At times I honestly think they re just letting Xbox consoles die, at least in regions like Europe (my region). Are price reductions enough when people just dont fucking now you exist? I am in a whatsapp group with 3 of my best friends (PS players) and I am the one sharing links for them to know Xbox events or releases. It is legit embarrassing, I am doing their work.
I hope I dont get to see the day where MS stops making consoles and says “We tried” bc I wouldnt believe it. They can and should be doing more.
The consumer market is evolving more than ever. There are 3 major changes occurring and Microsoft is more prepared to take advantage than Sony or Nintendo.
Cloud and Ai software to make it seamless and easier access to gaming.
Chip and hardware advancement and cost. The ARM chip technology race is heating up. It is a big cost, only a few can afford to be in it. MS Azure and Ai stack needs it and it gets upgraded every few years. The same chip tech can be placed in consumer PC/Xbox’s.
The walled garden app stores and marketplaces will possibly be opened up by regulators. If it happens with iPhones and Macs and Google Play, in the future that could also apply to consoles like Playstation, Nintendo and Xbox. MS was forced to with Windows back in the '90’s and would help regulators enforce it for other closed markets.
I honestly think PS , Xbox, and Nintendo platforms will always be around and we will get great games from them all in the future. It just won’t only be the traditional way. Console, PC, Mobile and Cloud.
This. The platforms will be around for a long time. People just need to understand that “platform” doesn’t mean the plastic box under your TV anymore. Log in and play on whatever hardware you want.
Xbox seems to be way ahead in this regard, which is why there’s a good chance that they’ll make massive gains in the years to come. Especially if those rumours about switching to ARM hardware are true.
Somehow, I don’t think all this is an issue. The series X came out with pretty much nothing but still did OK and in 2021 they were in some months out selling the competitor as they had Halo and Forza and some lit Gamepass games, towards the year ending they sank back. In 2022 and 2023 so far only had Starfield. In my opinion I think the result so far is justified. They aren’t marketing any games neither marketing the console has the best place to play like with the 1X.
All in all, I don’t even think Xbox wants to outsell PlayStation in consoles, they want to beat them in users though which is their focus as this allows more acquisitions and maybe in their eyes a balanced market. I also think they need to have what it is they are going to market. I don’t think they are mass producing series X’s like the PS5 and when they were they were going to data centers. There really isn’t any need for such big marketing unless they have the hardware to sell as one would note they did market a lot for Christmas and shifted millions.
I would think what they need to do is to unify their platform like Steam which they may do once their mobile store is ready.
Question for you then: how does everything Xbox since the Xbox follows you around on other systems then if that’s the way forward? Cloud definitely isn’t the answer to that as not everything is available in it due to licensing, and the same is true with native as it’s licenced only for Xbox systems, plus all the porting work that’d be needed.
There is no future where Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation includes all other rival platforms. Only PC and mobile.
I’m not sure what you’re asking with that first question.
But you’re still thinking in consoles. The console is just a means to access the content. A lot of games are already available without it (PC, cloud.) In a few years games will also be native on mobile. This is where the switch to ARM comes in. Games would scale to pretty much any compatible hardware (resolution/performance, etc.) As far as I understand it, anyway. Pretty much an extension of mobile games today, which you can play on anything from an entry-level phone to a high-end tablet.
Xbox as a platform is the same as Steam or Netflix. You don’t need specific hardware for it. “Consoles” are an outdated concept that won’t survive for more than another generation or two. This is the chance for Xbox to grow and I’m pretty sure they’ll take it.
That said, it’s obviously all just speculation at this point.
If Xbox were to surpass them it would probably be this year, Warzone Mobile is releasing which will be a monster for them, CoD Gulf War assuming it’s good will likely do better than MW3 as well as all the first party stuff, PS is also unlikely to have something as big as Spiderman 2 next year
Yep, this is the dark side of not pushing in a whole region because of reasons (diminishing returns, hard market, etc), you limit the growth of your games.
I remember Halo and Gears of War selling tons a long time ago, so it’s not impossible, but first you need to try.
Kinda fits this thread - in that physical sales aren’t doing as well. Apparently Game Stop is closing one of their distribution centers in PA that employs about 155 people. Expected to close between March 15th & the end of September.
What I’m trying to say is that the thousands of games that were made u til now on Xbox consoles can only work on Xbox consoles unless they are ported, which costs money. Backwards compatibility on an Xbox console is one thing, but I won’t magically be able to play Xbox One games on mobile or PS6 or whatever unless that is ported over. People who want in on your ecosystem expect everything to follow you and cloud gaming, while never, is far from being even close enough to replace local gaming, and MS have said as such. And 3rd party games you purchases in the Xbox ecosystem just can’t magically become yours in all ecosystems just like you would with a DVD for a movie for example. Gamepass would only work on other systems if MS made a 1st party only Gamepass and that would be the best move to do if they really want to get out of the hardware business as it’d take away all reasons to own their system.
The move to ARM should make it possible, or at least easier to extend to mobile, but X86 still needs to be supported as the PC space won’t be making a switch to ARM on a global scale for gaming anytime soon, and I also doubt MS has any plans to start asking its studios to make their games work on other consoles as well as part of their development considering how hard it is already for their 1st party studios to support only a few different Xbox configurations and PC, adding even more on top of that will just create more delays and more bugs in the long run.
The Netflix comparison only works if all other competitors jump in. If not, Xbox’s Netflix imo only represents Xbox consoles, PC and mobile as well as GAAS that were already released on other platforms and remasters of older games already released elsewhere. Mobile gaming would more than bring in enough revenues to be able to skip PS and Nintendo consoles honestly, especially if they can have enough content to make it compelling enough and have Game Pass available on mobile. Play Anywhere should also be extended to work on mobile as that could be a gateway to bringing those players to the Xbox consoles or to PC.
There are tons of ways to make the ecosystem work without consoles but I think the Xbox console is still a central pillar and it is also the main driver for Gamepass for the time being. You also always need a high end platform available and consoles are a good middle ground between mobile and PC.
I guess we are mostly thinking the same way. I just see the talks of other consoles and I think that’s the part where it would be wrong if they decided to bring all of their content there as well.
Computer hardware is starting to get very interesting & powerful. In a generation or two, we’ll be seeing ray traced games which make Cyberpunk look very dated. When people want Avatar (the movies) quality graphics on their shiny expensive huge flatscreen tv, there’s really only one way forward: games running natively on powerful hardware.
People are always way too quick to announce the demise of consoles at a time when the console market keeps on sending the same message: “we like consoles” (especially two of them, although even Xbox isn’t doing too bad considering the competition & the overall bad economy in the west, i.e. although the Series consoles are trending downwards, they’re not in Wii U flop territory or doing Dreamcast numbers).
And if someone wants me to ‘get excited’ for a future without consoles which could be 20 years away, I’ll nope out of that one. It’s just way too far into the future to matter in any of these conversations.
In terms of platforms, PC was No.1 in terms of game sales, ahead of PS5 (No.2), Switch (No.3), PS4 (No.4) and Xbox Series S and X (No.5). Out of those five, Switch and PS4 were the only platforms to post a drop in game sales year-on-year.
The biggest European market for games remains the UK, ahead of Germany (No.2), France (No.3), Spain (No.4) and Italy (No.5).
