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European Monthly Charts March 2023 | Console hardware sales were up 67% driven by PS5 (up 369%)

MasterCornholio

MasterCornholio

Member
Topher said:
Perfect storm really. I'm not much of a Jim Ryan fan, but I would be if I were a Sony stockholder.
Click to expand...

I don't look at him as a gamer though. He's just a business man who is able to pull good numbers for Sony. That's all that's really required from him. He doesn't need to produce a ton of interviews or talk about games to make that happen.

With that said I'm grateful for Sonys output. I've enjoyed the heck out of my PS5 and I'll continue to enjoy it in the future.
 
ByWatterson

ByWatterson

Member
Over and over I'll say I really like my Series X and Gamepass but....

Microsoft would be better off publishing everything on every platform, pushing PC Gamepass, and Cloud Gaming.

Like...Xbox just isn't going to REALLY take off globally as a console platform. I feel like we know that now.
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
MasterCornholio said:
And that supply magic. I have no idea how Sony managed to improve it so much.
Click to expand...
I think this is the bigger story.

Sony said Jan - Mar 2022 PS5 stock was gonna be very low, that lasted until Jun 2022.
MS said Aug 2022 or Sept 2022 thru the rest of 2022.

I said at the start of this year right before Sony's first financial report we're gonna see who was able to recover from their low stock situation better.

Even if we recognize MS said the same thing ......and were telling the truth.....and use Sept...its now 7 months, will be 8 months in May. Sony's low stock situation ended at 6 months.

Meanwhile Series S has been on shelves the entire time...PS5 just started being seen on shelves a few months ago.

That alone should be concerning. No matter how much better Series stock gets, I dont see PS5 stock getting worse.
 
tmlDan

tmlDan

Member
DenchDeckard said:
No average consumer is thinking this far ahead. This is purely the Harry Potter effect and how Sony has literally planted themselves with their marketing as the place to buy these games.
Click to expand...
i said ads, learn to read - when Wolverine and Spiderman are in your ads you don't need to do any research or thinking. You just buy. Even if its for Miles or Spiderman 1.

Currently wolverine isn't at the forefront but it will help continue this momentum.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
It's taken me a while to think about this, but I think I have a theory for what's happening with Xbox in Europe. See, it's not really about the Series X or even Series S themselves. We can say Series S doesn't have a lot of demand, and that's true. We can say Series X demand is overstated, and that's also true. We know Series S has been struggling to live up to certain performance metrics with games, even the X, both of these are true. We know there haven't been a lot of banger exclusives for Xbox the past couple of years, and this is true. We know they don't have marketing rights to a lot of the biggest games on the market, again this is true.

But none of those on their own, or even combined, are really accounting for what we're seeing IMO.

Xbox and PlayStation share like 90% of their library of games. All the Western support is virtually the same for AAA games and most AA and indie ones. They share most of the Japanese AAA releases, and a smaller degree of the non-AAA Japanese games but those aren't really system sellers in and of themselves anyway. List any major game that's 3P, chances are it's on both Xbox and PlayStation. GTA, COD, Fortnite, FIFA, NBA, Resident Evil, Street Fighter (once 6 drops), Tekken, Persona, Yakuza, Sonic, Assassin's Creed, DIRT, WRC...these are all multiplat games. The only notable 3P AAA exclusive that PS has that Xbox doesn't are the mainline Final Fantasy games, but that is literally ONE IP and only the main entries at that; Crisis Core was multiplat, for example.

Meanwhile, exclusives only account for like 10% of the respective libraries on both, and most of them are not big shakers. You have some like Spiderman and GOW, but you also have games like High on Life and HiFi Rush which, let's be honest, aren't really moving any systems whatsoever. Now for Xbox it could be argued they lack any actual exclusives since everything is Day 1 on PC, and that could be impacting their numbers. I think it does to some degree, but it's not the only factor at play.

My honest thoughts, are that what we're seeing with Xbox's decreasing market share in Europe today, is mirroring what we saw with Sega in the late '90s with Dreamcast in Europe as well. In other words, Xbox of today is paying for the mistakes of the brand from 2001-onward, the way Dreamcast paid for the mistakes of Sega's horrible business decisions from 1994 to 1998. We can even draw a parallel with the MCU IMO, how the recent movies are in part suffering at the BO due to the mistakes of Phase 4, but that comparison is outside the scope of gaming and I want to stick to just gaming.

