Xbox got way outsold this holiday despite a way lower price and having a way better slate of first party games both last year and this year.
People acting like any potential news about a subset of games going to other consoles will hurt them is crazy. Theyre already a distant third in the console space. If it wasn’t for gamepass they might not be planning for next gen. Anything that helps them to be able to spend more on GP is good news.
Yeah i dont think surfaces are well regarded are they? Not sure if thats changed over the years.
Worse console sales likely mean worse Game Pass subscriptions too though but being logical you are correct but I blame Microsoft for not putting in more effort into broadening their console efforts outside of NA and the UK, at some point it would bite them in the butt and it seems like it is now, they had good sales in Europe in the 7th generation, I don’t know what the answer is but they should probably try something new, maybe do the two console strategy again but make the weaker console a handheld, but even so they would still need to learn how to market a console properly, even in NA and the UK they don’t seem to know anymore.
Surface was as close as you could get to an Apple quality product for Windows for a while. I think Microsoft took the foot off the pedal a bit as OEMs stepped up, but kinda surprised to hear folks thinking of them as anything other tham premium devices.
That entirely depends on limiting one’s view to a singular aspect. Microsoft is not in third place when it comes to other aspects such as revenue or margins.
Sure, but that won’t change at all based off this news either.
By those metrics, the most profitable thing is probably the steam deck
It has an impact because that’s how companies look at their products. Focusing solely on unit sales is myopic.
While I get the consoles sales dilemma, I just don’t think Microsoft wants what some think. If they weren’t third in this space, they wouldn’t have been able to get ABK and if they are attempting more publishers, it might be something to maintain while being profitable. Xbox coming out and dominating in consoles sales could easily be seen as a monopoly. I think it’s why it’s best they try something different like Nintendo did. Game Pass seems to be that thing; however, it is hampered by console sales to an extent, a poor PC store and limited game streaming capacity. Until some of these issues are resolved the path forward might be difficult in a trying year for videogames.
True but console sales are problematic for them if we are to believe what Phil Spencer said that they have 20 spend about 200 dollars per console to cover costs. That is already a huge loss that would probably have them producing less consoles than Sony. I’m not sure they were looking to sell as much consoles as everyone keeps anticipating. From the regulatory documents released they made it clear their goal for the acquisition was mobile which now is in question due to Apple circumventing the whole thing. Who knows maybe this Apple/Google thing plays a huge role in the pivot. Since Native gaming is the big thing PC would have to be the space to go hard in, but their store is just nowhere near their competitors and way fewer games too. It would have been nice to be able to have the full Xbox experience with store and library on PC with the PC upgrades. I just hope the business update is good news and dispels the rumors.
That’s the impression I usually get, and my own experience matches the bad.
If Xbox had sold as much as Switch, they would be 99% following the path they are on now. Mainly because anyone with sense would see “putting console games on mobile” would solve a lot of problems in the industry with regards to sustainablilty, not to mention Xbox/MS is uniquely synergistic with the means to do so.
Name change?? What’s happening with the brand?
I think games on mobile is how you reach those places like Africa or India, huge markets of lower income people but where they all own cellphones. Have an Apple Arcade alternative full of MS properties and I think it has potential.
We hear about Sea of Thieves on PS5 and Switch but honestly, Sea of Thieves could actually do really well on mobile and it would probably be very easy to port over as UE4 already works on cellphones and it’s not the most demanding game.
The funniest part of all of this to me is a fact that I saw dozens of YouTube comments on various videos that covered the Developer_Direct where people said variations of “Welp, it’s time to buy an Xbox” in reaction to Hellblade 2 & Indiana Jones.
I’ve never seen anything like that apart from trailers for Forza Horizon games.
So this is the first time that I’ve ever seen two system sellers for the Xbox in one year alone and It is the very year where they are announcing that their biggest games will hit other platforms (allegedly).
When I saw those reactions I thought that this is the year that the tide will turn for Xbox and it could sell at a comparable pace to the PS5.
But the upcoming announcement is going to jeopardize all that.
I just want two healthy home consoles competing but I think this announcement will cannibalize all of their own hardware sales and while they claim to be committed to their own hardware I just can’t see it doing well when pretty much everything will be available on one home console.
Even if those games were 10/10 Xbox still wouldn’t sell nearly as good as PS5 with the exception of maybe the UK and tue US, even then those games would probably need to have a very strong mainstream impact for them to have that impact on Xbox sales, I think the only exclusive that could have done that for Xbox so far this generation was Starfield and MAYBE an amazing critically acclaimed Halo Infinite but alas, if Starfield had been a Skyrim level cultural event that definitely would’ve helped Xbox sales in most regions, in fact I think it would’ve been a good 3-5 million ahead of the Xbox One Life To Date, it’s kind of disappointing that Starfield wasn’t that Skyrim 2.0 to the mainstream because that kind of game is what Xbox really needed imo.
Being Xbox exclusive immediately knocks points off. No way those games get 10s from biased sites. IGN made more money off of writing a dozen different articles that said “STARFIELD BAD XDDDDD” Than they would have from 100 quality reviews.
Because sadly the Xbox tax made it a possibility that if Starfield wasn’t anything other than a Witcher 3, Zelda BOTW, Elden Ring, BG3 etc type critical success where it gets those 90s Meta scores then it was going to be dumped on and sadly the game has many design weaknesses that made this possible, such as Bethesda’s game design or tech that needs some work, I don’t disagree with you and I do believe the Xbox tax exists to some extent, wasn’t Starfield like the most talked video game from last year? that says something, had it been a 90s meta game it likely doesn’t get talked about that much.
Problem here is the mobile idea has hit a snag with the new rules put forth by Apple which would take maybe years to fight in court. Xbox has also been separating multiplayer sections from campaign in games like Halo Infinite and Gears in which require separate downloads, so there is a possibility they may be making Multiplayer or GAAS game multiplatform which could include Halo and Gears multiplayer. They could spin original stories not related to the canon for them like they did with the Halo series on Paramount+ . There is also a probability that when they visited King, they had them look at IPs that would be good for Mobile and SOT came up.
Anyone noticed there were no Official Xbox Podcast released this week? I wonder if it was related to all of this. I also wonder if that’s what Xbox will use to lay out their plan or if it’ll only be Newswire, or an actual produced show?
Starfield was that game to me though. As much as it feels like persecution complex, I really think people hated on the game for no reason and really wanted it to fail. There was a deluge of negative articles about the game months before release, when people hadn’t even played it yet. It really feels like a good amount of people have something against MS and I really can’t figure out why. Some people are dead set on shilling for Nintendo or Sony, but will do anything to bring down Xbox at every turn.
Like next Xbox could release with a new Halo, ES6, FH6, best version of COD, and I have a feeling people would find something bad to say about it.
It was going to get persecuted. Microsoft didn’t do an IGN first for the game, didn’t give a bunch of reviewers’ code. It seems they knew they were in a bubble and started working to break it. As of late they have been moving away from the media sites like IGN and the rest. They’ve certainly tried to focus more on media that is in their favor like Windows Central and the Verge. Even rumors and insights tend to be given more to Xbox community as they are the ones that blew these rumors to DEF CON 5. So yes, the media are going to come hard on Xbox as they are being left out and made irrelevant to Xbox. When was the last time IGN had a scoop that wasn’t wrong. With all this the backlash could be equally as disastrous when it comes from Xbox fans. I’m believing tomorrow will be a good day for Xbox or whenever the business update is done.