I agree. He even contradicts himself in the same interview.
I hope they speed up this acquisition because it’s really annoying hearing a variation of the same answer over and over again.
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It wasn’t the MS CFO, who is Amy Hood. Tim Stuart is the Xbox CFO.
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I am sorry but this is extremely naïve. Xbox has been by far the most consumer friendly platform since 2015 (minus the Gold paywall of course) and they still have brand image problems solely for the fact that they didn’t have compelling first party compared to Sony/Nintendo. Giving the PS5 games would not make Xbox look good, it would make them look bad and even incompetent.
Good PR and image comes from giving consumers a reason to buy your console or invest in your service. If Sony made Sunset Overdrive 2 they would no doubt make it exclusive to Playstation. Would Sony get bad PR for it? No…they’d be getting praise for having yet another first party title and giving people a reason to invest in their product.
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We really have to stop pretending like MS has to take some moral high ground or that they have an obligation to non Xbox/PC gamers…they don’t owe Playstation players a thing. If Sony made Sunset Overdrive 2 we all know that they’d make it a Playstation exclusive and no one would bat an eye. But for some reason MS is held to this wildly different standard and then Xbox proceeds to gets ragged on for not having compelling first party.
The funny thing is MS has provided 3 different venues to play their games which is 3x as many as Sony or Nintendo provide. If a PS5 gamer doesn’t want to buy an Xbox, they’re welcome to play games on PC/Steam, if they don’t want to do that then they can always whip out their phone or tablet and fire xCloud up. If they still don’t want to do that then they’re SOL. You can only do so much for someone before it starts hurting your own bottom line.
The only person I saw that had a meltdown with PC games was Crap Gamer when Quantum Break was announced. Aside that I don’t recall much outrate. PC/Xbox games have been commonplace since the OG Xbox.
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I remember a lot of people being… not exactly “mad” but almost spiritually crushed because they felt like their Xbox One purchase was “wasted” when they could have been playing everything on PC instead. People got over it but there was def some disappointment. The secondary concern was that if Xbox lost it’s appeal by no longer having these games (Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Gears 4 etc) being “true” exclusives, then the Xbox would sell worse, which would mean they might abandon it or there would just be less content for it in general because it became progressively less relevant over time.
2016-2017 was probably the nadir for the fanbase there before things started visibly, publicly turning around. But we’re still dealing with the consequences of Xbox being resource-starved in 2014-2016, the content pipeline has had some dry patches that are only now starting to be resolved.
As far as I remember, Phil said that Bethesda as a publishing entity would remain, and I assume Zenimax studios would be published under Bethesda and not Xbox Games Studios. If that’s correct, and I am going off memory, then it could be well possible that MS could keep Bethesda games as multiplat, with the bonus to Game Pass as day and date, while Xbox Game Studio games would remain exclusive.
It would be foolish, and a kick in the guts to loyal xbox players, for MS to keep Bethesda games multiplatform. It just does not make any sense for this to happen. But I just don’t trust MS to keep them exclusive.
I don’t have Game Pass. I buy the games I want to play, and I’m happy to keep doing that. I admit GP is amazing value, and I totally get why people have it. However, it seems that MS is putting all its eggs into GP, and so the day and date means nothing to me as a gamer. Exclusives matter to me. I have chosen to game on Xbox over PS, typically because I like shooters and driving games. If MS gave these games to PS, then I really wouldn’t be happy.
The thing that annoyed me is if MS makes exclusive people are going to say its bad but when Sony does stuff like this its business
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I honestly think that the big MP titles might be multiplat because you need all the players you can get and SP only or focused games will be exclusive. Xbox is 100% focusing on Game Pass and I don’t understand how putting their big games on another platform helps with that really. I can’t see someone that can buy it on PS5, for example, think oh wait a minute I can just subscribe to Xbox Game Pass and play it on there, then have to go buy an Xbox to do that.