I think Xbox's decline in Europe (and now as we're seeing, even in the UK and US) is the result of years of bad market decisions finally catching up with the brand, amplified by the continued success of Sony and Nintendo for making smart market decisions in these very same territories. The reason it's taken this long for the decline to set in is because, at least Microsoft didn't have a span of horrid market decisions in only 4 years the way Sega did, plus Microsoft were able to offset certain damages from really settling in due to quick reactions (only possible due to the advent of social media, i.e the XBO DRM reversals which would've been impossible for them to adjust at that speed if it were in the '90s or '00s) and having ample cash flow to pump artificial value into the Xbox division (large dev/pub acquisitions like with Mojang/Minecraft, more recently Zenimax and what they're trying again with ABK. Having the means to do accounting tricks with shuffling Xbox under different divisions that were actually doing well, etc.). Sega were either too busy eating themselves at the corporate level, or simply lacked modern-day conveniences (such as social media) to make timely 180s on bad decisions, to pull off similar, hence why it set in so much quicker for them compared to Microsoft/Xbox.

As a result, though, since Series S and X have really done little to remedy the continued brand issues of bad market decisions for European territories that were made over the past two decades, the declines are finally starting to show. And, it's much the same as how the Dreamcast, great a system as it was, found itself unable to fully address the bad decisions Sega made with the 32X & Saturn (and sudden cutoff of MegaDrive support) between 1994 and 1998; it wasn't enough to course-correct, so things just got worst. The only reason I don't see Xbox Series being Microsoft's Dreamcast (in terms of it being their last console) is simply due to Microsoft's wealth of income flow that more than offsets any losses Xbox incurs, and the fact they can use growth in other sectors to distract shareholders from caring about Xbox losses to the point of demanding the division be cut loose. That said, I can still see Xbox as a brand shifting from the traditional model to rebranding Xbox as a gaming-style NUC mini PC, and operating on that type of model.

Which would honestly be for the best. It'd remove the pressure of needing to be compared to Sony and Nintendo, meaning better brand optics by default (since Xbox has never consistently won in those comparisons). It'd allow them to sell Xbox consoles for a profit instead of losing money on them, by selling them as gaming-focused PCs with Windows installed (they can even replicate the Xbox dashboard with Steam Big Picture Mode-style options for users to default-boot into if they want that, alongside having the normal Windows boot-up option). It'd allow them to cut the scope of system production to manageable levels so that they aren't stuffing the channels with unsold systems. It'd allow them to zero in on pushing Windows as a gaming platform, which is what the GDK revamp tied to DX12U was already going for anyway (by streamlining Xbox development to Windows development). It'd allow them to be truly multiplatform with the vast majority of XGS, Zenimax and ABK releases to maximize gaming revenue & profits (aside from the occasional Flight Sim or AoE that might be Windows/PC-exclusive for a small period before getting console ports to PS & Nintendo) for PS and Nintendo platforms. It'd also free up management focus for them from Xbox towards their mobile storefront and its growth.

There are almost too many benefits and no downsides with this approach versus what they currently have to suffer through. I'm still fairly confident Microsoft will pivot and make these changes by 2025, or at least some of them by that time, maybe also including an option for Series S & X owners to upgrade to full Windows installs for a $199 upgrade fee. What these changes could do for them in the European market specifically, I couldn't necessarily say. But they would absolutely bring improvements there and globally IMHO.
 
Astray

Astray

Member
Mr Hyde said:
PS5 is stomping Xbox series- consoles so hard it's not even funny. This gen was over before it even started. MS has a damn near impossible task ahead turning around their console business, because right now it's as good as dead.
Click to expand...
Good thing they already have most of the tools they need to become a 3P powerhouse.
 
ChorizoPicozo

ChorizoPicozo

Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
It's taken me a while to think about this, but I think I have a theory for what's happening with Xbox in Europe. See, it's not really about the Series X or even Series S themselves. We can say Series S doesn't have a lot of demand, and that's true. We can say Series X demand is overstated, and that's also true. We know Series S has been struggling to live up to certain performance metrics with games, even the X, both of these are true. We know there haven't been a lot of banger exclusives for Xbox the past couple of years, and this is true. We know they don't have marketing rights to a lot of the biggest games on the market, again this is true.

