How so? I have to think any person who is accustomed to using a service like Game Pass isn’t going to jump ship to pay $70 per game. I could maybe understand the logic if a person subbed to the service just to play one game. However, I doubt there are many ‘one game’ Game Pass subscribers out there.
I think in the future, especially given the smoke around console/PC hybrid, the draw for the next Xbox will be:
Game Pass
Play Anywhere
Ability to buy/download games from Xbox, Steam, EGS, etc.
Free online multiplayer
A console that can play Call of Duty, Madden, FC, Battlefield, etc. for free could be enticing for casuals.
No one knows but take it this way they can be certain of what works and what doesn’t rather than guessing. I think everyone is getting a front row seat to gauge things from Satya and Amy hood to Phil, Matt, Sara and the CFO Stuart.
I also don’t think this demand for Steam is great as it’s you saying you want to move to another platform. Steam already exist you can get a PC or Steam Deck today at a good price and move over rather than expecting Xbox to substitute their store.
I think many in here should just be patient. Game Pass is releasing more triple A game than ever this year which I think will evaluate its value and these games going everywhere end up marketing Game Pass more. I think time will show Xbox is right again.
That I think might be what is happening because part of the hardware decline is they are just not shipping any. Jez has said they have been sold out for months in many stores in Europe which is also now a thing in the U.S. In my opinion their plan is too vigorously push Game Pass this year with as much quality games they can fit in and use the platforms to generate income while also using them to popularize their first party games. Going multiplat will give these games more awareness and eyeballs. All this could lead to a strong launch nextgen.
Remember years ago when Phil said he didn’t like exclusives and he was going to avoid “moneyhatting” games and a whole bunch of people, mostly from the “Playstation side” called him a liar? There was a lot of “Oh yeah, then why don’t you release Halo and Forza on Playstation then? BOOM GOTCHA! you liar”
Well is Phil still a liar now? He said he wasn’t a fan of exclusivity long before all of this Xbox going 3rd party stuff went down.
EA release their games everywhere, has it’s own subscription service and now have their own store on Windows too.
Are EA a third party publisher or a everywhere company?
You don’t see many podcasts or forums about EA do you? . Maybe someone should create EAEra and TakeTwoEra .
I know I’m being quite cynical here, however as it stands I just don’t get it.
Just call a spade a spade (with hardware as a bonus).
For me, it’s not even just that.
If the aim is to move people towards PC hardware, where customers can access games from various PC stores, it’s fantastic for me as a consumer however I don’t get the business side of it.
The thing Windows Store has going for it is that they currently release their games from multiple publishers (not just Xbox), similar to Steam and Epic.
But this is where the strategy falls down for me, as if Steam is available on the new Xbox hardware I see the majority of people buying their games there, so why will devs continue to support a version for Windows Store?
In addition some PC stores like Epic make their games (Fortnite and Rocket League) exclusive to their PC store.
EA also has their own store for individuals to access their subscription (EA Play) and I wouldn’t be surprised if they made their PC games exclusive to their PC store going forward.
Steam and GOG also have games exclusive to their PC stores.
Personally what I see happening is even more fragmentation where all these publishers make their own PC stores, with their own exclusives and their own subscriptions to ensure they keep as much of their own cash as possible.
This right here is WHY so many users are cynical about this strategy as a whole. We have yet to see next gen hardware, which would do wonders to calm many down, and all we have seen are theories and guesses as to what a technical leap is without any real clue as to what that entails and is mostly just wishful thinking at this point. Also Steam store alongside the other pc stores would cannibilize sales of the Xbox store as many would switch to that pc ones in a heartbeat.
Seems like many don’t see this issue of Xbox store being relevant, which is a shame, its a travesty that Xbox is willing themselves into a corner that could put them in ruin and screw many users of Xbox over.
Also saw someone posted this comment awhile ago and i think is valid for this thread, so bear with me as i show it:
Consumer loyalty and sentiment does take consideration when making business decisions. You don’t want to alienate 10 of your highest spenders on your platform to acquire 10 causal customers on another platform that may only buy 1 to 2 games a year. All of this has to be weighed and you don’t want to be shortsighted in your decision-making. I’m sure they have people that run analytics to determine the potential gain and fallout to help with their choices about when and where they put the first-party games. Xbox still made a profit, and they are definitely playing the long game in this situation.
I do wonder if Xbox is taking considerations about what NOT to do towards its customers currently, cause this is a point i think they shoulld try and make a point to do. Cause reliance on JUST the Data they got is not smart, other venues need to be explore before just using the data as its main reasoning.
I don’t know why I’m unable to quote posts to respond so apologies for not having the quotes above.
Jesse mentioned in quite a few posts above that xbox believe they’ve got 30m locked in
And couple of posts above someone mentioned Xbox not looking at what not to do.
And honestly I’m coming at this from the point of someone that just likes buying all the consoles, I’m not glooming I like the discussion
My worry would be Xbox believing they’ve got the 30m locked in and not considering what not to do for the 30m and just basically taking them from granted. That’s where if pushed too hard that anger becomes apathy and apathy towards anything isn’t good.
If people stop caring then that’s when people stop investing whether it be gamepass or the console etc
The games line up is enough at the moment but as more & more changes occur people may just think I’ll just get the PS6 and buy the odd few games I like.
Yes that may still make money from the games sales but the brand isn’t cared about and fades
I think we’ve already seen that Gamepass isn’t the hook some people believed it was going to be. I mean if it was going to shift hardware we would have seen that already when it was much cheaper. So no, what I see happening it’s simple math: after the acquisitions, Xbox’s publishing division became a bigger revenue stream than Xbox’s console division… and also a big expense as well that needs revenue from every box platform out there.
