I appreciate your enthusiasm, I just can’t personally see it (yet) as much as I want too.
Fingers crossed I’m totally wrong, but they’ve been touting they’ve had the best console hardware since the One X (and it was/is) but good hardware hasn’t converted to sales.
Therefore with this new Xbox strategy I’m still on the fence regarding how their hardware will be enticing enough to stay viable and/or how their rumoured PC move can compete with Steam.
I appreciate we need to wait and see but for me they’ve announced this strategy way too early before clearing up the other issues (a recurring theme for Xbox).
IMO they should have postponed the strategy and launched it alongside this rumoured PC move (if true).
I think this touches on their strategy move I mentioned above, mostly around timing.
They’ve changed their strategy before being ready to explain the pros of Xbox (outside of extra revenue/funding) to their fanbase.
As Brad Sams discussed in his latest video, it’s unlikely any new gamers are going to be picking up a Series X as they are likely going to PC or getting what their friends have (PS) which will also play Xbox titles. With this current strategy it’s also unlikely anyone is going to move to a Series X from their PS or PC which currently gives them access to more games. I think many of us are blind to this as we are bias towards Xbox.
This strategy move was announced way too early into this generation IMO, it felt like Xbox was just building momentum with their community (again) and then it was then suddenly pushed off the rails (again).
To change their strategy so drastically mid generation you would think they would be ready to reveal more information about the new generation but they weren’t (outside community rumours). Who knows when we will get the new Xbox hardware, what if it gets delayed?
The longer we have to wait with the current strategy and Series hardware will just exacerbate the issues mentioned above IMO.
… Anyway I think I will leave it there, my comments seem to be upsetting people (not intentionally, it’s just my view).
We don’t fully know if they’re going to allow Steam, EGS, GOG, etc. I am still unsure how any of that will work because where would they get money to subsidized on hardware if people choose steam over xbox store? I don’t think the hypothetical open next box will be cheap, but it will be interesting to see how they market it.
I think we need to wait for Microsoft to mention if they’re going to allow other storefronts. Would be interesting if that’s the case, but I will have to wait for full details to see if that’s true.
I’ve talked with Tom Warren enough and he said it in public enough, the plan is to be an Xbox console that can access the windows kernel, which means any and all Windows games essentially should work on it. It’s just about enticing people to buy into things and then they see how good your offerings are and they give you money as well.
That could make things interesting if the hardware is priced right. At the moment it ain’t cheap to build a pc or buy a pre-built. I guess it will be interesting to see how they market that product to the masses, but if they’re going that route then I could see 3 different piece of hardware. I think they’ll have a handheld, cheap entry model, and enthusiast model for higher performance.
If this is the route they’re going they really need to drop the paywall for online play, and it’s most likely easier to do that when most games are f2p except for sports games and COD
Like you’ve said numerous times Jesse, I believe that it’s better to wait and see if this actually happens as opposed to assuming that it automatically will.
Would be awesome if it does but it’s more of “I’ll believe it when I see it” kinda thing as opposed to yeah, it’s 100% happening.
If they weren’t doing it I think they would have walked back Brad Smith’s public commitment from 2022 by now. And being selective about which vendors are allowed to be there for arbitrary reasons would fly in the face of the commitment and their argument for trying to get their own store on Android and iOS.
And I don’t think Spencer would have mentioned it last year.
Mentioning and wanting to do it as opposed to getting it done and actually happening are two very different things.
The reason why im pessimistic with this approach is simple - MONEY. If Steam were to be on the next Xbox console, why would third party publishers waste money, time and resources on an Xbox port when they could just say, buy and play the Steam version on your Xbox instead?
That’s the third party publisher perspective. From a Microsoft perspective, if that happens, their 30% cut is gone as it would all go to Valve since you would be buying the Steam version of the game to play on your Xbox console.
That’s just how I look at it. I also don’t believe that Valve would take less of a cut and give it to Microsoft because why would they? They dominate PC gaming and let’s be honest, they barely do anything.
Just have to wait and see. Until Microsoft/Valve tell me it’s happening, I just don’t believe that it’s 100% or guaranteed to happen.
