They don’t care if it’s ABK or Minecraft. They’re Xbox. It’s MS. They care about money through the door, at the expense of a lot else.
When does Minecraft ‘become’ Xbox? It’s been longer with Xbox than Obsidian, part of ‘Xbox Game Studios’.
Etc etc. They have their hardcore and seem happy to milk it, but their big wide eyes are on the big big pie.
And, after all, none of this stops you buying and playing games. The most sensible place is PC…!
Before ABK Xbox had a yearly revenue of like 16 billion USD. They were consistently making around 15 billion USD every year with gradual increases even in dead years like 2022. And Xbox has had higher revenue than Nintendo since the Xbox One era. Profits aren’t shared, but don’t think they have losses. The problem is that none of this matters. All that matters to shareholders is GROWTH and returns on investment. That’s the problem with late stage capitalism. Xbox is doing better than ever and posting record revenues and you’re right that adjusting for inflation and doing actual profits numbers it’d be less, but it also shouldn’t really matter because regardless the business is making enough money to feed some third world countries. But for shareholders it’s never enough so it’s never enough for us.
Xbox made 16 billion USD? Neat. Now they have to make more next year. Xbox made 17 billion? Make more next year? It was a slow year and we’re back to 15 billion? This is outrageous, it’s unfair. Go fire some people. Xbox got a huge boost to 20 billion USD? Cool. Now go make more. Than that. It’s never ending. And unfortunately that’s bad news for the console market which according to all reports has hit maturity and peaked.
This is a really common problem everywhere. In theory it should be enough that the business is profitable and earning billions but it’s not. I fact we live in an economic structure where success is PUNISHED because it means more money has to be earned the following year. And it is terrible because who is it even for? The 1% can’t even spend it all. And all this comes at the cost of consumers and employees.
It’s probably not a topic suitable for here but I mean with this being everywhere it does feel like people will inevitably hit a breaking point. There’s a lot of anger in the world too right now.
This is certainly getting bigger than they imagined. Xbox certainly could capitalize on this in a huge way.
Thanks, @realDonaldTrump!! https://t.co/zlkSrvHNph
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 1, 2025
I do seriously find it interesting how this is being reporting, because the implication (by everyone focusing on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate increase) is that everyone or most everyone was on Ultimate. Otherwise premium is the same price as standard but with more benefits (it’s really just the Ultimate tier from five years ago just with first party year instead of day one). And the problem with core is that they got rid of the yearly discount. Does everyone actually care about Ultimate that much? Is most of GP subscribd to Ultimate? Either would be very interesting if true.
I do believe we had heard that like 80% or something like that were subscribed to Ultimate. Realistically, if you take away Day 1 games, it becomes a lot less interesting. Why pay for Premium if by the time the game gets added to the service, I could buy it at a huge discount?
Personally for me, if you take away Day 1, all of those subscription services become pretty much useless as waiting a year and buying at 50-75% off becomes much more interesting. At that point just get a PC so you don’t even need essential to play online, stream from your PC when you need to, and buy on steam sales.
The moment that PC hardware comes out with BC, that’s probably the day I make the full switch personally. As an adult, you get less and less time to play, so as the service becomes more expensive, the reality is that it becomes less and less worth it. Like if I get Fortnite crew, I barely have time to play per evening to finish my battle pass and get all the skins. Why would I pay double the price for stuff I don’t even have time to use.
Or what you’ll see is a lot more people getting a month or 2, then cancelling, then subscribing again.
So right now the development team is working on porting Rebirth to the Nintendo Switch 2 platform, and we are also working on developing the third game in the FF7 Remake project. So those two are going in tandem at the same time, but as for the third instalment, we do have designated teams working on each platform specifically. Our multiplatform approach will not impact development.
For Nintendo Switch 2 in particular, the development of both Rebirth and the third instalment are going very smoothly.
As for the Xbox version, like many other publishers, we did see some issues with the lack of memory [on the Series S] platform compared to the other platforms. As for the Switch 2 version, we actually have the main dev team working really hard on it, I think as a result, we are really confident in the end product.
Console players, PlayStation and Xbox, will continue to be really important to us. But when we look at the current market landscape, we look at the specs for the Switch 2, Steam Deck, the handheld devices are getting stronger and stronger, and really getting comparable to the consoles, like PS5 and Xbox. So we do want to keep our focus on the consoles too, but we want to keep the handheld devices and their audiences in mind too.
Struggles with S, unfortunately. Hopefully we’re not looking at a Wukong situation here because Jesus, the wait for these games is insane as it is.
Considering he says the main team is on the Switch 2, the struggle seems to be more about allocating resources.
Hopefully they sort it out and both S2 and Xbox versions can release simultaneously. I do get that they put more focus on the version that especially in Japan will sell way, waaaaaay more. Don’t like it, but do get it. Yeah, it doesn’t sound like a situation similar to Wukong, gladly.
I’m not saying that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate being most the subscribers is impossible, but it just seems unlikely to me, I assumed most were the gold members that were converted. To core.
Anyway, yeah it seems like Microsoft wants to convert their gamers to a more PC like Platforms. We’ll see how successful they are and if they can pull off promises of backwards compatability or bringing the ecosystem together.
Completely agree on capitalism gone rogue / late stage, had a few rants about it myself.
The last time it got this rampant and inequality this high we had revolutions, the rise of unions and welfare / healthcare safety nets started (plus some really bad stuff that resulted in some pretty huge wars).
This time it’s like the rich classes have learnt, so they’re using every lever at their disposal to ensure the blame goes everywhere but them and nothing interrupts their incessant need for growth - especially piddling things like democracy or decency.
So until something happens (and I fear if it did, it wouldn’t be pretty) we’re stuck with never-ending demands for growth and higher wealth extraction from the rest of us to pay for it - all the while, media and marketing ensure people want the most expensive option rather than the value one, meaning the money men learn if you can’t beat them, join them.
I’ve no doubt PlayStation could offer $20k gold-plated PS5 Ultras and the narrative would be gaming is a luxury and if you can’t afford it you shouldn’t be gaming, while continuing to lecture that Game Pass is simultaneously losing yet hurting gaming and is greedy with price rises…
(Not that I completely disagree with the last bit of that narrative, Microsoft are being greedy and demanding higher prices because they can and shareholders want it)
Ok ,this one felt like work. Holy shit this was a big one.
The last job from the Warhammer DLC for Powerwash Simulator.
Yep lol I had to clamber all over that bloody thing…
But damn do I love making it all clean!
Wish cleaning in real life was even 10% as fun lol
That’s probably my least favorite out of all the jobs. That and the hand statue.
Refresh my memory, what was the hand statue again?
I do voluntary cleaning work at the gym here. Mainly using the vacuum cleaner, and cleaning the machines and dressing room and I genuinely enjoy it. The vibe and people there are great too, that helps a lot as well.
I do wonder if using a actual Powerwash cleaner is as fun as the game makes it seem, haha.
It was one of the later ones from the main game. It was a big stone hand in the desert and you had to crawl underneath the curled fingers. It was a nightmare in the original version of the game where you had to hunt for every last speck of dirt. It’s much easier to clean now, but back then it was a pain trying to clean under those fingers. 
Preordered the Xbox ROG Ally $650 after tax.
God I’m part of the problem aren’t I? 
Xbox just going to milk us last remaining fans for all we’re worth.
There is limits with everyone, fans included, microsft is gonna feel that sooner rather than later.
