I’ve seen plenty of anecdotal evidence of people buying a cheap XSS as a Game Pass machine to supplement their PS5 (or PC), or using one to have an Xbox in another room.
If you’re going to say it’s a failure, have something to support that lol. I’m not saying it’s a success, but they sold a good amount of them.
You can’t say this because the reality is that you don’t know this. Did you truly believe a year ago that this topic would exist or that Microsoft would have ported four games to PlayStation in early 2024? I seriously doubt that you would have ever thought this would happen and even if you did, not this soon.
So basically, no one knows. For me, im a console gamer. If consoles die, then gaming for me dies. It’s that simple. I want the consoles to always sell great and for the software to sell great because I know I’ll always get what I want the most.
There’s nothing else to it for me.
Fair enough but we know that there were times where Series S was on store shelves sitting there because people wanted to buy the Series X but couldn’t because it wasn’t available.
Yes, because the console market hasn’t grown in 3 decades.
Eh the multiple SKU’s approach is fine. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with just a handheld next gen lol.
One advantage of Xbox not giving a shit about console sales is that they can provide profitable, high end products for the core audience. That’s my hope anyway.
Sad really that you’d tie gaming to a plastic box that forces a closed ecosystem, it’s the opposite of what we should hope for as consumers.
Indeed, I’d rather be a hopeful of new powerful technology that would be able to deliver games natively on any device at the highest and best settings visually and performance while.
They still need access and for now the console is the cheapest entry unless they can get streaming to scale and performance.
Actually, I would love an all in one console with Microsoft and Sony working together to make it happen and get all their games on one console but let’s be honest, that’s unlikely to ever happen because they have their own direction and what they want to do plus eventually egos would get in the way and of course, above all else, money would get in the way.
As for each platform, Sony can go day one on PC. In fact, I believe that they will and that they should.
But I will never ever want Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony to put their first party console exclusives on the other console(s) because they’re competitors and should be competing by enticing people to get into their eco-system and above all else, that happens with great exclusive games and content.
If all three had exactly the same games all pretty much running at the same specifications (yeah, I know it’s a long shot for Nintendo but go with me on this), would you own all three? No you wouldn’t. Neither would anyone else because why would you? You would go with the one platform that gives you what you personally want individually or if you’re more of an online multi-player gamer, you would go where your friends go so you can keep playing together.
As a consumer/gamer, I want great exclusive games and content for the console(s) that I bought based on what both companies sold me on which I don’t believe is asking for much.
The way I see it we are looking at two paths mostly. First is you sell a console “cheaply” (at a loss) and entice people with exclusives to get them in your ecosystem. They subscribe to services, buy games, accessories, microtransactions, etc… this is mostly how consoles work now. However if MS is going “third party” that means abandoning the idea of locking down people into a console as the focus ecosystem. While people assumes this means abandoning consoles, that isn’t necessarily the case. What it could mean is going down the second path, and that is…
MS can create an ultra powerful, no compromise, sold at a profit, console. When we think “exit the console business” we are looking at that from the point of view of how the first path above works. That doesn’t take into account possibly selling hardware as a premium product. If MS is selling games on other platforms, that releases them from needing a captive install base and a “cheap” console. They can create an Xbox that sells on its merits as hardware alone, not as a gateway to an ecosystem. This would a “best on Xbox” for real type of situation.
I think the industry is moving in this direction. EA, Ubisoft, etc… could eventually want their own “stores” on console. Locked down stores are going to fall on mobile, it’s only a matter of time and consoles will be next. There is absolutely nothing Sony can do if the big publishers say they want their own stores or no FIFA, Madden, GTA6. MS would fall right in behind them if that happened.
This whole thing can go down in such a way that puts Sony in a world of hurt if they aren’t planning ahead. Xbox actually is keeping Sony from being considered a monopoly right now. The courts have already defined Xbox and PS as a single market of high-end consoles. No Xbox means Sony is a monopoly and boom lawsuits to open up Sony’s ecosystem will now be a thing.
If all games were on all systems I’d be delighted as I wouldn’t have to eventually get a PlayStation each generation and could play with the correct controller configuration.
