There are a lot of reports from stores in Europe have almost no retail presence for Xbox vs huge spaces for PlayStation in Nintendo.
The whole point isn’t about just what your current customers might want, but what future customers will think about your system. A lot of people’s experience is in retail stores and if they are not impressed by what you have to show then they might not get your product. The fact that Sony’s and Nintendo’s reflect their market share probably tells a lot. Go into a Best Buy, and see how big the Apple section is.
We all know that retail stores don’t really make any profit on the sales of consoles. Take away everything and then you get into a situation where they don’t have any incentive to keep your product in stock.
I guess only time will tell. But personally I see it as a bad move, especially now with ABK they finally had the know how and experience of people very good at it and are now just laying them off instead.
The whole concept in complaints about physical media is redundant because Microsoft is beginning to change Sony and attendable will follow suit because to the biggest chains in America and around the world are getting ready to physical, local stores will follow suit too. It’s the inevitable and honestly it doesn’t matter. In the end most people are not becoming digital
Customers have already voted with their wallet when it comes to physical Xbox, you’re right that a physical presence might help Xbox but if nobody actually cares for physical anyway then it’s kind of a pointless spend
6 years of developments, with only a 100 developers and it looked like it wouldn’t be ready in 2026 even after scaling up the team further. Xbox probably made the right choice on this one. You can’t keep developing a game for a decade switch engines 3 times and hope everything works out.
Interesting to hear that unlike Redfall there was some genuine passion behind the project, but it sounds like it was ultimately another casualty of management interferance from the former executives. It’s a shame, but I’d guess Xbox is being a little more careful after failing to act on Redfall.
Ultimately, this reinforces why I am excited for Activision under Xbox - even if they just remain relatively hands off I think the development teams would be better for not having the former management running things.
Proprietary engine, back and forth on switching to Unreal, extended development time dude to engine issues. Xbox got flashes of Halo Infinite and cut bait.
How do you see the future of Activision and Blizzard under Xbox after these decisions? Do you think this will lead Blizzard to return to what made it successful? Will COD move to a cycle of one game every two years in order to focus on quality games? Will Activision studios be able to start working on their own projects? Who will be the new CEO of Blizzard?
I’m still optimistic, if anything the failure of Odyssey continues to reinforce why Activision Blizzard will be better under Xbox. Even if are hands off and all they do is give the developers a little more creative freedom and just let them make the games they want to make without TOO much interferance - Activision Blizzard will still be better off.
As for Call of Duty - I think that franchise has been on the edge of going off the rails under Activision mismanagement for too long and the latest games abysmal reviews (at least for single player) are the latest sign of that. If Microsoft want Call of Duty to stay Call of Duty - I think moving to a healthier development structure is in their best interest and doing so would probably free up some resources across Activison and allow other studios to make the games they actually want to make and provide Xbox with a more diverse range of content. Sounds like a win win to me.
And ultimately - there’s a lot of flexibility on this. Moving away from a yearly release structure doesn’t even necessarily mean a new game every 2 years - If they just give every Call of Duty an extra year in development that still means a new title 3 years out of 4.
With the AI emerging, companies are pivoting to less employees and it makes sense. If you want an efficient organization that is more productive, you need to get rid of bloat. A small team of 50 can be more agile and more productive than a team of 150 employees.
I’m more confident in the future of Activision, Blizzard and King under Xbox. Xbox is pushing for new IPs and collaboration with other studios. Xbox Game Studio has at least 7 new IP that will release. Blizzard and Activision will be able to cook! King will do King stuff!
Yup plus Matt Boothy said that having 300-400 people at a studio working on one game is a thing of the past. Co-development will be a big thing and hiring support studios will be a must. Plus inter studio support will be a plus