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[mckmas8808]

The no question that MS will be out of gaming very soon.

They have to see that they have much better opportunities for their $$$ elsewhere. Its almost incomprehensible that they dont come to this conclusion imo. And sooner rather than later. They have a lot of assets to sell off and would get a sizable amount to invest into something else.

I don't think people on GAF or in the video game world have truly considered how far away the release of Microsoft's Xbox Magnus is from now either. They will 100% talk about Magnus and probably show it off this year, but it releasing in the Holiday of 2027 (assuming it's late 2027 and not Summer), means that they have to go through these terrible numbers for another 7 quarters, or almost 2 full years.

And what's going to happen once more and more Xbox fans realize that Magnus is coming? Or when the GabeCube goes on sale this year (2026) and beats Magnus to the punch first?

 

[Steve Holt]

We know that Xbox is nearing PlayStation's revenue figures, and PlayStation is only ahead because they sell a ton of loss leading hardware. We can safely say Xbox is more profitable than PlayStation at this point.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

Titular de Business Insider:

 

[Topher]

We know that Xbox is nearing PlayStation's revenue figures, and PlayStation is only ahead because they sell a ton of loss leading hardware. We can safely say Xbox is more profitable than PlayStation at this point.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

I don't think people on GAF or in the video game world have truly considered how far away the release of Microsoft's Xbox Magnus is from now either. They will 100% talk about Magnus and probably show it off this year, but it releasing in the Holiday of 2027 (assuming it's late 2027 and not Summer), means that they have to go through these terrible numbers for another 7 quarters, or almost 2 full years.

And what's going to happen once more and more Xbox fans realize that Magnus is coming? Or when the GabeCube goes on sale this year (2026) and beats Magnus to the punch first?

Year 2027??? No.

Year 2029 o 2030

 

[Nydius]

Negative hardware revenue was a deliberate strategy from MS to increase operating profit. The CFO even suggested it was a tactic used alongside layoffs.

A "deliberate strategy" for two-thirds of the total lifetime of the console, to date?

You are beyond all hope and reason. Xbox is fucking dead. No amount of deeply inhaled copium or fanciful mental gymnastics can change this fact. They bought one of the largest studios on the planet and have turned it into a loss.

 

[Hector Hall]

Sure

Half-Life Reviews

Half-Life combines great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King with intense action and advanced technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players need to think smart to survive. Half-Life has won more than 50 Game of the Year awards from publications around the world...

www.metacritic.com

Half-Life 2 Reviews

[Metacritic's 2004 PC Game of the Year] By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to...

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Half-Life 2: Episode One Reviews

Half-Life 2: Episode One is an all-new episode created by Valve that extends the Half-Life 2 single player adventure. The player reprises his role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, who must immediately face the repercussions of his actions in City 17 and the Citadel. Freeman reconnects with Alyx Vance and...

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Half-Life 2: Episode Two Reviews

Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the second in a trilogy of new games created by Valve that extends the award-winning and best-selling Half-Life adventure. As Dr. Gordon Freeman, you were last seen exiting City 17 with Alyx Vance as the Citadel erupted amidst a storm of unknown proportions. In...

www.metacritic.com

Half-Life: Alyx Reviews

Half-Life: Alyx is Valve's VR return to the Half-Life series. It's the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity's only chance for survival. The Combine's control of...

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Portal Reviews

Portal is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay. The game is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate, and...

www.metacritic.com

Portal 2 Reviews

Valve is working on a full-length sequel to its award-winning, mind-bending puzzle action game for the Xbox 360 and PC.

www.metacritic.com

Left 4 Dead Reviews

Fight together...or die alone. A new and highly virulent strain of the rabies virus emerges and spreads through the human population with frightening speed. The pandemic's victims become grotesquely disfigured, wildly violent psychopaths, attacking the uninfected on sight. One of the "lucky" few...

www.metacritic.com

Left 4 Dead 2 Reviews

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead. This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive...

www.metacritic.com

Team Fortress 2 Reviews

Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is the sequel to the game that put class-based, multiplayer team warfare on the map. TF2 delivers new gametypes, a signature art style powered by Valve’s next generation animation technology, persistent player statistics, and more. Unlike other "class-based" games that...

www.metacritic.com

It's incredible to see how their games reach almost always 90+ on MC

Yeah, and it's also incredible that nearly all those are 20+ years old.

 

[NickFire]

Hiroo Onoda - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[An Corp]

I truly don't believe there's really any way for Microsoft or Xbox to come back from this. Xbox is deader than SEGA at this point. New hardware isn't going to do anything for them, especially at the price that's rumored and especially if Steam Machine releases this year.

