They will got what they deserve. Killing Tango after having released one of the top game of 2023 and killing Arkhane Austin after having made them work one year on a Redfall update that will never come out is beyond what we should accept as “economic reality”
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Sony’s value would go up a little as shareholders would expect increased sales, but the vast majority of the rise would be due to expecting increased profitability as Sony can then gouge players by increasing game prices, PS Plus price and console prices - as where else would gamers who like the bigger games go?
Nintendo? Their stuff is usually a generation or two behind. PC? Would cost a fortune more than Sony’s price gouging.
Xbox is needed to at least attempt to keep Sony honest.
While I’m reasonably comfortable with a multi-platform approach for some games (or even all in time, if it’s needed) that comfort is based on two things - Game Pass sticking around, and Xbox consoles sticking around (particularly in a mini-PC / Xbox console guise), as they provide a differential.
Mike Ybarra it feels is a little bit too much in the ABK thinking - so his thoughts are either Xbox go back to what they were a few years ago when Game Pass launched or go full ABK.
His insight it’s about great games is a bit “well, duh” - it’s what Xbox players have been worrying about since the 360 days, and I don’t think it’s been from a lack of trying.
As I said in the other thread, Xbox seems to have had a bit too much development hell in studios, possibly due to the hands-off approach initially so hopefully they’re getting a handle on that.
But if they start to deliver a regular cadence of good to great games, Game Pass and Xbox consoles should be viable while they can still do some multi-platform releases - Ybarra is forgetting that given the legal assurances given during the ABK takeover Xbox can’t go 100% exclusive anyway.
So I don’t think they have to pick just exclusives or just third party with no hardware - and legally, they can’t do the first one for about another 9 years…
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This is exactly what I wrote here a few days ago.
Either Xbox embraces their current model which gives them 25 million + Gamepass subscribers & sells 30 million consoles with the goal of increasing those numbers by going all-in on that strategy… or they quit & become an Xbox-Activision-Blizzard-Bethesda publisher & aim for the “beaucoup $$$” which Bobby Kotick & his team were so effective at making.
There’s no middle ground. If they screw with Gamepass (prohibitive price increases, no COD or confusing tiers with less choice & less value compared to what’s on offer right now), they’ll p*ss off their console users (which is where most Gamepass subscribers are anyway). Same if they attempt to sell all their games on PlayStation, i.e. their Xbox consoles become redundant compared to the rival platform for everything except as a Gamepass box.
I don’t have the answer because I’m not staring at their balance sheet. If their current costs exceed the revenue generated by Gamepass & the consoles, then something will break in the strategy.
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Agree with you, but I think that all they need to do is release some big games that review well.
If they do that enough times people will think better of the brand, the business will improve, consoles will sell, subscriptions will grow.
It’s madness that they haven’t sorted out a pipeline to deliver regular high quality AAA games when that’s obviously key to the way the business works and is the root of their competitors’ success.
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The problem is that releasing a console costs money and imply big plans. They already think their next console as a niche product for the core Xbox gamers, which will 1/ reduce ambition 2/ reduce prospective large scale cost reduction and 3/ pass the cost to the consumers. So I expect the next xbox to be an expensive niche product like Surface, whereas Sony will plan its next console as a product targeted to sell 100 million units.
Just my opinion.
Sony keeps missing their targets though even when downcasting forecasts (buy a lot). They might be hoping their refresh can get them back on track for those? I guess?
This isnt a fanboy punch at Sony, just a curiousty since it plays into wether MS further expands or shrinks. They can exit hardware, PS can get that marketshare but then its only going to shrink further as its not growing outside of those two userbase whats the plan then?
To be fair I think Sony is deliberately affecting their own numbers because they’re choosing to not do a price drop. Maybe they’re waiting for the pro model because in Europe a 399 euros digital PS5 (or even 349) would probably shift a lot more units.
In any case they’re going to have to do a price drop soon (over the coming 12 months). I just can’t see the base PS5 console (or the Series X) sitting at 550 euros outside of special offers in its fifth year on the market. It would be ridiculous & begin to have an impact of software sales as well.
Certainly could be the case, but my post was a long-winded way of saying going third party doesn’t solve your problems of a shrinking market. It cuts costs, but then that is only short term over yields.
I think things may have changed in electronics production this generation versus previous ones and the margin isn’t there to make those sorts of price cuts.
Sony dropped the price of the PS5 to clear inventory before the slim was released and Xbox did some pre Christmas reductions but evidently neither brand has the room to drop prices and in fact, both consoles are now officially priced higher than when they launched, which is unprecedented.