Putting the games on PS5 wouldn’t help Game Pass in anyway imo and that’s their #1 focus. Having Game Pass as the cheapest way to play the game if it was on all platforms is not a big pull to move some over to Xbox/Game Pass in my humble opinion, like someone who only has a PS5 isn’t going to suddenly buy an entire new console (Xbox) to play some games cheaper. Games on PS5 are now more expensive and I haven’t even heard many people complain about it, Demon Souls is $125 AUD for just the standard edition which is crazy.
I don’t think Sony fans are price sensitive because if they were Sony would already have a Game Pass equivalent.
People moan about there being no reason to buy an Xbox and putting all your games on all platforms doesn’t help with the image of the platform. It’s going to be much easier to grow Game Pass if you have more console sales because I can’t see it growing faster relying on someone to buy it while not having a Xbox console. xCloud could bridge the gap but not everyone lives close to a data cetner to get a great experience so consoles do matter imo.
MS says Game Pass is more important than console sales but if that were really true then they wouldn’t be taking a huge cut off Series X and making a second tier $299 console 
Consoles sales do matter because I think it will be much easier to get someone to subscribe to Game Pass if they have a Xbox console, I don’t really see people subing without a console then buying one.
You need to give people a reason to buy a Xbox (exlcusive games) then the chances of them subbing to Game Pass would skyrocket as it’s only a $10 monthly payment from there on not a console then a monthly payment.
Just my 2c.
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That wouldn’t remotely justify a 7 billion pricetag, even with a 1 year timed exclusivity it still wouldn’t be worth it.
There would no doubt be a mass exodus from Xbox and they know this. There’s always talk about how going multiplat would deter people from Xbox…it would also likely cause existing Xbox players to walk out.
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Didn’t you know? Xbox is suppose to be held this wildly different high standard and they must always take the morale high ground as they’re obligated to cater to non Xbox gamers
At least that’s what people like Alanah Pearce and others think…
It wouldn’t…Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime aren’t sharing Stranger Things, Mandalorian and The Boys with each other.
Its also not solely about Game Pass subs, its also about the ecosystem. A PS5 owner may just wait for TES6 to come to PS5…during that time period they’re going to buy games on the PS5…Subscribe to PS+ and potentially even PSNow if it ever becomes a compelling service…all of which MS gets zero cents of. **
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I was going all out crazy to get my hands on a couple of series xs for me and the kid, but to be honest now I’m going to wait. The issues with lack of first party games, poor performance on the big AAA titles and questions about what they are doing with Bethesda has really put a chill on my excitement.
To see Shinobi say he had to stop playing AC: V because the screen tearing was so bad he couldn’t enjoy playing it was just nuts. And I hate screen tearing, and I’m not going to go and buy a new TV to get VRR on it. I shouldnt have to do that.
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Bought it last night. Played 3 hours and having a blast.
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Exactly, you can see they’re going through the whole Netflix transition of the gaming world. It’s crazy we’re watching this now and still some people can’t see what’s happening. It’s so easily seen that they’re getting so many studios because they don’t want to rely on 3rd party games in Game Pass. Microsoft wants enough games and studios to pump out content to pretty much not need any 3rd party games really.
It’s going to come to a point where 3rd party devs will be asking to be put on game pass for free for exposure or MS would be paying much less than they are now because MS won’t need them as much as they do now so the devs would have less bargaining chips. I can see Game Pass being HUGE for indie devs if MS allows them to show up in Game Pass for free but get maybe a exclusive period on their platform. Imagine being a single person dev with access to lets say 50 million people who could play your game instead of having to rely on people to go out and purchase it.
It has been said many times that word of mouth helps a crap ton with indie games and sales have increased when their game has been added.
For example lets say a single dev release their game first on Xbox and included in Game Pass day 1, they could then release that same game within lets say 6-12 months on other platforms and the hype around the game would generate even more income for the dev after the fact because of all the hype from Game Pass subscribers.
