You can understand the rational and be ok with the move. I agree the the industry is changing. But you can be critical of the implementation of it.
If you can’t be objective & take a step back and see that, by putting games on PlayStation opens themselves up negative press then you’ve got your head in the sand & just don’t want to hear it.
It doesn’t even have to be the truth, as many have said before the discussion about games isn’t about the game it’s about will it come to PlayStation. That’s an example of a negative effect.
I’m objectively speaking as the other day you had a day of good news with the developer direct a mystery game, jez saying it could be bigger than expected, and just 24 hours later that positive message is completely nuked by rumours of the pillars going elsewhere.
& this is where I’d actually like a proper debate not about money which is what debate comes down to obviously they will make money doing it but in the long run does it harm the brand.
It’s the exact reason PlayStation take their time putting games on pc and have only slowly reduced the time it takes to get to pc.
It seems like maybe they haven’t decided on exactly how to move forward. The destination is clearly Xbox everywhere the implementation however has been up and down. I think probably the things like the Xbox OS or integration are just not ready and might be one thing hampering all this. I would think if they came out like Steam that the full Xbox experience with your library will go with you on every device this issue would have been mitigated.
I completely agree with MS having issues with strengthening the Xbox brand. Leakers are one thing, but the messaging outside of leakers has been inconsistent.
And there’s a practical reason for that inconsistency, MS has been open about the fact that they’re experimenting. In less charitable framing: they don’t know what they’re doing. As harsh as that sounds, it’s not inaccurate. They’re trying to find a balance here and this involves multiple aspects of their business. They risk cannibalizing certain aspects of their business so they can’t go all in as a 3rd party developer. Otherwise the best plan is to put everything everywhere tomorrow.
So nevermind leakers, who are simply guessing which titles will follow MS’s plan of multiplatform releases, the entire idea of titles hitting other platforms muddies brand perception.
I realize that MS is doing something new. Something that makes business sense in terms of revenue. But the mass market doesn’t understand this yet. For them it’s confusing and it’s hurting the brand. Many people think that MS is leaving the hardware business. This means less console sales and the stagnation in the growth of Game Pass.
I personally would guess that people at Xbox know exactly what they should be doing but MS execs are the ones that are confused here.
I’d be curious about console sales despite having a fantastic 2024 line up and Game Pass wise.
I find this type of response more frustrating than anything Xbox are doing. As it’s totally reductive.
I don’t particularly care I own a PlayStation and an Xbox I just find talking the industry interesting.
You can say I understand the vision, which I do and understand see where it’s going long term.
Whilst also saying in the short term medium term they’ve left themselves open to negative PR that can hurt their brand.
Unless Xbox can find a way to market game pass to mainstream with all these new games highlighted showing the better VALUE proposition that it brings compared to having to buy them on PlayStation then their message will forever get lost in the negativity that surrounds it
They need to show more and talk less, like Nintendo and Playstation, while minimizing their missteps.
With a historic investment in ABK they probably can’t stay quiet and they’re going through a massive pivot as a gaming business that is now one of the primary growth pillars of one of the most valuable companies in the world. It’s probably going to be messy until they can finally show off this new Xbox OS in action. If this new OS works really well then I think the media and gamers will get behind it. If Xbox steps on the rake then they’ll be rightfully blasted.
Of course it all matters, which is why Microsoft is not gaining sales in their home territory.
Microsoft is at one of their worst spot mindshare wise, which is reflected in how easy it is for positive news to turn negative. Plus, on social media the brand is damaged and it’s more about nostalgia about 360 era than current position. I am unsure if brand can recover, but damage has been done. I think porting over most of their upcoming games to other platforms is damaging their brand when talking about console space.
I don’t think we can be dismissive of what this move has done to the brand. Things are always changing for Microsoft. First it was about gamepass growth. Now that it’s growth stagnated it’s now about revenue. It won’t shock me if they make more changes to gamepass due to the hole they’re in on the console space.
Lastly, Microsoft has many cool features, but the average person doesn’t know them. It’s why if Sony were to do something similar to would get praised. It’s also why people now want to play Microsoft games because it was never about the quality of the games it’s just that they don’t want to purchase an xbox to play them. I don’t think Microsoft over the years created enough incentives for people to jump to platform, which is why where we are today
I mean, some of us really see the incentives of owning an Xbox, or else we wouldn’t have bought into the ecosystem. I’m actually surprised why we don’t see more people jumping in, especially at a time where inflation is kicking our collective asses and money is harder to come by than ever. The Series S with Gamepass is the best freakin value in the business. Or if you are about f2p, again a Series S is the cheapest way to start playing Roblox, Fortnite, Warzone, Genshin Impact, etc. My daughters exclusively play F2P and Minecraft and the Series S has been awesome in that regard and it works better imo than the low end PC I built for one of them a few years ago.
Like the amount of exclusives is one thing, but beyond that I have a hard time as a grown ass man understanding how one looks at both Playstation and Xbox and thinks Playstation is the better value, it does not compute! I think it’s solely about mindshare due to years of publicity and pushing the Playstation brand to the masses, which is where MS has fumbled the ball.