This is the Xbox we all expected when Microsoft first introduced the concept of a MS game console. It just took a bit of time for them to show their true colors.

What an absolute mess.

 

[Humdinger]

It was 100% irrelevant. They had an amazing quarter profit wise. It was the fact that investors are worried about the gazillion of dollars they've invested into data centers and when they will stat to see a return on that money. Also Azure growth slowed to a paltry 38%. These investors are focused on AI and its infrastructure, not gaming.

I think MS invested almost $70B on data centers that quarter alone. And it's not looking like they are up to par with the competition in the AI race.

The gif was meant humorously, dude. It's not serious.

I understand larger factors are at work in the general stock market pullback. I disagree that MS gaming results are 100% irrelevant to their own quarterly results or the reaction to them, though. They're part of the picture.

 

[Signalis]

 

[Ecotic]

Microsoft's board will see the company at risk of falling behind in A.I. where it matters, I'm sure they're having discussions of shedding Xbox/Microsoft gaming and "getting back to core competencies". It's hard to right the ship when you also have the gaming division in need of saving too, it's a major distraction.

The problem is, how do they shed the division? There's no obvious buyer, except maybe the Saudis. Maybe spin the whole division off under one giant corporation, Activision-Blizzard-King+plus all the rest. It could be embarrassing though if they have to IPO that corporation for less than they paid for just ABK a few years ago.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

But Phil Spencer is a genius.

Thread 'Which of Phil Spencer’s visionary initiatives are you the biggest fan of?'

Tuesday at 6:34 PM

Phil Spencer is a genius. A gaming visionary. A pioneering businessman.

He has so many amazing ideas for the future of games and the industry.

Which one of his many contributions do you like the most?

Of course, Phillip Spencer has done a lot more than just these things; for this question I decided to specifically stick to initiatives that were central to Xbox press conferences. You know "every game we show will launch on Game Pass" "every game we show will be Play Anywhere" "every game we show uses Smart Delivery" that sort of thing

• LakeOf9
• Replies: 112
• Forum: Gaming Discussion

• 
• 
• 

 

[EN250]

Great take. It seemingly has to be repeated consistently. Playstation was and still is, built on third party games and relationships.

Their first party games have never been the main reason, why their consoles are so successful. First party is a reason, not the reason. IMO.

Well, maybe they should try, like they did back on the PS3 era making banger after banger to turn things around and establishing the foundation of the PS4 success

What happens when Nintendo playing the long game of waiting for absolute diminishing returns sets in so hard that no matter how much power Sony throws at their fixed HW, the jump is not noticeable enough for people to care and buy a PS6/7/8? By that point Nintendo can get all the revenue from their exclusives and snatch the multiplat crown to Sony since there won't be this huge power difference in graphics and Sony will not longer be the house for third party games and be relegated to a mere 3rd party publisher for Steam

 

[mckmas8808]

It depends on the market
Games targeting East, where Sony tries to carve piece of market from PC - games tends to have the same 1yr lockdown even on PC (FF7R2, FF16, Stellar Blade). Games targeting West where PC and consoles have a low competition are day1 on PC

Outside of Live Service games, where is Sony showing that they'll be doing this in the West?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Hiroo Onoda - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I damned near spit out my tea I was sipping on.

 

[archangelmorph]

"We've shrunk the gaming business by ~9%..."

"We expect it to shrink further by ~15-25% over the next two quarters..."

"But hey! At least we hit our 30% operating margins!"

 

[Darkness_Arises]

Microsoft's board will see the company at risk of falling behind in A.I. where it matters, I'm sure they're having discussions of shedding Xbox/Microsoft gaming and "getting back to core competencies". It's hard to right the ship when you also have the gaming division in need of saving too, it's a major distraction.

The problem is, how do they shed the division? There's no obvious buyer, except maybe the Saudis. Maybe spin the whole division off under one giant corporation, Activision-Blizzard-King+plus all the rest. It could be embarrassing though if they have to IPO that corporation for less than they paid for just ABK a few years ago.

The Saudis have started aggressively cutting back on investments, so they are out. It is too expensive and risky in the current climate and MS will take a significant loss if they try to sell off ActiBlizzKing now.

 

[mckmas8808]

Copilot is just shit. I use AI heavily, primarily for research (personal and professional), and copilot has sent me down the wrong path so many times that I literally end the session cussing it out. Microsoft can try to force it down people's throat all they want but they are not doing themselves any favors when their AI is more A than I.

Is there a reason as to why you aren't using the ChatGPT option within Co-Pilot as the preferred model to use?

