That is sarcasm. Maybe I should have been more clear.
If PlayStation don’t take BC seriously, it will backfire next-gen if Xbox stick to there plans.
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I have said this elsewhere and will say it here -
Play the games that you want to play where you want to play them and well, that’s it.
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Oh, am an idiot. Sorry, i legit thought you were serious there.
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If Sony can do it then Microsoft can as well, freaking try to make your ecosystem as desirable as possible.
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Sure, because going toe-to-toe with PlayStation has worked out well for them so far.
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That 500 figure is also butterflies though if Xbox really had 500 million players buying games or subscribing to GamePass they’d be no issue. It sounds like MS is just counting anyone who logs in to the Xbox even if it’s just an app.
I don’t think we’ll see 3 billion gamers playing on a gaming system in my lifetime, much less having the infrastructure to handle 3 billion gamers all trying to stream down content and content to the server.
Console sales are still good at health for SONY and Nintendo. I would say the real issue is not console sales dropping but game budgets and development time
I really think the whole industry can not go on with games costing over £300 to £500 million to make and where you have hundreds of full-time staff working 7 years or more on just one game.
We need to get back to games taking 3 years to make for the long-term health of the industry IMO and games are simply too expensive £70 is a hell of a lot of pocket money for a youngster or a parent buying video games never mind subscription costs which will no doubt continue to up too.
The price of games is such a big barrier to real growth IMO
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BC and your library that is the key here.
If there is no hard cutoff and your console library stays relevant perpetually, then hardware becomes mostly discretionary upgrades like how Steam/PC is now. If this happens why do you need to buy a PS6 anytime soon? Third parties will still make cross gen games to capture the larger userbase, and Sony will too unless they spend a ton of money on AAA+ PS6 exclusive games to entice the shift to PS6. Yet why should Sony even bother with that? What benefit does Sony get moving you from PS5 to PS6 while having to spend an exorbitant amount of money on showcase AAA+ games to do it? An expensive game sold to a zero userbase (new console) to move hardware sold at a loss?
This is why things are shifting towards being library focused and not hardware focused. If next gen Xbox is putting out games playable on Nextbox, SeriesX/S, XboxOne, PC, Game Pass, Cloud, etc… might as well toss some of them on PS too because the point of the game existing isn’t just to sell the next console anymore, the point of the game is to sell on its own merit.
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Honestly what they need is to differentiate themselves and define their platform. I think it should be the platform defining the hardware and not the other way around.
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The PS5 Pro is barely going to sell as is, don’t think having a Xbox Series X Pro would actually achieve anything. I’d actually rather they launch next gen earlier and break the console cycle, like Nintendo did with the Switch.
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You sure ignore reality to continue with this absurd narrative (Sony and Nintendo hardware are both down, the former more so)… there’s a word for that. Keep it up and you’ll be on a repeat course.
You can be upset about the direction but continuously misrepresenting the facts to sow your console war has been a point of contention with many a user for a reason…
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Just like those freaking out over the decline of physical media their is nothing that is going to stop that, same as with the decline in dedicated game hardware.
At some point our gaming habits are going to be tied to an account where we buy games and then play those games on anything with a screen depending on where we are while playing the games.
That is the direction of the industry just like how in EVERY single media format physical media is either gone or nearly gone.
If your brain is stuck on physical hardware sales and or physical media sales you are a relic and need to adjust your mentality to the current world we live in.
I’m glad Xbox is preparing for a post console world where my account. saves and game purchasing will be safe going forward.
I don’t give a flying fuck what Box I play the games I want to and if you do and can’t let go of it then you are surely going to be dealing with this crap for a bit as the industry changes around you.
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Oh hooray!
/s…. Why not the other one instead…? If real.
Oh so they shouldn’t do anything in hardware then and just embrace being a full 3rd party publisher for PC and Nintendo and Sony consoles and call it a day.
Apparently several 4k blu-ray players will be discontinued soon and several companies want to stop making them. I’m a big fan of physical media when it comes to movies as streaming is still a far cry from 100GB triple layer discs, but alas, it seems like even physical movies are on their way out at this rate.
Same with music, big resurgence of vinyls during covid and I have a huge collection of records, especially videogame OSTs, but it is now trending down again and I don’t even wanna talk about CDs. Streaming music though in lossless at least is just as good if your subscription includes it.