Either they just keep focusing on their strong markets and use the multiplat approach to sell to the rest of the world, either their Xbox/PC thing just amazes the world and changes everyone’s lives, or the multi manufacturer approach is the right move to have region specific companies better market their ‘‘Xbox’’ to each region and that’s how MS reverses the tides.
I do somewhat agree with Jez Corden though when he says Xbox is spread too thin. I think MS feels like it needs to counterattack on every front and while they have the money to do so, they might not have all of the ressources. So their mind is in the right place I think, but the execution just isn’t always there.
He shouldn’t have leaked that, but still didn’t Nate say even he was surprised how people reacted? Then I think the Xbox team also said they were surprised by some of the “concerns” floating around.
In any case, seeing how quickly some of those ports released after that leak it was just a matter of a few weeks before it would surface from Xbox. I don’t think it would have played out much differently because the console warrior types would have amplified the same narrative.
They’re not even talking which is why leakers are taking the front. To me it seems more like using the other platforms to gain the prominence in the space.
There is a lot of potential for them, but they certainly have their work cut out for them especially with Valve now pushing Steam OS which many have observed just perform much better for games for now atleast. I think it would do them good to get behind a cohesive message that addresses the questions that seem to push this ongoing doom and gloom. I do agree that the Xbox OS could be the answer, but they need to either show it or tease it. At least give people a glimpse of the destination, so they know where they are headed, it’s clear many are jumping off or leaving because they either have no idea of the destination or have a wrong presumption of it.
I’m telling you all most of the costumer base is not aware of the bad media coverage of Xbox and that MS cannot do anything about said media coverage as much you don’t like it. The media coverage was negative before they did the pivot, it would be bad if they didn’t do the pivot. It will continue to be bad as they release more games to other consoles to accomplish their business goals.
It doesn’t matter because imthe media coverage won’t be the deciding reason why they succeed or not.
The series s is actually a smart idea in creating an entry console. I think the issue lies in Microsoft’s brand power where the move will get rejected. I think if Sony were to go with that approach it would’ve worked due to brand power. Logically the series s is a good machine if you want to play F2P games with some gamepass on the side. However, the market is mixed on it and I think it’s due to marketing and brand.
I think Microsoft’s major issue is they don’t know how to market their moves, which is why most have mixed results. I know they can’t control rumors and leaks, but they def need to send a strong message to give consumers and idea where they’re heading. I don’t know what their plan is for their next console, but it has to be something different than their previous consoles because sales wise you’re not going to move many units with the multiplatform approach. Plus, they have to account for losing consumers by making the move.
I think the rumor of multiple storefronts is intriguing because it’s not that easy to build a PC. If they can create a subsidized hardware that has access to steam, epic game store, and xbox store. Then that’s a very intriguing product that might get people to stay and possibly gain some consumers due to cheap way to have a console like experience on PC. If they’re going that route they would need to remove online paywall, and might not be that bad to do that because most MP games are F2P. i think the only eceptions are sports games because other than that it’s mainly F2P games.
Perhaps, but even then it would be taken with a grain of salt. Only seen as a possibility.
What turns this nebulous prediction into a concrete reality for a lot of people is actually seeing a multitude of Xbox games hitting the PlayStation and Switch. People are turning on their PlayStation and Switches, checking out the store, and are seeing Xbox games. It makes that “leaving the console industry” idea way more believable and so much of use is rooted in their archaic view of the industry.
They don’t understand that Xbox hardware will still be around and that these games will be on Game Pass. I think this is an easy problem to solve and I don’t understand the pushback against addressing it.
I don’t see the drawback in educating the mass market on their new strategy and I think ads for Multi-Platform games like Doom: The Dark Ages could spell it out nicely. “Available for purchase on the Switch and PS5. Available for free* on the Xbox with a Game Pass subscription”.
Have we seen ads like this for any existing multiplatform title? Not sure why Xbox hasn’t done so yet. It doesn’t matter if it’s an older title like SoT or Hi-Fi Rush, such an ad is more about communicating the new strategy than those specific games.
I don’t understand why there would be any pushback against this.
Information like this defines the brand. Seeing ads stating the same for the biggest games coming out in the next half decade people are going to clue in that the Xbox is getting preferential treatment for these games. That’s building a prestigious brand image.
To me it’s creating a “having your cake and eating it too” situation with this multiplatform strategy. People are currently wondering why they should buy an Xbox and this strategy spells it out.
Maybe they have this strategy in the cards, but I’m genuinely surprised that they haven’t fully expressed this yet in mass market advertising.
When things aren’t spelled out like this, that’s when people create their own narratives to explain what’s happening. The leaker situation sucks but they didn’t leak any new strategy. They’re referencing an existing strategy and are only speculating on what titles are part of that strategy. This would be a non-issue if Xbox already communicated to the mass market their strategy.
Of course they can they can come out and just outright deny it. That’s the trouble with Xbox PR is they create and leave a void and that allows people to speculate (both good and bad) Saying there are no red lines just allows those who want to stir, to do just that.
When one isn’t clear or tells you what games are coming people will speculate. Just look at the speculation now over what is the mystery game going to be shown at the developers direct.
It would be a lot better if MS just came out and said what Xbox games are coming to the PlayStation in 2025 and kill most of the troll’s fun.