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I am not sure. There has been talks about the fact that the current gen is not benefiting much from long term cost reduction as before. previously, you took a cut on the first sales, but large scale reductions were very effective to bring the real cost of the console down in time. Then at the end of the gen, the manufacturer would make a killing of cheap hardware sold with benefits, even after reducing the price. It worked wonder for the ps1, ps2 and ps4 (ps3 was a different story). It seems the tech curse make it hard to be the case now because of tech and physical constrains, not even talking about the rise of energy and materials price. As a conclusion, it is possible that the ps5 will not cost less over time to Sony and the classical price reduction may not happen so easily.
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Seeing folks talk about fully becoming a publishers and others saying about to embrace hardware to keep Sony and Nintendo honest. Much prefer the latter than the former and people should prefere this as well for two reason that what some social media schumcks and trolls says. First, likelihood of a duopoly of hardware. It’s like people think neither Sony or Nintendo won’t do this to their fans and such and increase price on everything. You’re truly blind if you think that would not happen. Second, digital library, its like all this idiots online say they should go third party and completely annihilated hardware and forget people invested thousands on hardware, so those types of folks need to have shame and sympathy for us that have those on Xbox consoles.
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Nobody will retire your Xbox from your home. I expect future Xbox to be available to buy for people like you, but you will pay a premium because you will be a minority.
That will not happen anytime soon i believe, in fact am starting to be inclined that Sony might do something more drastic than Xbox in th coming months and thats more of a gut feeling than anything.
Also, am still team hardware. I think its an important segment for the full potential of games, so xbox should still persist and try to garner more trust back by doing this.
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I’ll reply to those who’ve quoted me with one post here:
I think late hardware sales are very important, i.e. specifically the late gen impulse buyers & bargain hunters. I suspect these millions of people play a large role in improving sales statistics for older games (which are now discounted a few years after release) & also play a role in improving software sales for everything.
Let’s look at FF7 Rebirth for example: for all intents & purposes it’s underperforming. One of the reasons cited is the install base of the PS4 at the time FF7 Remake was released was much higher. Well, it’s pretty self-evident there’s a point whereby hardware manufacturers like Sony probably need to balance the cost & loss on the hardware side of the business with the costs & losses on the software side, i.e. fewer consoles sold = smaller install base = lower software sales = smaller revenue for Sony & their partners on the store.
https://twitter.com/dannyodwyer/status/1789139741524504635?t=cf2OqY4uOamC6S42aLvWmA&s=19
This sums up how I feel.
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I don’t think MS is going to willingly give up hardware that nets them 30% of the revenue from every game sold. “Just going 3rd party” isn’t going to make up for that revenue and I personally think that that idea is a lazy one fraught with peril (it’s too perilous).
I think MS will do 3 things going forward.
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They’ll continue to release hardware, but will be less willing to lose money on each console sold. Whether that’s a dedicated console that heavily employs DLSS or AI, or whether it’s a hybrid console that sells for $600, who knows. But, they’ll be ok with it selling less overall as long as they can still have a presence in the console space and move software.
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They’ll focus heavily on their mobile store and will make sure that every purchase you make can be played via the cloud. So, whether you have dedicated hardware or not, you can still buy into the ecosystem and play your games on any device that can run an Xbox app or a web browser.
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They’ll continue to release big games that make people want to stay in the ecosystem/Gamepass. Assuming most of those games stay exclusive going forward (some would say that’s a big if), there will always be a draw to “jump in” via whatever device you want.
Maybe this isn’t their strategy, but it’s what makes sense to me. Whether it works is anybody’s guess. But, I don’t think their plan is to just become another publisher since there’s less money in that and they’ll be at the mercy of other platform holders. If you think Sony sucks now, wait till they no longer have serious competition. 
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Yeah I don’t mind paying for a proper console. Perhaps with less compromises as well, so it’ll be a better product than usual. I do not care for handheld crap though.
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Honestly, I’m not gonna expect anything from Microsoft. Even after the backlash, it probably won’t move them a bit. They probably will care about the quality of their games, because they are chasing the “blockbuster” quality that Sony has been doing now, but for their fandom/long time costumers? Lol
MS is all in on their AI ambitions and for that reason , the gaming division has become a cog that helps run their AI machine, meaning it has to make profits to help out their ambitions, like that 100 billion stargate supercomputer project.
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I think don’t think it’s about helping their ambitions in other areas, it’s about gaming not dragging them down. All of those areas are actually seeing growth.
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For a long time there has been no division in Microsoft allowed to lose money by default, this behavior is not new.
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