Usually this would be curtains for Xbox as a console maker but honestly looking at the PlayStation side of things and how they’re getting very, very greedy (the PS5 Pro’s price is a joke), I suspect the doom mongering about Xbox’s death might not be taking the overall market health into consideration in their forecasts. What I mean by this is the PS6 might be an underpowered and equally expensive toy. So as an Xbox user… I don’t exactly see myself jumping over to the Sony side anytime soon.
And PC isn’t a substitute either. I’m not going to buy an expensive rig just to play video games or hook up with my TV in the living room.
I think it could be more like Android and Apple on the phones. The console won’t come with Steam, but you will be able to probably download Steam, and I would think there would be some cut maybe platform fees that Microsoft takes for the stores. In any case it would be optional, I also think it won’t be just Steam but many others if not all like all this publisher stores like EPIC, RIOT, some maybe from China many of which don’t release games on the Steam platform. Who knows if it takes off it could usher competition between the stores.
There’s also the chance it could be just the way it is now on the Xbox app. I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to make it work for them financially, they might even be in talks to buy Steam.
To be fair they’ve taken things for granted before.
They thought the entire X360 era were going to love the Xbox One along with their new strategies (that turned out well didn’t it?!).
I often see people saying they are a trillion dollar business and have the best consultants so they know what they’re doing, however they forget:
Windows Phone
Zune
Microsoft Band
Windows RT / Surface RT
Windows 8 / Vista
Groove Music / MSN Music
Microsoft Bob
Kin Phone
Windows Live Space
Cortana
Microsoft/MSN Soapbox
MSN TV
Cortana
Microsoft Tablet PC
Microsoft Mappoint
Microsoft Silverlight
MSN Autos
And the sad part is that I’m likely missing loads more.
They are making Game Pass work in overdrive for you, giving you discounts, perks, Play Anywhere and Cloud rights to their games. How are they taking you for granted. They aren’t providing these features for other platforms. Now they’re saying they will be working on new hardware that will be the differentiator for them. I’m really not sure what you want them to do. People said just come out and say it they did, and the complaints just got more.
If there is something specific you guys need to say it. To me the Dev Direct showing was for the fans and the amount of quality games that will be showing up on Game Pass is staggering.
The issue with this example is that most stores are currently blocked on Apple and Android (hence the recent legal battle with Epic), also for the few that are allowed they make it very difficult for the average consumer to install/use and restrict payments, therefore it’s unlikely MS would take the same approach.
Also assuming it’s PC how do they handle PC store exclusives. For example Fortnite (one of the biggest games in the world) has to be accessed via the Epic Store? Using my examples above what if the other publishers also start doing this? It seems to be a repeat of the console exclusives.
IF MS were to somehow acquire Steam (near impossible IMO) I think there would be a much better chance of them pulling this off, however Steam would never be approved by regulators.
What i want honestly is a bit of a clear message for users of the ecosystem can get behind. Most are feeling discouraged about buying anything in the store mostly cause they fear its not long for this world and its a fear that i think is justified given what Hue said above about the amount of stuff Microsoft axed in recent years without giving it a chance to thrive.
Also there is this apathatic attidude that am currently seeing in many users and that is not a good sign for the future of the ecosystem. You just don’t want that feeling to be had if you are a platform holder.
This is what i mean. So unless they come up with a genuine thing for folks to remain within the ecosystem that is outside just gamepass then they are royally screwed, cause playstation rather die than port any games to xbox while they port to nintendo, who is also in their own little world. They are not taking into consideration what the average consumer of Xbox is thinking and i will say most will pivot to pc handheld once next gen comes and Xbox does the whole 2013 speech again. Cause that turned out well for most folks here right?
I mean we’ve recently seen SE & Sega pretty much come out and say those days are gone, so I doubt we’ll see moneyhats for anything particularly big going forwards. I’d wager outside of things like Stellar Blade, where the makers needed financial help, or partnering with a studio like Kojima Productions, Sony throwing their money around won’t amount to much.
They still cater to their 30 million userbase though with continued BC support, an amazing line of accessories that is unmatched in my opinion, the Xbox Live Network, and of course Game Pass and cloud offering along with the Play Anywhere initiative.
As long as I have all of that I’ll stay Xbox for as long as they produce hardware. I might change some stuff, like getting the handheld and just gaming on PC rest of the time, but I’d still stay in their ecosystem for sure.
Gamepass is a lot more than 1st party, several big 3rd party games in their day 1 all the time. It’s value beyond what Sony is willing to offer to me.
I think the message is clear enough. It’s also why I said be clear what you are asking. They are not leaving the industry. Even if they stopped hardware for Nextgen they will still support your library on other device isn’t this what the this is an Xbox campaign was all about.
Indeed, I however am not expecting them to follow suit but for the design to be similar. Xbox, Epic and many others are fighting to be able to put their stores on these devices not necessarily to change its structure and I would expect similar.
I still think it will be a console. If it’s a PC I expect they will keep the status quo and handle it the way they are right now.
I’m sure Epic would love it if it were the only way to access their game, that is through their own store. RIOT games and many of the big games do this and even some like Ubisoft and EA were trying to stand on their own not too long ago. To me like you said these publishers would love to stand on their own assuming they can get a big enough userbase maybe even Xbox would like that. It would be platform wars, and the effects would be felt by Sony. In my mind there are just too many scenarios that I honestly can settle with one.
The Steam thing might be a possibility with the current governments around the world definitely would have been impossible with the last one.
. Maybe someone should create EAEra and TakeTwoEra 
.