Moves like with the gold make me question whether Xbox owners (I don’t think Phil was happy with that move) understand the gaming at all. And each time MS Xbox does something not good, it will affect Xbox across gaming community. Like Phil told that they are not gonna raise GamePass prices for the next 2 years. Then Xbox live gold prices got increased. Ok, we understand why was it done - but who the hell did come up with the idea to increase it 2x? At 1$ or 2$ at least or something. So it means there is somebody seriously detached from the regular humans or something.
Unlike Sony, MS does not have that big market share across the world - in EU Sony is basically the main console so even if they raise prices they can get away with that. They have much bigger support that will rally behind “Backwards compatibility doesn’t matter” until it does. Dominating power has always much bigger leeway in what they can do it. In fact if Sony increased price 2x as much it would have less backlash. That is the power of biggest market share and big brand recognition.
MS is big, but as brand - Sony is much bigger. I praise MS for that pro-consumer decisions, that elevates it among general and gaming folks and instead turn Sony into anti-consumer guy, but Sony has much bigger leeway all in all.
I think you mean Xbox is big but Playstation is bigger. As a brand Sony is not even remotely close to Microsoft as a brand. That’s why Microsoft will be a 2 Trillion dollar company this year while Sony isn’t even 100 billion.
Sony is much bigger media brand, than MS. Market cap is not important there. MS is big but mosty due to their corporate business, rather than consumer oriented stuff.
Now that I think, MS had much longer presence in China than Sony. Why would not MS build some foundation for Xbox there for example? I know that consoles were banned, but they could have prepared in advance for example.
This is getting tiring to be honest, it is like MS backtracked after three weeks. Where I am nobody is talking about it anymore and they are aware F2P are completely free now. Sometimes, you have the impression that Xbox fans can be even more negative than PS fans.
I’m not sure I’d make the qualification that Xbox fans are more negative, if you know what I mean. Furthermore, the recent PS5 die confirmations prove that Sony fanatics (not all Sony fans are) could use a bit more attachment to reality.
The funny as it is, but Windows is akin Android - it is big, but when people think about Android they do not immediately think about Google. Office - it is fair, but just like Photoshop - people do not immediately think about Adobe corporation. In fact, having Windows does not benefit Xbox brand at all - it does not make people running after Xbox because there is Windows, unlike for example Apple consumers that go after Apple products whatever they are.
MS’ modern core - and has always been - is enterprise.
That is true, PS5’s RDNA 3 will always be remembered as Sony’s MisterXmedia. For the rest, I think MS knows well enough how to operate their gaming business, especially with such profits right now. They made a bit of a blunder with Gold, but that was just for one day, whereas others get too much of an easy pass. It certainly doesn’t mean that every decision MS will take will suddenly be stupid, or that would be ignoring everything they have done until this point.
And where am I - nobody owns Xbox. But that’s Europe, so it is understable. For example recently talked to a person - he owned Xbox 360, but as his friends bought PS4 he went with it last gen and PS5 this gen so…
Anyway, to return to the subject matter for which this thread is focused. I think we’re honestly going to be seeing a combination of both large and small acquisitions over the next couple of years. There are a number of partnerships that Xbox has been nurturing and several gaps in their portfolio that Phil, Matt, and Satya all want filled: people seem to forget that their goal is to reach as many users as possible with the xCloud release and ensuring a large swath of owned, exclusive content that covers the genre-gamut. You do that by ensuring you have teams internally so you don’t have to rely on external partnerships as heavily.
I think we see 1 and a couple of 2. I also wonder if they’ll build a studio up for anything again. E rated seems a hard category to get into and maybe building a studio with their existing IP is the way to go.
This thread (and community to some degree) is becoming harder and harder to want to participate in due to the sheer amount of arguing and personal attacks that occur in a regular basis. Friends, let’s try to be civil and respectful to each other and stick to the topic(s) at hand. If there’s nothing to be said, it’s ok to just not say anything.
Regarding acquisitions, I see a lot of people mention Xbox should buy XYZ company in retaliation / prevention situations. I don’t think that’s the smart way forward, and from what we’ve seen I don’t think the Xbox people do either. They have a plan, they know their strengths, and know what areas need improvement. It’s why we’ve seen them add the Double Fine / Compulsion type creative studios, while also getting the “big dogs” such as Zenimax. They should stick to that strategy, and I trust it’ll end up in a good place.
