CNBC: Xbox is losing the console race by miles. It’s part of Microsoft’s big gaming pivot
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Tobimacoss
Member
You should learn the difference between an "open platform" and "open-sourced".
I never said it is Open Sourced, but it is an "open platform" in terms of commerce and distribution. Steam and other PC stores wouldn't exist if Windows wasn't an open platform.
Magnus will be closed bootloader, very locked down in terms of security, but only open for competition.
bitbydeath
Member
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Possibly true? Their margins were around 12% back when Sony was around 6 or 7% three years ago
Sony is back to around 15%. Now that parasyte Nutella's took of the mask wouldn't suprise me if Xbox is getting closer to 20% with all the layoffs, fuck all hardware sales etc
But who knows with their FP flops, COD underperforming etc
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Setsuna Mudou
Member
There should be a thread (sticky to the top of the forum) with the worst takes ever on GAF... both those would be strong contenders, and the fact they are in the same post is absolute cinema
Daneel Elijah
Member
Those numbers are estimates from VGChartz . Microsoft sadly still do not give any data on their console sales. Honestly this article show a pretty good understanding of Xbox right now for a mainstream media. Curious to see how Xbox will react in the next few months. If they sold so few consoles now, what will they do when the holidays end?
Donald mac Ronald
Member
Everytime we sell a game on playstation they take 30%. They use that 30% to undermine us.
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rm082e
Gold Member
Eh, I don't know that I do.
Could another business come along and give Valve competition? I think the answer is yes. The reason that seems almost impossible is simple: Valve is a privately owned business. Because they are privately owned, they don't have to chase the easy money quarter over quarter like a public corporation (Microsoft), or a company that's got investors pressuring them to make bigger and bigger returns (Epic). That pressure from shareholders or investors is what leads the management of big companies to ruin their products/services by trying to squeeze the customers/users too much. Just look at what's happened with Windows 11 as an example
There's nothing legally stopping Microsoft or Epic from retooling their businesses to be like Valve. But neither Microsoft or Epic are going to do that because it would be a huge undertaking, and they wouldn't hit their revenue/profit targets. That's not a lack of fairness in the industry - it's a choice by Valve's competitors on how they want to build their business.
I don't think they can realistically do anything to disrupt Steam's dominance.
PC gamers have chosen Steam (and GOG to a much lesser extent) because a pro-consumer attitude is of the highest importance to them. PC gamers were vilified by gaming publishers as a bunch of pirates and treated like a criminal class from the late 90s up through the late 2000s. The publishers torched their relationship with PC gamers, and Valve saw an opportunity to step in and be the good guy. It was only after Steam became a juggernaut that the publishers realized that Steam was a way to sell their games. Valve has had their hic-ups along the way, like when they wanted to create a marketplace and allow users to charge money for mods. But they've gotten it right better than 90% of the time.
Microsoft and Epic have no credibility with PC gamers. Microsoft is currently ruining Windows and pushing AI garbage that gamers mostly hate. Their out-of-touch executives keep putting their foot in their mouth in interviews. Sweeny isn't as bad, but whenever he talks it's clear he's not far off. PC gamers aren't going to trust either of these companies. Because they don't trust them, they won't support them, nor do they have any responsibility to support them.
asdasdasdbb
Member
For good reason. And Valve found the solution - GAAS. I remain convinced Valve doesn't make much off of non-GAAS, and that's why nobody else can really challenge them. There isn't much of a market.
Plus, I'm pretty sure MS can't make their PC games exclusive to an MS Store because of ABK agreements.
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This was all just part of the 5d grandmaster chess plan.
bender
What time is it?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Two of the shittiest stores combining to take on the two best and try to force them to open up to the loser's strategy to weaken them?
I await the entertainment with the legal battles from these altruism posers.
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Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
The only people who still use Xbox are brand loyalists who that's just what they had as a kid/teen, so it's what they stick with.
I don't think it's been bringing in any new audiences in at least a decade.
I don't think it's been bringing in any new audiences in at least a decade.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Is he? Wasn't what I picked up, but maybe I misread.
With MS's trajectory of late not just for Xbox but even Windows as an OS, we shouldn't have much confidence in them putting the right machine together at all.
Well America is undoubtedly Xbox's largest market still, so it's not like the number'd be even 50% higher if including all the non-American markets combined. Xbox sales have absolutely cratered everywhere, even the UK (their other stronghold, traditionally speaking).
It's a disaster.
It could be a half-assed "open" ecosystem for all we know, because we don't know how MS are going to integrate alternative storefronts to the platform.
Also if the cost of the hardware to offset potential loss in B2P, MTX & sub sales to those alternative storefronts is too high, we could argue if the cost of it being an "open platform" was actually worth it or not.
Yeah but I think it'd also depend on when MS actually began pushing for the high margins, no? My thought is, it was somewhat recent, and then you have to factor games like COD just failing to perform this year, negatively impacting whatever they expected their revenue to be which would then also impact their profit margins.