But for games physical has no impact as it has no effect on the quality of what you get on your screen at the end of the day. Definitely a matter of time before physical games media goes away. And like you said, MS is definitely preparing for that, and Play Anywhere is definitely part of the strategy. I have a feeling they’ll likely have everything running on PC soon enough, including all previous generations, so they can switch their cloud solution to super high CPU core server blades with high end GPUs and make it easier for them to scale that way in the future.
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Sony and Nintendo have a clear vision unlike Microsoft who change their strategies constantly and even this current strategy they could change in few years. IMO the timing for this change wasn’t right because now they have many IPs and studios under their belt, they could have built a big user base for next gen.
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Sony just wildly shifted their vision from SP to MP back to SP with a mix of MP.
Nintendo just went from having a handheld and console to only a handheld that can be docked.
Microsoft went from nearly closing to trying to out-do Sony to realizing how much hardware was changing and deciding to do multiple platforms as a focus.
It’s really not that hard to understand how each platform has strengths and weaknesses without pretending “one is dum, the others are super smart”
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Really?
Sony is all over the place, typically making half-assed attempts at copying the latest trends. Sony is the KING of abandoning their projects and lying about their focus. MS has to tip toe around their messaging because the gaming media will tear them to shreds at the drop of a hat. Sony doesn’t get held to the same standard and that’s a shame because it allows them to take advantage of their userbase.
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Except by keeping all their games exclusive, they actually wouldn’t grow and instead would just sell even less software, which isn’t viable when you are spending billions of dollars to grow a business.
People have settled in specific ecosystems over time and aren’t willing to budge. Considering the average gamer age is 35 and it’ll keep going up over time, with more disposable income most will switch to PC and the newer generations are going to phones/tablets and then straight to PC.
Consoles are most likely a dying breed as can be seen from the lack of growth in total console base over several generations. MS is most likely just trying to position itself ahead of that change to capitalize the most when that happens.
The hybrid console/PC is also most likely a reaction to that, and by bridging the 2 and making gamers’ libraries carry over, that’s how I think they are hoping to keep their current users as well as attract new ones, especially with the inclusion of other storefronts.
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That’s not what I said though, is it? They’ve already announced they’re working on new hardware. What doesn’t make sense, is to release a Pro console with minimal gains at a huge cost to consumers, when they’re already losing loads of money on hardware that’s similar to the PS5.
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I remember the talk of the end under the TV console box before the PS4 and Xbox One launched and how we were all meant to move over to mobile only for the PS4 to be one of the best-selling consoles ever. If the Series X/S had sold anything like the numbers of the Switch people wouldn’t be saying consoles aren’t a future here
One keeps hearing PCs or consoles are the future but old news. How many people on here use their mobile and Cloud to play their Xbox games over playing their Xbox games on a PC or console I bet the answer is next to none. I can see the direction of travel of media going digital but most gamers still love to play their games on proper hardware not the mobile and not Xbox Cloud
Also, it is not a fair comparison to expect console sales to be ever higher than in the old days given how much more forms of entertainment are available to you at your fingertips. In the same way, it be hard for the BBC to ever top the viewing fig of the Christmas special Only Fools and Horses despite far more people in the country and owing a TV
So many kids would much rather spend their lives on social media these days than playing traditional video games and so many people rather watch content on their phone to playing video games. While on the move in the modern era with 4 and 5G streaming sports and films are no longer an issue not like the old days when you might look at a handheld to use when on a journey. I never see people here even consider those trends
Going forward too there is a big worry that kids won’t be interested in AAA blockbusters given they’re happy playing World Of Tanks Monolopy Go and not what one would class traditional style video games or how they’re much rather spend their time on Snapchat or Tik Tok to playing video games at all. What about that trend?
To MS credit they got went out and bought Minecraft It still amazes me how many kids I see playing that on their phones/tablets
Sony certainly don’t get held to the same standard, but part of that is that they talk in public less. They change strategy without talking about it all the time. I like how chatty Xbox is but it is not without disbenefits.
In a year when they cancelled so many GAAS and had one so bad that they killed the studio, they also got GOTY. THAT is what will be remembered, rightly or wrongly. They have also abandoned PSVR completely, but not a whisper.
Sony are also slower to pivot when changing tack. They will eventually copy MS by releasing most stuff on PC and the gap to PC release will shorten. But they don’t NEED to pivot as quickly as MS did.
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