Xbox console version, Cloud, and a “free” PC one with how the GDK works. We’ve talked about it a ton already. The whole point of the GDK is to let you get 3 versions of a game with the work of one. If they pull it off, that’s why, and 3rd party support right now is the best they’ve ever had.
Sony releasing their games on PC so late though is a bad move. Word of mouth and hype is at it’s zenith right as the game initially launches, not a year later.
People might be mad for MS to launch day and date everyone, but it makes it so they can much better capitalize on sales at full price at launch and maximize return on investment.
Yep. And they save costs by developing the game for both console and PC at the same time while also saving costs on marketing and advertising due to releasing the games once instead of twice.
There are over 100,000 games available on Steam about 4000 on PlayStation store, 12,000 plus on Xbox store and Epic games store has 2900. At the end of the day, it’s not about having the most content but about having content that people want or engage with. None of us can play all this games there just isn’t enough hours in the day to make it possible.
All this so-called PlayStation exclusive doesn’t really mean much if there is no engagement there. I think it’s obvious then that what truly sells consoles is engagement not exclusives. The casuals will drop the PlayStation faster than a brick if the high content engaging games like Fortnite, COD and so on left.
All that said the discussion shouldn’t really be focused on 1 console or consoles but on the industry as a whole on how to expand and how it can benefit all.
Yea and day one on pc also makes platy anywhere titles extra valuable cause you can play on console then pc if you want carrying over the same game saves to the pc version. It also opens it up to streaming on geforce now and other streaming services.
Have to agree here. I see zero reason to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt on this one. (Talking specifically about MS rather than the Xbox division, since this is clearly a Satya Initiative)
While we do not have exact details, a lot of prominent leakers have talked about it and several higher ups at the Xbox division have already hinted at it in interviews, which is usually what they do it seems to prepare people for what’s coming and gauge interest.
The Xbox/PC console thing is probably more necessary than ever if they want to open up to OEMs but also if they want to guarantee all games get ported over, especially if they are expecting a lower install base next gen. All devs make PC versions, so this move would secure ports to Xbox for the foreseeable future.
I’d also imagine that being able to use PC going forward might make it more scalable for them in terms of cloud infrastructure and future proofing.
It’s definitely a wait and see approach, but with recent talks with Phil about opening up to other stores and now just last week wanting their platform to be sold on its merits and being different, I think they are slowly hinting that this is indeed coming and that they are trying to shake up the console market in a big way.
I don’t think it’s about shaking up the console market, but I think given the rise in popularity of PC gaming then it could work in their favor.
Brad Smith’s commitment to allowing vendors on Windows and Xbox to use their own payment and communication systems was directly related to their ABK purchase. And they told us point blank that the ABK purchase was about their mobile store.
They’re fighting with Google right now to get their own store on Android, using their own payment and communication systems, so that they don’t have to pay the cut on sales to Google.
Now how are they going to walk that commitment back, play gatekeeper in select areas, and then argue that Google and Apple need to fully open their OS?
Big picture, they stand to gain far more by breaking down that wall on Android and iOS. They’re not going to compromise their argument over the rounding error-size revenue they get from the 30% cut on Xbox console store sales.
Hence why I would like to know what it actually costs XBox to run its teams/division to what it brings in with revenue. We never seem to get a net profit report from Xbox only how much revenue they make each quarter
I am going to posit there will be a dual SKU approach direct from Microsoft, a casual baseline and an enthusiast performance. No one would be able to release a system that is below the casual baseline specs, but they’re free to release above spec systems.
In today’s parlance, they would have a Series S spec and a Series X spec, then OEMs could make anything from Series S to Series X Plus Ultra Beyond.
There are several technical hurdles with this approach though. It’s not to say it is unsolvable, but it requires non-trivial amount of work to alleviate. They wouldn’t be able to do what typical console games do, with shipping precompiled graphic shaders for a known fixed hardware platform. They would have to have the nastiness that is PC Shader Compilation at either time of installation or upon first load or play. It also throws a bit of a wrench into any sort of Smart Delivery as this would lead to more than simply 2 targets, with a multitude of different deployments.