It really doesn't matter to me if their margin target for profit is 30%; when you're getting outsold by a Me Too Kinect in your strongest market, and that Me Too Kinect didn't move anywhere near Nintendo or Sony numbers to begin with (still impressive for its own right I suppose), I have to imagine their profits aren't that high from Xbox.
At least, not this year.
It's from VGChartz?
Well, that means the real number's likely actually lower.
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ZehDon
Member
Well, I do believe the industry is now in full contraction. Huge price increases year after year, lower quality products year after year; it had to come to a head eventually and it looks like we're finally there. Whoever wasn't delivering what the market was willing to pay more for was always going to be eaten alive - and it looks like it was Xbox by a mile. With any industry-wide contraction, closures and consolidations will be the name of the day as the big players desperately try and prop up their balance sheets by cutting the fat and eating their competitors as their number of organic customers shrinks. GTAVI will give them false hope, as it props up the entire industry by itself for a quarter. And then the reality will set back in.
From where I'm standing, next-gen will likely be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It really is lining up for a perfect storm. With RAM prices currently orbiting Neptune, next-gen hardware is looking at USD$1,000.00 minimum across the board. They'll effectively price their customers out entirely, leaving current-gen to limp on for an entire generation as console-gamers hold off on those hugely expensive purchases at a time when disposable income in the industry's strongest markets are approaching multi-decade lows. This means every major title will need to be fully cross-gen if it wants to make back its budget, further disincentivising people from upgrading to new hardware, as more people step away from consoles forever. To make up for the missing customers as the industry permanently contracts, game prices will undoubtably go up, lowering overall sales as the publishers try and milk every last red cent to starve off bad quarterly balance sheets. Layoffs cement the negative cycle as publishers double down on AI to save them. Fewer customers, over-priced hardware, over-priced software, AI slop everywhere. At this point, all I see is the coming crash.
From where I'm standing, next-gen will likely be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It really is lining up for a perfect storm. With RAM prices currently orbiting Neptune, next-gen hardware is looking at USD$1,000.00 minimum across the board. They'll effectively price their customers out entirely, leaving current-gen to limp on for an entire generation as console-gamers hold off on those hugely expensive purchases at a time when disposable income in the industry's strongest markets are approaching multi-decade lows. This means every major title will need to be fully cross-gen if it wants to make back its budget, further disincentivising people from upgrading to new hardware, as more people step away from consoles forever. To make up for the missing customers as the industry permanently contracts, game prices will undoubtably go up, lowering overall sales as the publishers try and milk every last red cent to starve off bad quarterly balance sheets. Layoffs cement the negative cycle as publishers double down on AI to save them. Fewer customers, over-priced hardware, over-priced software, AI slop everywhere. At this point, all I see is the coming crash.
mdkirby
Gold Member
This seems strange given Sony are a major shareholder of epic, owning 5%, and microsoft own nothing. It a bit like how Sony invested the best part of a billion into fromsofts parent company a few years ago, and the only thing to come from it is a spiritual successor to bloodborne as a switch exclusive.
apple_of_enlightenment
Member
Obvious fix:
CNBC: Xbox is losing the console race by miles. It's the cause of Microsoft's big gaming pivot
CNBC: Xbox is losing the console race by miles. It's the cause of Microsoft's big gaming pivot
ByWatterson
Member
Phil is essentially Mikhail Gorbachev. To save a dying system, he made reforms that actually ended up accelerating its demise. Now he's helping create a future of which he obviously won't be part.
I'm absolutely the first to say this and it's brilliant.
Mik-Phil Gorbachev.
I'm absolutely the first to say this and it's brilliant.
Mik-Phil Gorbachev.
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SportsFan581
Member
It might be the right moment for a prebuilt of this type, given the supply chain problems associated with feeding the AI monster. For both MS and Valve, it all depends on the specs and the pricing. And if either of them is willing to pass some of the bulk savings associated with mass-produced goods on to the customer. If you can build a custom system for the same price, both of them are probably in trouble.
If MS is going this route, which they've never explicitly confirmed or denied, you'd have to think that they've accepted their platform in terms of MTX is going to shrink (if other storefronts are supported). I assume they will be, as even the SteamDeck technically supports them, since they give you access to the desktop and anything made for Linux (or Windows through a wrapper) can run on there already.
darrylgorn
Member
Pretty sure MS already acknowledged they are no longer making consoles, so I'm not sure why the media still reports as if they do.
Topher
Identifies as young
I guess you think Microsoft should have been broken up and and sold off years ago because of their operating system monopoly. Actually....the government did try and failed. They had a hell of a lot better case against Microsoft than whatever you a dreaming that they would have on Valve. What you don't understand is that dominating a market is not illegal. Valve is doing nothing wrong and so there is no legal justification for taking any action against them.
But you are right that Microsoft needs to improve their own PC gaming experience. The FSE is a start, but they are very far behind. Funny thing is, Microsoft is really the one that has to be careful and not use their operating system monopoly to stifle competition.
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