How do they know what Sony/Nintendo have sold?
They have access to much more detailed daily sales reports than we do. I'm sure they keep tabs on the competition. Not sure exactly how the data comes to them, but they certainly have the means to get it when necessary.
So, Yusuf Mehdi is now the xbox chief and not Phil spencer?
Yusuf just said, that digital is the future of games. And, IMHO he IS right in that regard.
Just look at the PC Market, PC retail gaming is almost dead. Now look at EÁ Access, which is, according to EA, a success. And now look at currentgen consoles, digitale sales are 30% sales vs. 70 % sales in just over a year.
No, that's not what the problem is with the statement. Nor does he need to be the Xbox Chief - he is representing the company as someone in a high level position and these people are all given guidelines as to what the company line is on any given issue. He may have gone "off message" or not, but there's no way to tell.
But the issue is not that he believes digital games is the future (and that wasn't the issue with XBO either - it was all the ways it went about doing it, which had offensive DRM, disgusting limitations that had nothing to do with being digital and everything to do with trying to fuck consumers, etc), but that he believes the reason gamers rejected the original XBO concept is because they didn't "explain" it properly or didn't have enough time to. Not only did they have endless chances to explain it to us, but it was genuinely the most ill communicated reveal in the history of gaming. They literally had like 20 different stories about every feature that the system was supposed to have. And when the finally coalesced around a single idea, gamers rejected it because it was shit.
It wasn't an issue with people not "understanding." No matter how long they explained it we still would have rejected it, because it was garbage and the trade-off for what we were losing for it was simply comically wrong. I know there will be people who still plant their flag there, but that's the truth. The fact that we still have high level people within Microsoft trying to convince us we just didn't
understand the concept is fucked up and insulting.
It contributes to why people remain hesitant about Microsoft. That's just the reality.
Also, the ID@XBOX parity clause is not anti-customer. lol One could argue, that this is the exact opposite. They want new and unique games on xbox. not lastgen ports over and over again... also, I don't think that the majority of Gamers, don't even know what that is, and don't even care about indie games.
indie games are great, but the MASSES don't care about indie games.
Seriously, stop gobbling the company line. It's ridiculous. EVERY fucking indie that has gone on record about the clause has said it is a horrible, hurtful policy. Every. Single. Indie.
On top of that, of course it's anti-consumer. It's an attempt to fuck the gamers on PS4 because they were too fucking behind on their courting of indies that Sony basically dominated the field.
And if you think it's so altruistic thing that is going to help XBO gamers, think again. PS4 now has over double the indies committed to developing games for it than XBO. PS4 has over 20+ rated 80 or higher metacritic indie titles that are not on XBO and as far as we know will never be. PS4 has almost double the amount of actual indie games announced for it.
So, to recap, this factually hurtful indie policy has caused:
1. Massively less indie games for XBO gamers
2. More hardship for indie devs
3. A few delays for some PS4 indies, all because Microsoft doesn't want to accept they were late to the table. So fuck you PS4 consumers!
4. Massively less indie devs for XBO
5. As a result of less indie games, less revenue from indie games for Microsoft
Who is benefiting again? I'll wait.
Edit: I also want to reinforce precisely how silly it is to even use popularity here when discussing how wrong a policy is. Many gamers being willfully ignorant about an entire category of games that could be literally anything (people saying "I hate indies" are just joke characters for this reason) does not change how bad the policy is.
Also, regarding TV. when did they cancel anything regarding TV? I just bought the TV Tuner, which is great. Streaming TV to all kinds of devices on my home and even multiple devices at ONCE. Or are you talking about TV Series from xbox Entertainment Studios? This was the right step and has nothing to do with xbox, because everyone can watch that garbage. The TV Features of the xbox one are still present and well supported, mini-guide, oneguide and digital tv tuner etc..
Microsoft finally closes Xbox Entertainment TV Studios.
All you're describing is TV pass through tv guide shit. Right from the start they claimed these unique TV presence would not just be what you're describing, but a wealth of developed and curated TV entertainment meant to make the experience unique. I have my own TV guide shit that is five hundred infinity times superior to XBO, so the feature is useless to me and I won't be using it when I do get my XBO. But even for those who wanted it, I was referring to their TV entertainment wing.