I still think the #1 priority should be making sure they secure what they need to be #1 in the US and take steps to do that in Europe too. They should definitely make moves in Asia to pick up some in that market, but it’s a distant 3rd in priorities right now. It’s just so much more of an up hill battle in Japan and xcloud needs to be prevelant and easily available on almost all devices before that push imo.
That means acquiring they need to add another highly regarded IP in the US and someone to work on games with appeal for all ages. Then they need to find some IP that are dominant in Europe and acquire those devs.
Of course the dev/pub that does almost all of that and adds to Japan is Sega, so that makes a ton of sense but otherwise I don’t expect their move to be in Japan unless it’s Sega or included with 3+ other acquisitions.
I kind of agree. Sony isn’t even really selling a ton of consoles in Japan anymore yet they still get a ton of support. A stronger Xbox in the west will result in strengthened third party support. It is also much easier to accomplish.
while they dont sell enough to make the top sellers list the games that WB puts out would be great for driving game pass growth, everyone knows who batman is, and having batman games (among the rest of their games obviously) would market the service to people who are hyper casual gamers
Not to mention featuring Japanese content front and center for the Xbox brand and Game Pass can bring IP/games a whole new audience too.
Yakuza has essentially found a brand new audience by being one of the poster children for Game Pass. I’m sure Persona will too.
Game Pass has even made some older titles oddly make a comeback when you look at the “Most Popular” tab in the Game Pass app. Right now Alice: Madness returns is featured on there, along with both Battlefront games (I get 2, but no. 1?), and Skate 3 (being right below Alice).
I don’t disagree with that, I’m just saying their easiest large growth opportunity exists in dominating the US market and taking back the Europe market. These are also markets they can focus on growing PC in easily.
They should continue to focus on Grissom Japan, just the other two markets can be had with more short term effort imo.
Xbox is never taking the Europe Market. Even if PS5 was absolute trash with 0 games except FIFA and Xbox had everything Europe would still pick Sony. Thats Sonyland over there. Just look at the PS3/360 gen. I lived in Europe(UK) for 30 years of my life and I know Brand Loyalty when i see it.
NA? Thats the key. 360 demolished the PS3 in NA. MS need that market back
Now realistically…MS ain’t going to sell as many consoles as the 360 in NA. I think even the PS4 is yet to reach 360 sales in NA. But They need to make sure Xbox isn’t doubled by Sony this gen.
Looking at early sales. Thats not the case. When gamepass really kicks in and their games start coming out from the billion studios they’ve aquired. That will change.
Taking back the European market is a much more reachable task than taking the Japanese market. Also that focus on the European market shouldn’t be on Xbox alone, that’s where they need to make a big PC push. When I talk about the markets, I don’t really care too much about console sales, I want to see big subscription numbers. They can get massive subscription numbers by acquiring targets that add to their NA and European focused content.
If MS bought EA wouldn’t the sports games still have to be multiplatform like MLB the Show? I have no idea how these sports licenses work.
It would be great if MS struck a deal to bring in the next Madden and FIFA to Gamepass this fall because that would bring in millions of subscriptions overnight. Maybe they add another gamepass tier for $20 a month. All EA/GPU/Ubisoft games day 1.
Actually I’ll take ownership of that… I went down the rabbit hole in discussing the feasibility of a Sony service. I just should have stuck to the possibility of it and the need for Microsoft to stay ahead instead of getting into details and looking at the feasibility of it.
Couldn’t disagree more with Europe. They have no brand loyalty. No more than US/Asia.
Problem is and always has been Xbox/MS. I’ve been screaming for 15 years for Xbox to take that market seriously. To market themselves heavily over there. They never did. As an Xbox fan for almost 20 years now, I always felt like we (Europe) were unwanted children compared to US market. No joke, last 20 years I’ve almost always seen something Sony/PS related. Very very occassionally something Xbox related.
Of course it’s hard to take a market or grow massively there when you don’t even properly go all in. MS has the money and power to deal with every big market out there and if they are really serious about appealing to 2-3 billion gamers they should NEVER prioritize one market over the other.
True. I have always been saying that Xbox is too USA-centric brand. To change the market share they need to market it more. It is actually the common problem among tech companies like Amazon or USA. Or in general companies coming from big countries like Yandex or Tencent or Alibaba. Too [country of origin] centric.
Which is kinda hilarious if we remember that MS are the developers of Windows & Office.
I agree too, I’ve always felt the only “loyalty” we have is to value really.
For the longest time, like you mention we always seemed to hear about some addition, some marketing campaign, some other little thing that the US have and we do not.
It always feels like they think they can simply recreate what works in the US to Europe.
Absolutely. One of my friends who has One S (pretty casual) says that if he gets a next-gen console, he’ll get the PS5. When I asked why, he just said it’s more hyped here in Europe. His favorite games are Forza Horizon, Skyrim and 2K and when I said you can’t play 2 of those 3’s next installations on PS5 he said that the PS5 is just cooler and the name is better.
Sony heavily invests into European markets. Champions League, TV/Cinema ads (oldschool but effective), ads on websites and in stores. Microsoft/Xbox is dead silent outside UK. Every “initiative” in mainland europe feels like an attached appendix
Champions League this is the main big one it’s pretty much locked to sony at this point.
this tournament watched by people around the globe and not just Europe
Take Two is good but their turnaround for creating IPs is slower than even Bethesda. Plus the amount of polish they keep applying, it is a wonder a game gets released at all. Buying Take Two for Rockstar makes little sense. But never say never - if Tencent enters that auction for TakeTwo, Xbox might enter the bidding.
I’m pretty sure, Xbox might be looking at the same stats too.
Bungie is more likely than I thought if Destiny numbers continue to be high.
