PS portal is selling well for an accessory. It’ll be never do Steam Deck numbers, nor will any streaming only device for that matter.
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Sony’s Q2 2024 Earning report. Games and Services made Revenue $6.6 B USD, but Net Income was only $0.35 B USD. That’s an abysmal profit margin. Something in Playstation’s strategy has to change, maybe it’s the handheld, or they can’t really afford to take that gamble and settled on the streaming PS Portal.
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Bro at $149 it’s going to sell like HOTCAKES
Really? Everywhere it’s tracking below every console at launch. It’s selling HOTCAKES for an accessory.
The Backbone grip controller, not including the similar products, has probably sold 10X the PS Portal. Because everyone has a smart phone or an old smart phone, which also has better specs, including 5G.
Xbox and PS would have to make a bespoke handheld gaming product to be relevant in that market.
That’s also why MS is fighting so hard for an Xbox app store on iOS and Android. It would have an incredible profit margin and new gamer access point.
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The price, performance, sku and any other strategy won’t matter anyways if we can’t let go current console market strategy.
Xbox has already moved away from console exclusive strategy years ago by releasing there games day and date on PC.
Xbox console at this point only has two reason to buy. First is game library for an existing gamer. Second, that it is a subsidised hardware which is easy to buy and maintain.
To make there hardware enticing, they should make better hardware choices. Maybe sell a handheld like a controller at a premium. Not everything needs to be subsidized and perfect.
They can make a handheld just for BC if they want to.
They can make a handheld beast if the want.
They can just make a slightly improved series S handheld.
They can make a handheld which targets cross gen period.
Why be bound by the traditional console market. Make what your audience wants. And price it at a premium if you want too.
People know they can’t afford expensive things but they still buy them anyways.
Dont take it as sign of leaving traditional console choice. But more options won’t hurt anyone.
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Increasing the price of a portable isn’t necessarily going to solve the issue. It’s not like there is some battery tech out there that just costs more but will allow substantial improvement. It’s a balancing game of processing power, battery life , and form factor. Money can’t buy you out of it.
I just have one thing clear about anything related to a possible Xbox hand-held. This hand-held MUST NOT BE a Cloud device.
If Xbox wants an audience outside US, they should stop focusing only on Cloud. The Internet is still not good enough for the Cloud to work as intended in all parts of the US, imagine the rest of the world.
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BTW there is no Xbox portable out. This was all a hypothetical. It’s not real.
Just looking at all the consoles that Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo has ever made, the worst selling one has been the Wii U at 14 million LTD.
It would be quite the feat to release a dedicated gaming device that will sell worse than half the Wii U LTD.
There any meat in there that I missed in my read through? Seemed like an opinion piece.
I think one thing I would be interested in for an Xbox handheld is a pre installed Android store, or just being able to sideload it or apps.
This way it would allow the handheld to get a large amount of content that would usually skip Xbox, but not Android. It would also make it a more enticing offer for anyone on the fence about getting just for Xbox games.
But I doubt Microsoft would want to have Google in their closed system.
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Instead of the Google Play store it could have the Xbox Store (or whatever they want to call it) that they are trying to roll out on mobile. I think they’d probably want to get to the point where mobile games can run on an Xbox or PC also.
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Okay, Phil liking Jez’s post is enough for me to believe it.
I am curious how they do it and I might be interested, especially if it allows for other stores like Steam.
Having both is what I’m saying, would make it a more enticing device.
It has Phil’s approval.