 

[Nonehxc]

Cracko the Clown has seen better days

 

[Baemono]

Welp 36 notifications for this thread alone, I was like « what the hell did I say ? »

 

[reezoo]

The strategy is working.

 

[Loboxxx]

Where are the executives taking responsibility for these devastating results? Are only regular workers being laid off?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Where are the executives taking responsibility for these devastating results? Are only regular workers being laid off?

That's the idea

 

[Nydius]

I don't think people on GAF or in the video game world have truly considered how far away the release of Microsoft's Xbox Magnus is from now either. They will 100% talk about Magnus and probably show it off this year, but it releasing in the Holiday of 2027 (assuming it's late 2027 and not Summer), means that they have to go through these terrible numbers for another 7 quarters, or almost 2 full years.

And what's going to happen once more and more Xbox fans realize that Magnus is coming? Or when the GabeCube goes on sale this year (2026) and beats Magnus to the punch first?

Hell, I think 2027 is extremely optimistic. If "analysts" are already out here crafting the message about the next PlayStation being later than expected, possibly into 2029, due to industry wide factors that also affect Microsoft hardware, I can't imagine Magnus will be around until 2028 at the earliest. With Xbox's marketshare and mindshare already in the tank, who the hell is going to care about a new, higher end, hybrid device by "Xbox" in 24+ months? Especially if it ends up costing a ridiculous amount? Even most of the diehards will have moved on.

As an aside, the hype around the ROG Xbox Ally handheld seems to have completely evaporated after the first two months. It launched to a lot of good sales and industry hype and I have heard and seen almost nothing about it since, except for the holiday price drop on the base model.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Where are the executives taking responsibility for these devastating results? Are only regular workers being laid off?

Another trip to Davos for a round of non-exec layoffs planned!

Wonder who will be playing their private concert this time?

 

[Beechos]

Is anyone surprised? Numbers will continue to drop yoy for a dead platform. People were really expecting it to sell better with like a 25% price premium from its orig launch price with no competitive advantage besides better bc and quick resume?

 

[Topher]

Is there a reason as to why you aren't using the ChatGPT option within Co-Pilot as the preferred model to use?

That's what I'm using except mine is showing GPT-5.1

 

[Klayzer]

what the hell did I say

 

[wolffy66]

Sure it did. Not the only reason, but More Personal computing didn't meet expectations and that's because of gaming.



Quote/link where Amy Hood said that.

Theres very little gaming could do to counter investor worries about their already huge investments into data centers and their concern over future ROI and even further investments.

 

[londontko]

They way the run gaming business.

- Paying influences and shills instead of trying to continue making good games (and Forza Horizon is THE exception and confirms the rule, strangely...)
- Creating a personality CULT instead of a healthty business
- Believing that money, by itself, resolves every problem and can crush any kind of competition
- Trying to change the whole market, deflecting blame and posing as victim when everything fails.

Those points actually seem pretty valid.

I think maybe I'm just missing the perspective. As I've gotten older my preferences have changed and I actually really get behind the general idea of gamepass. I want it to be like a game version of spotify, I feel like the value is incredible for what you have access to every month.

 

[m14]

I really can't see them going much further with this hybrid PC bollocks. That thing isn't going to release.

NeoGAF's Nostradamus strikes again. You were also recently predicting that Fable wouldn't release.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

NeoGAF's Nostradamus strikes again. You were also recently predicting that Fable wouldn't release.

Where's the Xcloud growth?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Where's the Xcloud growth?

 

[Gamer King]

The no question that MS will be out of gaming very soon.

They have a massive first party structure now, it's not easy to sell even if they want.
Microsoft is lefting the traditional console hardware business, not gaming.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Those points actually seem pretty valid.

I think maybe I'm just missing the perspective. As I've gotten older my preferences have changed and I actually really get behind the general idea of gamepass. I want it to be like a game version of spotify, I feel like the value is incredible for what you have access to every month.

Makes sense... but it is a Unsustainable business... there is simply no way a service like that can sustain dozens and dozens at quality games with asks simply too much $$. You can see by the fact that they do not share gamepass metrics for quite a long time.

 

[poppabk]

"We've shrunk the gaming business by ~9%..."

"We expect it to shrink further by ~15-25% over the next two quarters..."

"But hey! At least we hit our 30% operating margins!"

That's not as dumb as you think. UPS for example are currently deliberately cutting out Amazon, who was their biggest customer - like 20% of their volume - because they would rather focus on higher margins on smaller revenue (at the cost of 10s of thousands of jobs of course).

