This forum is so dramatic sometimes… Have you heard that xbox is going 3rd party as well?
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What is it as an Xbox customer you want that isn’t being delivered?
What on your console aren’t you happy with?
Microsoft not being beholden to raw console sales as a success metric is a business thing. It isn’t a success measure for them because they aren’t trying to dominate that market.
But why would that matter to you? You buy their console and would be unhappy as a customer if they aren’t offering stuff you want or providing the right service. So what is it you are actually unhappy about?
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I don’t want or expect XBox to dominate did expect the Series X to have done much better in 3rd party game comparisons for the Series consoles 3 years into the life cycle to have been ahead of Xbox One console sales for a better picture in the USA and Great Britain and for Xbox marketing to have been better
The way some talk here is how it’s all about the PC/Phone and with Xbox PR speaking of wanting Game Pass on Nintendo and the Playsation. It’s almost like XBox has given up on the console game. Sure it is melodramatic and quotes were taken out of context
Just was hoping that in the year of big games hitting the XBox like Starfield supply chains all back to normal The talk would have been of great sales and people being super positive about Xbox that’s all.
I know hardly life or death but was hoping for more cheer Hopefully Santa will be good and give XBox’s to lucky gamers on the big day.
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What? I asked you what you are unhappy about as an Xbox customer and you said it’s that Xbox isn’t selling better…to paraphrase.
I don’t get why as an Xbox customer you’d be bothered about their sales when you are getting what you want.
I get the desire for 3rd party support and it’s a concern of mine but equally they are getting better 3rd party support right now and doing better there.
I certainly don’t think we should be angry about their strategy change. They’ve spent 5 years pivoting away from being a console centric brand and been clear about it.
If you want a brand that is going to feed console war fodder then it’s been clear for a long time Xbox isn’t it. It isn’t going to be it. They aren’t moving away from their strategy because ultimately Xbox from a business point of view will be more successful than Sony. They might sell a fraction of the consoles but that’s it.
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This is Xbox’s future folsk
To put the entire Xbox ecosystem into an app you can download everywhere. Console will still have its place but the above is the reason MS is spending almost $100Billions in gaming (so far)
They will have to invest even more so lets see what happens.
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I feel the only issue is Apple and google cutting 30% cut on sales . Hopefully regulators open up mobile marketplaces
I told what I not happy with though that is the wrong expression It more what I hoped would have been better. Gaming wise the Series X is the console I’ve been the happiest with since the Xbox in 2001
Sales are import to a console hardware manufacture for 3rd party support and also the fear that one day MS might call it a day and just go back to the PC. Sure its OTT but as an Xbox fan 1st and foremost I want Xbox to be doing well in console’s sales. Not in a childish way to get one over SONY…
Just more for the Xbox team hardware to be rewarded and for XBox Team to be able to make the presentation to MS board how the console division is important and gets full resources.
Not for some of the MS board to say consoles are a lost cause losing the company too much money MS needs to pull out and leave it to SONY which is a genuine fear no matter how much a melodrama it looks. If MS is losing so much money on each console hardware they produce some on the board will say we need to drop the console side.
I also worry that with all the effort the team had put into the Series X hardware only to see the PS5 win or be the equal in many head-to-head comparisons. Why should the Xbox team try and have the best hardware going forward when it’s not reflected in games. Just go the cheaper route tech wise leave it to SONY to push the console sector and make the bigger hardware losses. If MS looks to stay in the console side that is.
If you can’t see those are genuine concerns fair enough They are genuine however silly they look and appear.
I think they are genuine concerns but you also have to probably accept that the lifespan of any company regardless of who it is making dedicated gaming consoles is coming to an end probably in the next two decades whether we like it or not.
