I understand, but that doesn’t mean I have to care… right? A good game is a good game, no matter who creates it. The only difference to me between a day one Game Pass game from Microsoft and a third party is the fact I’m more certain it’ll stay on the service.
If Microsoft would fill up the service with only third party games and not have a first party label, they could still offer enough value to their customers. Without a single exclusive game.
Obviously I understand exclusives are important, hence why Netflix and HBO do it too, but it is and will always be an anti-consumer thing to build exclusives, with the only net gain for consumers being platform holders investing in content.
I don’t think an exclusive Minecraft spin-off would damage the Minecraft brand in a big way, so I agree there. But with the games being on Game Pass day one, isn’t that enough leverage? Would people really buy an Xbox instead for a ‘low budget’ Minecraft spin-off?
It’s not like we’re talking games with hundreds of people working on them, like Starfield.
Yeah, it is. Doesn’t mean I have to a cheerleader for the brand. I am a consumer and want the most content/value out of my €.
Personally, I believe a well performing Minecraft keeps the Xbox division in a positive light. Which means investors will agree on the investments made in the division.
But I agree, a spin-off or update being (timed) exclusive wouldn’t change that perspective.
I mean, every quarter the key Xbox things which are underlined are: GP/services growth, hardware sales growth, overall MAU growth. Minecraft is helping only for the first thing (since not long, because it landed on the service 2 years later both on console, without perks, and pc and it’s missing from cloud, they are free to do their shit even at the expence of the pillar of Xbox future, lol) and the third thing (even if MAUs on other platforms are hugely less important than the ones on yours, it’s another basic marketing thing, you can’t monetize much a customer you don’t directly control), while for the second key area I’d say the current policy is neutral or even detrimental for Xbox (the game is not enhanced for any Xbox console and it also lack the VR thing of PS because of platform wise decisions and the mobility of Switch because of still no cloud version, while it is the Bedrock edition both on PS and Switch, so I’d say the Xbox version is arguably inferior, what a great support XD).
I seriously don’t think it would harm Minecraft if Phil went to Jonas Matherson and said
“we’re going to budget hiring another 100 people for Mojang to work on Minecraft related games exclusive for Xbox”
Keep the main Minecraft game as is but at least you can draw Minecraft fans on Switch and Playstation to Xbox/PC/xCloud and more importantly draw them to Game Pass
That made no sense at all. Minecraft, arguably the biggest game in the world, should have been in gamepass everywhere including cloud the day it all launched. Trying to have the premier gaming service, but took forever to get your most popular game everywhere? That one stumped me.
Even the basics like Play Anywhere don’t apply in Mojang situation, they do what they hell they want, even literally at the expense of Xbox custumers, but who cares, “it makes money”.
The only new game they’ve made since Play Anywhere came out was Minecraft Dungeons which was Play anywhere…Minecraft Bedrock Edition was made back in 2011 before MS even bought Mojang
Mojang doesn’t have any separate rules and standards than other Xbox studios
They don’t “do what the hell they want” there is no such thing as a subsidiary who does what they want. Whoever told you that has no idea what they’re talking about and if I had to guess you heard that from Jez Corden of all people.
They operate independently but MS can at anytime remove and replace board members (same with any subsidiary they own) to make any changes to the company including booting the CEO.
That’s what happens when you own a company, you get to put whoever you want in charge of the company and can replace them at anytime.
A good game is a good game, no matter who creates it. The only difference to me between a day one Game Pass game from Microsoft and a third party is the fact I’m more certain it’ll stay on the service.