 

[panda-zebra]

Microsoft's board will see the company at risk of falling behind in A.I. where it matters, I'm sure they're having discussions of shedding Xbox/Microsoft gaming and "getting back to core competencies". It's hard to right the ship when you also have the gaming division in need of saving too, it's a major distraction.

They can easily make a case for gaming's AI future which would sound just as plausible as any other bullshit AI future revolution, so probably not. They think they have a missing piece of the puzzle and it seems to fit (despite being upside-down and ketchup-stained). Spencer's lot have convinced Nadella that AI will be churning out games for fun and their wealth of IP means there's a billion pots of gold just over there at the end of the rainbow. Gotta be something like that at this point.

Just the latest raising of the stakes from Spencer et al, making himself/themselves and the division impossible to shed, like a leech that keeps on sucking no matter how fat it gets as it whispers intoxicating tales of mountains of money to be made. Own the living room before Sony do - lol. TVTVTV/The next watercooler - forget the existing console base, we want 400 million. Cloud gaming on devices people already own? There's 2 billion gamers to target now. Let's buy half the industry and have them subscribe... and so on. Always upping the ante and ignoring how wide of the mark they were the last time.

Just see very little chance of Nadella letting gaming slip through his bony digits when Spencer's starry-eyed picture of $$$$ potential is all he sees. The indispencerable God-tier grifter.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Hey, gotta back up my man Ass of Can Whooping

 

[wolffy66]

They have a massive first party structure now, it's not easy to sell even if they want.
Microsoft is lefting the traditional console hardware business, not gaming.

It wouldn't be difficult to sell studios. They could break them however they wish or just heavily discount them. It just doesn't make any sense for them financially

 

[m14]

Where's the Xcloud growth?

I wasn't the originator of that discussion.

 

[Lionel Richie]

It wouldn't be difficult to sell studios. They could break them however they wish or just heavily discount them. It just doesn't make any sense for them financially

And tank the losses? I think they'd just nuke the studios and hoard the IPs, licensing them when applicable. You know, not too dissimilar from Konami.

 

[Gamer King]

It wouldn't be difficult to sell studios. They could break them however they wish or just heavily discount them. It just doesn't make any sense for them financially

Why doesn't? They're a big publisher and can make money being that.

 

[Topher]

Theres very little gaming could do to counter investor worries about their already huge investments into data centers and their concern over future ROI and even further investments.

You're probably right. COD doesn't really measure up to that stuff. Too much of a gamer perspective, I guess.

 

[drian_vanden]

Hypothetically, it's crazy to imagine what Microsoft would had delivered during the Series generation so far, if they hadn't been able buying out Zenimax and ActivisionBlizzardKing.

 

[OLED_Gamer]

Hell, I think 2027 is extremely optimistic. If "analysts" are already out here crafting the message about the next PlayStation being later than expected, possibly into 2029, due to industry wide factors that also affect Microsoft hardware, I can't imagine Magnus will be around until 2028 at the earliest. With Xbox's marketshare and mindshare already in the tank, who the hell is going to care about a new, higher end, hybrid device by "Xbox" in 24+ months? Especially if it ends up costing a ridiculous amount? Even most of the diehards will have moved on.

As an aside, the hype around the ROG Xbox Ally handheld seems to have completely evaporated after the first two months. It launched to a lot of good sales and industry hype and I have heard and seen almost nothing about it since, except for the holiday price drop on the base model.

This here. Depends on how long the RAM and SSD cost increases go on for. Xbox wants to make a more powerful box, but how much can the market stomach in terms of cost?

 

[LordCBH]

Lawd bots on Twitter are in denial.

"35 million units sold is really good actually." Lol

 

[DeepEnigma]

Lawd bots on Twitter are in denial.

"35 million units sold is really good actually." Lol

What happened to tHiRtY sEvEn almost a year ago?

 

[mckmas8808]

That's what I'm using except mine is showing GPT-5.1

Dang! I'm like you with my reasons to use it, but GPT5.2 is workable. I still rather use Grok and Gemini though, but my job has banned those to be used on our network since we are a Microsoft house.

Those points actually seem pretty valid.

I think maybe I'm just missing the perspective. As I've gotten older my preferences have changed and I actually really get behind the general idea of gamepass. I want it to be like a game version of spotify, I feel like the value is incredible for what you have access to every month.

Yes, it's great value for you the consumer. But it's horrible for the business. It's a money loser.

That's not as dumb as you think. UPS for example are currently deliberately cutting out Amazon, who was their biggest customer - like 20% of their volume - because they would rather focus on higher margins on smaller revenue (at the cost of 10s of thousands of jobs of course).