The thing is that Microsoft aren’t trying to do other stuff on PC or mobile or even publishing games on other consoles ditch the console but indeed the exact opposite. If Microsoft weren’t pursuing this path Xbox would have gone in 2017 or 2018. The fact is that a console business is low margin, Microsoft are so incredibly successful that a low margin business like consoles is of no interest to them standalone. So by expanding their markets they are saving and preserving their desire to make consoles and games for them.
There are probably some things that we need to accept. Sony are better at making hardware than Microsoft. Every single piece of hardware Microsoft makes has issues. Be it cost, design, feature or performance they have a history of never quite nailing hardware. Sony are better at it, they have better production links and generally are just more in that world. They know how to minimise losses. I’ve heard their production route is cheaper purely through being Sony and making a lot of devices. Microsoft lacks that luxury so when they go head to head on power they will lose more per unit. It’s baked in.
Another thing to accept is that Sony have worldwide brand appeal. In most of the world consoles = PlayStation. Like you just can’t escape that. Microsoft have tried to change it but the money and resources they need to throw at it clearly aren’t attractive for them. It’s probably not unreasonable to say they’ve pretty much given up. Their push in these regions is now PC gamepass because they can get a much higher margin return and simply the opportunity cost for them in consoles in Europe, South America etc isn’t there.
Finally I think it’s going to get worse. I don’t expect them to ditch Xbox consoles. I think we get one next gen. Do I expect they will be trying to merge a console with a PC. Yep. Do I think they will match the PS6 in design, quality and performance? Probably not. Mainly because I don’t think they will have the same need. I don’t think they are going to position their console brand as ‘the pinnacle of tech’ anymore because doing so relies on not releasing the same games onto more powerful PCs. The whole model of a new console giving the best graphics and performance and being a ‘show off to your friends’ type thing goes out the window when you are releasing games on more powerful hardware at the same time. Do I think the next Xbox will be a great console with compelling features? Yeah. I just don’t think they will be bothered about stacking it head to head against the PS6. I mean we are kinda not in that world anymore anyway. I don’t think a power race makes sense anymore due to diminishing returns and the growth in PC plus the switch a console about as powerful as a PS3 if I’m being generous still selling absolute gangbusters shows there is an ever diminishing number of people who really care about performance.
SONY isn’t always better at making consoles though It should be remembered how much money SONY lost on the PS3 hardware even the PS1 was sold at a massive loss for each console produced So much so SONY Japan fired a lot of the USA and Canadian staff over the American price point and Olaf Olafsson resigned in protest with people often overlook
What SONY does so well is sell so many units of hardware that it can try and recoup the losses from game sales and game royalties that’s what saves them. It is Nintendo which is the company that can sell each console at close to cost price if not make a profit on the hardware side.
If the Series consoles were selling in big numbers I doubt people would even be worrying about hardware losses or talk of PC & streaming are the future.
XBox does make better hardware than SONY I feel the Xbox Series X is superior to the PS5 and the One X was a marvel in engineering now just for its power but how small the unit was and its lack of noise when running.
Graphics are important and its not just about showing off to your friends. Most people will want to have their system playing host to best-looking version of a 3rd party game even in this day and age.
Not all doom and gloom mind. XBox studio lineup for next year is insane and with have some good PR and more deals/bundles. I think sales drastically improve more so when all the ABK games are put on Gamepass
Yeah but the difference is a big loss on hardware is baked into Sonys business model. Microsoft the wider org don’t need Xbox. They aren’t central to their business. So why would Microsoft be as tolerant of huge losses - and indeed we see this in internal emails. Microsoft would rather sell less consoles at lower losses. And work on other ecosystems like PC gamepass etc…
It won’t happen because of Sony but does anyone still really think Xbox would turn down putting gamepass on the PlayStation? Of course they wouldn’t. It’s so obvious now. They’d do it and still make consoles but accept that fewer people would buy them.