Every time I play on a PlayStation I’m reminded how weird it is having the joysticks right next to each other - for me the asymmetrical layout is far superior for comfort, not hitting buttons you didn’t mean to like that bloody touch thing and just general usage / accuracy.
Only thing I’d need then is proper cross play, same controller features as PlayStation (the layout might suck but I wouldn’t mind trying the new DS features) and Xbox releasing the most powerful console every X years so I can keep upgrading and keep it looking great on my big TV.
It’s a wild dream but one that at the moment seems closer than it used to be - with Sony potentially going PC day 1 and Xbox having PC stores, and consoles potentially being more like Surface so more regular refreshes - so I’ve got my fingers crossed
Are those graphs adjusted for inflation though?
In the last graph, the main difference could also be down to £70 games becoming the norm in 2023 (which was an above-inflation rise), while PC didn’t really get that bump until more this year.
Also the first graph illustrates the problem - gaming as a whole has gone down a bit, and while console didn’t it may be the new pricing that bucked the trend rather than actual sales…
Given inflation has run riot and reduced a lot of people’s disposable income - and things are going to remain tight as funnily enough prices rise fast but don’t seem to drop anywhere near as quickly - and this is likely starting to have an impact on costs and sales which is why so many publishers are doing lay offs.
On a side note, can see when Pokemon Go and similar games released (I’m assuming that’s the huge mobile bump between 2017 and 2018)…
I already have it with my SteamDeck 
.
I even have two folders (collections) in my Game Library called “Xbox” and “Playstation” with their games.
How’s the docked mode though?
I’d probably only play a handheld once in a blue moon, so looking good on my 4K TV is the most important thing to me.
It’s why whenever I spec a PC upgrade / new build the costs are horrendous lol, and why I’m more than happy if we get a powerful console from Xbox that has PC stores too…
Saying that, if they don’t do that and Steam do a SteamBox that’s more powerful than the Deck and can do decent-enough 4K gaming (a bit of upscaling and 30FPS is fine) I’m there…
Although I own a dock for it I couldn’t tell you as I personally never use it. I doubt it would be the best experience IMO. For handheld mode it’s perfect and performs really well while providing very good battery life (OLED version).
Even intense (fast) games like Doom Eternal work really well in handheld mode.
I would imagine the ROG Ally or Legion Go would provide a better docked experience.
Prior to getting the SteamDeck I did 90% of my gaming on the Switch due to the handheld factor so if Xbox do go down the handheld route it would personally be more appealing to me.
I meant the number of consoles sold overall
Lol I think I spend my entire day looking at small code on screens, so when it comes to gaming I like big text and big graphics on a big screen as it helps re-adjust and avoid eyestrain (obviously not looking at a screen at all would be better but oh well).
(Saying that, I’ve found I actually get dry eyes and migraines sometimes playing Powerwash Simulator and House Flipper as I concentrate so hard I don’t blink enough and don’t drink - so I have to ration those games even on a big screen)
I think Steam got burnt by the previous Steam boxes, but I’m really hoping them or some of the other manufacturers take the handheld idea, scale it up a bit and make compact-ish PCs that can plug into your TV that say can do upscaled 1080p 60hz or upscaled 4K 30hz, if Xbox don’t do it first.
It needs to be a big company really though like Xbox or Steam to ensure games come with profiles for it, so don’t have to tinker with settings.
It’d allow me to finally forget about stupidly expensive PC upgrades for a bit (I’ve been good and held off as I’ve far too much to play on my XSX for now anyway) and may start to act as a bit of competition for consoles too…
That is one thing I’ve discovered the SteamDeck does really well, between the game settings and controller settings it sets up everything really well.
It really does provide a console experience but for PC games. I haven’t really had to tweak anything since getting it, just download and play.
I would imagine Xbox would also be able to do this very well too, however I think I’m going way off topic now so I’ll stop there .
It’s gives a console like experience for Steam not so much for other stores. I think Xbox would be trying to do this for basically all stores on PC and maybe even mobile apps. I’m thinking the way they have EA and RIOT Games in the Xbox PC app.
