, as many of those are PC or mobile first with PS5 a secondary market - so they’d be ideal for PC Game Pass tie-ups to explode it’s popularity in the region…

(Off topic I guess as it’s not Europe, but it would also benefit us if those relationships happened!)

Europe is also very PC heavy too so it is relevant to this topic. WoW for example is still pretty big in Northern Europe.

In the 2023 European GSD it was actually PC which came out on top in terms of % of games sold by platform, followed by PS5.

[Haven (Victor)]

@Widey85

Given how popular PC is in the Asia-Pacific region compared to the rest of the world (DOTA2, Starcraft, World of Warcraft etc. are huge in the region and all PC-only), can definitely see Xbox making more moves to push PC Game Pass there.

It’s why I’m a bit surprised they’ve let Sony steal the march on cosying up with many of the big Korean and Chinese developers, as many of those are PC or mobile first with PS5 a secondary market - so they’d be ideal for PC Game Pass tie-ups to explode it’s popularity in the region…

(Off topic I guess as it’s not Europe, but it would also benefit us if those relationships happened!)

I think they are making strides there. One could easily see the acquisition of ABK as a strategic play for Asia and they have been doing quite a number of conferences in Asia to get the developers on Xbox. Let’s not forget they also had a deal with RIOT games and also Naraka blade point. I actually think they’re more set up than Sony is in Asia. I won’t be surprised to see them acquire a Korean dev or publisher like maybe their old allies Blueside the developers of the KUF series.

[Hue]

@Haven

I think they are making strides there. One could easily see the acquisition of ABK as a strategic play for Asia and they have been doing quite a number of conferences in Asia to get the developers on Xbox. Let’s not forget they also had a deal with RIOT games and also Naraka blade point. I actually think they’re more set up than Sony is in Asia. I won’t be surprised to see them acquire a Korean dev or publisher like maybe their old allies Blueside the developers of the KUF series.

I know we’re going a bit off topic here but I agree. StarCraft is still very popular in South Korea. They just need to release another one!!

If I remember correctly Blizzard have now renegotiated their partnership with NetEase which was a big deal for Asia.

Warcraft 4 would also be huuuge if they can get some of the League of Legends (LoL) players to switch. It’s funny because LoL essentially copied DOTA 2 and that was a spin-off from a Warcraft mod of the same name.

I know they have Overwatch but it would also be interesting if they could create some competition for Counter-Strike and Valorant.

The opportunities they have with Blizzard could be endless for both Europe & Asia.

[Haven (Victor)]

@Hue

I know we’re going a bit off topic here but I agree. StarCraft is still very popular in South Korea. They just need to release another one!!

If I remember correctly Blizzard have now renegotiated their partnership with NetEase which was a big deal for Asia.

Warcraft 4 would also be huuuge if they can get some of the League of Legends (LoL) players to switch. It’s funny because LoL essentially copied DOTA 2 and that was a spin-off from a Warcraft mod of the same name.

I know they have Overwatch but it would also be interesting if they could create some competition for Counter-Strike and Valorant.

The opportunities they have with Blizzard could be endless for both Europe & Asia.

Let’s just hope something can come from this regulators DMA and hopefully Microsoft can get to launch their stores on both Android and IOS. Blizzard, I think has appeal globally and would be great for Europe as well.

[Blue-sky]

It always comes down to games. Quality exclusives help. The last exclusive for Xbox was last October with Forza. But again even that was met with ok reviews. You need multiple back to back quality games. Starfield also underperformed its hype. Redfall was a disaster. Barring Hi Fi Rush, last year was not great. 2002 was even worse

In contrast Sony delivered Final Fantasy 16, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2, Final Fantasy Rebirth and even Rise of Ronin( although met with mixed reception), but multiple big exclusives help. Not to mention Baldurs Gate 3 was also on Sony console for a few months and not on Xbox. Marketing also helps, ties with third party games help. Plus game pass, which might be great for one reason, also has eaten away game sales.

[Thebaconlife]

Advertise and release consistent good games. fix its brand image thats been going down the toilet. stop demonizing exclusives and give people a reason to come to your platform and really embrace it.

[leburn98]

Take it with a grain of salt, but Kotaku is reporting that GTA VI could be delayed to 2026.

https://twitter.com/Kotaku/status/1771266494774853888

However, as remote workers struggle with an unwanted return-to-office mandate from Rockstar Games, Kotaku has learned from sources with knowledge of the game’s development process that GTA 6 could miss its 2025 release window and slip into 2026.

If this is true (it’s Kotaku so who knows) and if the rumors of the new Xbox in 2026 are also true, that would be an absolutely hilarious turn of events.

[Hue]

@leburn98

…Take it with a grain of salt, but Kotaku is reporting that GTA VI could be delayed to 2026. https://twitter.com/Kotaku/status/1771266494774853888

However, as remote workers struggle with an unwanted return-to-office mandate from Rockstar Games, Kotaku has learned from sources with knowledge of the game’s development process that GTA 6 could miss its 2025 release window and slip into 2026.

If this is true (it’s Kotaku so who knows) and if the rumors of the new Xbox in 2026 are also true, that would be an absolutely hilarious turn of events.