Just a theory and obivously not me knowing how all this works internally but yeah Game Pass is becoming the future and people won’t see it until you see Starfield or Elder Scrolls on there day 1.
I’m waiting for a bit too, I already have a fairly decent backlog so I have no reason to upgrade, the only reason I have a PS5 is because my cousin bought it and left it at my place. Also I plan on moving out of state in May from Illinois to Arizona (hopefully by then COVID will mellow out) so I don’t want to make any big purchases right now until I’m settled in a new place.
It may not bother some people…but there would be A LOT of resentment and people feeling like second class citizens if MS let Bethesda go multiplat, even timed exclusives. You look Nintendo and Sony rewarding their player bases with first party exclusive content that you as an Xbox gamer won’t get unless you invest in their eco-system…but somehow they should get Bethesda games on their platform? You know you’re not going to get God of War or Zelda on Xbox but they should get Doom and Starfield on their platforms? I would be pissed too if that was the case
Its easy to see why people would be demoralized. I would say personally that I would not buy an Xbox Series X/S if MS did let Bethesda go multiplat. Because I would feel that my time and investment isn’t being rewarded by Microsoft. If that indeed happened I would probably just be a PC/Switch gamer
Some people may argue that getting games on Game Pass day one is our reward but that isn’t enough. We will still be second class citizens because at the end of the day, we’re locked out of content because of what eco-system we chose to invest in and by default we have to invest in another eco-system, where as users on the Playstation eco-system still have access to content even if they have to pay 60-70 bucks for it.
For the record, I do believe that Phil and co want Game Pass on Playstation and Switch. If that ever did happen it would be an easier pill to swallow since at the very least those subscriptions get funneled back into Game Pass which means more content for us. That’s a lot more lucrative then a one time game purchase and having to also give Sony a 30% cut.
At the rate MS has been acquiring talent and with second party deals like the Asobo game coming out later, I think Game Pass is going to get to a point where they can mostly phase out third party games. Although I don’t see smaller games like Subnautica, Tunic, Outer Wilds etc going away.
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They won’t until the deal is done 
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Yep
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Imo the best time to buy an Xbox Series console is maybe mid to late 2021 at the earliest. It is what it is at this point. Third parties are not performing as expected supposedly because of immature tools (30fps Valhalla on Series S plus that awful motion blur and screen tear is just major yikes), and no major first party game releasing until Psychonauts 2 Or Halo between mid to late 2021, depends on which releases first shall be the main reasons why. No major third parties even, Medium got delayed to late Jan, don’t know when Ascent is coming cuz that got delayed too, and Crossfire did too, and all the smaller games like Scorn and Annapurna Interactive games got delayed too.
Half the reason why there’s so much angst when it comes to Valhalla performing worse is because Xbox had a dry as fuck launch from the first party side. Everyone would be like “who gives a shit about Valhalla running worse, just look at how fuckin amazing this new first party game looks, they know how to use the hardware, and third parties will follow”. In fact that’s what you’ll be saying if you bought a playstation, cuz you’d be seeing ps5 shining through the likes of Demon’s Souls and Miles and forget about the lack of VRR, forget about lack of native 1440p, forget about lack of full RDNA2, forget about how games will potentially start running better on x down the line, all of that. Cuz you’re not being sold a paradigm that shall activate down the line, you’re sold on one that’s accessible right now itself and there’s no problem in wanting to prefer that over a promise of a better future.
Tl;Dr imo best time to buy an Xbox is mid to late 2021 cuz all the most anticipated games are getting delayed to 2021 or wip until that period anyway, plus dev tools not as matured right now so you’ll see erratic performance gradients from third parties.
I’m gonna wait too, and there’s no problem in that. 
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One thing that’s key: they gotta get xCloud onto TVs ASAP. Rather that be through a SmartTV app or a streaming stick, it has to happen before Starfield. Then Playstation players who want to play the game all can, and Microsoft gets them into Game Pass.
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