But none of those on their own, or even combined, are really accounting for what we're seeing IMO.

Xbox and PlayStation share like 90% of their library of games. All the Western support is virtually the same for AAA games and most AA and indie ones. They share most of the Japanese AAA releases, and a smaller degree of the non-AAA Japanese games but those aren't really system sellers in and of themselves anyway. List any major game that's 3P, chances are it's on both Xbox and PlayStation. GTA, COD, Fortnite, FIFA, NBA, Resident Evil, Street Fighter (once 6 drops), Tekken, Persona, Yakuza, Sonic, Assassin's Creed, DIRT, WRC...these are all multiplat games. The only notable 3P AAA exclusive that PS has that Xbox doesn't are the mainline Final Fantasy games, but that is literally ONE IP and only the main entries at that; Crisis Core was multiplat, for example.

Meanwhile, exclusives only account for like 10% of the respective libraries on both, and most of them are not big shakers. You have some like Spiderman and GOW, but you also have games like High on Life and HiFi Rush which, let's be honest, aren't really moving any systems whatsoever. Now for Xbox it could be argued they lack any actual exclusives since everything is Day 1 on PC, and that could be impacting their numbers. I think it does to some degree, but it's not the only factor at play.

My honest thoughts, are that what we're seeing with Xbox's decreasing market share in Europe today, is mirroring what we saw with Sega in the late '90s with Dreamcast in Europe as well. In other words, Xbox of today is paying for the mistakes of the brand from 2001-onward, the way Dreamcast paid for the mistakes of Sega's horrible business decisions from 1994 to 1998. We can even draw a parallel with the MCU IMO, how the recent movies are in part suffering at the BO due to the mistakes of Phase 4, but that comparison is outside the scope of gaming and I want to stick to just gaming.

I think Xbox's decline in Europe (and now as we're seeing, even in the UK and US) is the result of years of bad market decisions finally catching up with the brand, amplified by the continued success of Sony and Nintendo for making smart market decisions in these very same territories. The reason it's taken this long for the decline to set in is because, at least Microsoft didn't have a span of horrid market decisions in only 4 years the way Sega did, plus Microsoft were able to offset certain damages from really settling in due to quick reactions (only possible due to the advent of social media, i.e the XBO DRM reversals which would've been impossible for them to adjust at that speed if it were in the '90s or '00s) and having ample cash flow to pump artificial value into the Xbox division (large dev/pub acquisitions like with Mojang/Minecraft, more recently Zenimax and what they're trying again with ABK. Having the means to do accounting tricks with shuffling Xbox under different divisions that were actually doing well, etc.). Sega were either too busy eating themselves at the corporate level, or simply lacked modern-day conveniences (such as social media) to make timely 180s on bad decisions, to pull off similar, hence why it set in so much quicker for them compared to Microsoft/Xbox.

As a result, though, since Series S and X have really done little to remedy the continued brand issues of bad market decisions for European territories that were made over the past two decades, the declines are finally starting to show. And, it's much the same as how the Dreamcast, great a system as it was, found itself unable to fully address the bad decisions Sega made with the 32X & Saturn (and sudden cutoff of MegaDrive support) between 1994 and 1998; it wasn't enough to course-correct, so things just got worst. The only reason I don't see Xbox Series being Microsoft's Dreamcast (in terms of it being their last console) is simply due to Microsoft's wealth of income flow that more than offsets any losses Xbox incurs, and the fact they can use growth in other sectors to distract shareholders from caring about Xbox losses to the point of demanding the division be cut loose. That said, I can still see Xbox as a brand shifting from the traditional model to rebranding Xbox as a gaming-style NUC mini PC, and operating on that type of model.