Ha, that would be pretty funny! Plus the X 2 would likely have a much better chance at 60 FPS.

[Hue]

https://twitter.com/Chris_Dring/status/1769769329627627776?t=QAmI54xp6Jf9E7K6hTwEQg&s=19

Another interesting read, although it doesn’t include Palworld which may skew the charts here.

[Haven (Victor)]

Greetings from GDC 2024 – every year we use this show as a way to meet tons of developers and as a convenient check in to talk about the goings on at ID@Xbox.

2024 got off to a fast start with players this year — Xbox had its biggest month ever on console this past January, measured by play time (including ID@Xbox program member Pocket Pair, whose Xbox Game Preview title, Palworld, has more than 10,000,000 players on Xbox so far!). How Xbox Continues to Help Independent Developers Reach More Players - Xbox Wire The 47% may also not amount to much as we don’t know how much it was last year also bearing in mind that Sony has 80% of the European market.

[Arnor-Frost]

@Hue

https://twitter.com/Chris_Dring/status/1769769329627627776?t=QAmI54xp6Jf9E7K6hTwEQg&s=19

Another interesting read, although it doesn’t include Palworld which may skew the charts here.

PS5 only down 2% is surprising.

[Carpenter]

To be fair, Sony didn’t make an announcement that made their hardware seem completely unnecessary to anyone who might like to play their games.

In that light, you might wonder if both Xbox and playstation would have experienced a similar drop had one of those platforms not suggested that people might as well buy their competitor’s machine.

[Arnor-Frost]

@Carpenter

To be fair, Sony didn’t make an announcement that made their hardware seem completely unnecessary to anyone who might like to play their games.

In that light, you might wonder if both Xbox and playstation would have experienced a similar drop had one of those platforms not suggested that people might as well buy their competitor’s machine.

I don’t think that’s had a big impact, and I’d imagine if Sony did the same it wouldn’t either; the brand is too strong at this point. I believe Sony could release all their games on Xbox without suffering a lose in sales.

[Vivir]

@Carpenter

To be fair, Sony didn’t make an announcement that made their hardware seem completely unnecessary to anyone who might like to play their games.

In that light, you might wonder if both Xbox and playstation would have experienced a similar drop had one of those platforms not suggested that people might as well buy their competitor’s machine.

I think the Xbox announcement of those games made 0 impact on the sales drop in my opinion.

[Carpenter]

@Vivir

I think the Xbox announcement of those games made 0 impact on the sales drop in my opinion.

No offence intended, but sales are down almost 50% year on year and the month we’re talking about is when rampant speculation took place about Microsoft’s future as a platform holder and was reported upon in every media outlet that covers games.

With respect, if that wouldn’t affect sales, one wonders if there’s anything that could be said that would reduce the platform’s lustre.

[Arnor-Frost]

@Carpenter

No offence intended, but sales are down almost 50% year on year and the month we’re talking about is when rampant speculation took place about Microsoft’s future as a platform holder and was reported upon in every media outlet that covers games.

With respect, if that wouldn’t affect sales, one wonders if there’s anything that could be said that would reduce the platform’s lustre.

Haven’t saled been down nearly 50% on average for the past few months anyway?

[Vivir]

@Carpenter

No offence intended, but sales are down almost 50% year on year and the month we’re talking about is when rampant speculation took place about Microsoft’s future as a platform holder and was reported upon in every media outlet that covers games.

With respect, if that wouldn’t affect sales, one wonders if there’s anything that could be said that would reduce the platform’s lustre.

These type of things takes months, if not years for it to impact the sales of the platform.

The failure of the X1 announcement took 2-3 years for its effects to fully kick in. The first year sales was blowing past the 360’s sales in spite of the horrible E3 showing.

Unless you’re telling me that this situation was 10X worse than the X1 E3 situation then I highly doubt it impacted the sales last month to that extent.

The more likely and boring answer is that the XS peaked early in its life cycle and is continuing to have no legs like the X1 did, especially in regions where it never did well in the first place like Europe.

[Putfire]

@Vivir

These type of things takes months, if not years for it to impact the sales of the platform.

The failure of the X1 announcement took 2-3 years for its effects to fully kick in. The first year sales was blowing past the 360’s sales in spite of the horrible E3 showing.

Unless you’re telling me that this situation was 10X worse than the X1 E3 situation then I highly doubt it impacted the sales last month to that extent.

The more likely and boring answer is that the XS peaked early in its life cycle and is continuing to have no legs like the X1 did, especially in regions where it never did well in the first place like Europe.

Despite the disastrous start, the One could still count on a commercial success that was the 360. The series launched after a generation that destroyed much of the Xbox’s reputation, in addition to a beginning that continued the problem of its productions. I don’t know about Europe, but in Brazil I saw a lot of casual people talking about Xbox games coming to PlayStation, in addition to the community itself which is very discouraged with the brand. I think it’s natural for people to do a little research before buying a console. The result is not at all positive for Xbox. I don’t know if the drop was just due to exclusives, but it certainly affected a lot and will affect it even more if Microsoft continues with this strategy.