I don’t think they are going to ditch the consoles anytime soon until at least they have certain things figured out. The consoles are pretty much the biggest way to play natively. I don’t think they have a dedicated PC community yet and there are probably more gamers engaging in consoles. For now, the console is where the store is attached and makes sense. Going third party means depending solemnly on Game Pass and their own sales. It also eliminates third party selling on your platform unless they can get their PC store to rival STEAM. They have to also consider if they drop the consoles will the Game Pass subscribers stay or leave the ecosystem. Moving to PC can be expensive and pretty different for a casual and streaming might feel like a downgrade. I think getting rid of consoles doesn’t work for now especially if Sony doesn’t allow Game Pass. What’s even to say third party would support the ecosystem if there isn’t a store system that benefits them.
Imo, Microsoft is never going to ditch the console as long as Sony and Nintendo are still around. It will end up being the same result as with mobile duopoly, and while they can make bank that way.
They will be beholden to whatever Nintendo and Sony want, which means no game pass: core, console or ultimate subs(which will kill a large portion of the money they make), no 30% console cut, they lose 30% of all profits to Sony and Nintendo without having anything else to make it back. It also locks people out of their ecosystem, as they will have no leverage for cloud gaming or play anywhere deals.
Console is here to stay. It has to be social media that is converting people here or at least believe the possibility. Social media is designed for doom and gloom. I said it.
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Honestly, on a more general level, not specific to this week‘s statements? Xbox executives should just talk less. While I love how approachable they are, it’s often a net negative when they comment on market trends and developments. They always produce quotes that make people go nuts putting whatever spin they want on it. Xbox should really focus on the basics, and that must be in delivering generation-defining (not only great) games. And they haven’t reached that goal yet. They can develop their vision but they will only ever come close to reach it if they finally stick to the basics and the most important things: games. In a nutshell: Games, games, games and not all that talking. Once they’ve figured it out, they can talk. I guess this is all wishful thinking on my part though, given this is an American corporation.
This was aimed at investors though it wasn’t some statement being made for the public, it’s also already what they’re doing with PC, Cloud and eventually mobile(or currently mobile because of the ABK buy out) as we have seen with Nvidia.
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It’s a double-edged sword that selling more hardware does mean more losses but it then means more users more royalties from game sales and development royalties.
Gamepass on PS5 was a silly comment. You talk of clickbait that will be used as clickbait with SONY fans saying they won’t even need to buy a PC to play XBox games. I didn’t get why Xbox needed to say that comment if even a long-term goal is to get XBox streaming on the PS5, Apple Phones Ect.
Like I talked about before. XBox PR is rather poor and needs to be better
It is double edged sword but even at Sony console sale numbers which are huge Sony don’t make that much money on PlayStation overall…certainly not the sort of numbers that would convince Microsoft it needs to take a hit for long term business value.
This is the bit that needs contextualising. Consoles and the console business as a standalone even if Microsoft were more successful in capturing that market than they’ve ever been is not something Microsoft as a business would care about. It’s insignificant to them. Whereas leveraging their cloud, services and mobile strategies to reach more gamers across more devices does potentially in the long run become something that Microsoft the business cares about.
Put it this way. Spencer says to Nadella ‘can we have a higher loss in our accounts this year to sell 10M more consoles’….then why would MS even car.
Spencer asks for MS to make an investment in a mobile store that they say can reach 200M users…MS might care……
SONY makes money from the console side and that’s why their top brass no longer think consoles was a toy market and SONYs TV division was the panicle of the group.
The issue for mobile and streaming is the tech just can’t coupe at this point in time and we saw that in Covid when everyone was in home streaming. YouTube had to reduce the bitrate and limit gaming shows to 1080p even to this day until you got the 4K uploaded latter.
It’s a long stretch to think the Internet will be able to handle a near 200 million ex console gamers all looking for 4K at 60 FPS to replace consoles imo .
That will happen with the DMA next year in Europe and UK will follow later. I dont know how much will it change Apple’s and Google’s marketplaces but if theres an opportunity to try to crack those app stores is after what the DMA will/could do.
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