Which would honestly be for the best. It'd remove the pressure of needing to be compared to Sony and Nintendo, meaning better brand optics by default (since Xbox has never consistently won in those comparisons). It'd allow them to sell Xbox consoles for a profit instead of losing money on them, by selling them as gaming-focused PCs with Windows installed (they can even replicate the Xbox dashboard with Steam Big Picture Mode-style options for users to default-boot into if they want that, alongside having the normal Windows boot-up option). It'd allow them to cut the scope of system production to manageable levels so that they aren't stuffing the channels with unsold systems. It'd allow them to zero in on pushing Windows as a gaming platform, which is what the GDK revamp tied to DX12U was already going for anyway (by streamlining Xbox development to Windows development). It'd allow them to be truly multiplatform with the vast majority of XGS, Zenimax and ABK releases to maximize gaming revenue & profits (aside from the occasional Flight Sim or AoE that might be Windows/PC-exclusive for a small period before getting console ports to PS & Nintendo) for PS and Nintendo platforms. It'd also free up management focus for them from Xbox towards their mobile storefront and its growth.

There are almost too many benefits and no downsides with this approach versus what they currently have to suffer through. I'm still fairly confident Microsoft will pivot and make these changes by 2025, or at least some of them by that time, maybe also including an option for Series S & X owners to upgrade to full Windows installs for a $199 upgrade fee. What these changes could do for them in the European market specifically, I couldn't necessarily say. But they would absolutely bring improvements there and globally IMHO.
Click to expand...
yisus
 
DenchDeckard

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
tmlDan said:
i said ads, learn to read - when Wolverine and Spiderman are in your ads you don't need to do any research or thinking. You just buy. Even if its for Miles or Spiderman 1.

Currently wolverine isn't at the forefront but it will help continue this momentum.
Click to expand...

What wolverine ads are you talking about?
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
Tsaki said:
I'm curious about the "slim" version. It will probably be a more comprehensive tidying up of the motherboard, using 6nm for the SoC (it already exists in current models), removing the traces for the BR drive, possibly a heatsink volume reduction. But what will happen to the outer appearance of the console? Sony now sells custom plates for the PS5. Will those be compatible with the new model? Will they create new plates and slowly phase out those that already released? How will the attachable drive stay alongside the PS5? Will it attach on the console shell or will it be beside it like an external HDD?
Click to expand...

To my understanding the detachable drive is supposed to be fit-to-form, i.e attach to the console shell. Good point about the plates though; guessing Sony do two lines of plates, one for the current PS5s and one for the new model.
 
O

onQ123

Member
Topher said:
Perfect storm really. I'm not much of a Jim Ryan fan, but I would be if I were a Sony stockholder.
Click to expand...
ENA4L6F.jpg


https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps5-...-the-last-of-us-show-hogwarts-legacy.1653005/
 
Zok310

Zok310

Banned
Horseganador said:
Europe Data:

March Hardware:
1. PS5 - Up 400%
2. Switch - Down 19%
3. Xbox Series - Down 13%

Q1 Hardware:
1. PS5 - Up 369%
2. Switch - Down 18%
3. Xbox Series - Down 10%

These are devastating figures for xbox and I don't understand how there are no consequences in the direction of the brand, while PS5 multiplies its sales x5 they drop, and you still have to read nonsense asking for Ryan's resignation while they applaud Spencer's management.
Click to expand...
They like losers, i blame the woke movement where everyone gets a prize.
 
TheAssist

TheAssist

Member
Interesting that they have the software numbers for germany but not the hardware sales.
Does anyone know why and weather the hardware sales in germany developed in the same way.
I mean it should be the largest European market since GB isnt counted as European anymore.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
I have both Xbox and PS5 but I prefer PS5, I feel its money better spent. DualSense is more innovative, and Sony does one thing very right; exclusive games. Its simple as that. Most Series X games you can also play on PS5, i've used GP for 2 years and the only 2 exclusive games I played were FH5 and Halo Infinite, the latter being a turd in the end and the former isn't even better than 4 imo. I was surprised MS had nothing ready basically, then delayed Halo which turned out to be incomplete and rushed anyway.

GPU is compelling, but PS Plus Extra isn't half bad too. The very best games you need to buy on both systems anyway, like Elden Ring, RE4. Right now I have Premium running since it was apparently auto renewed for 59 bucks (I had Now before). I don't need both services, actually I need none. The games I play you need to buy.

Xbox sold well for a while because PS5 was heavily supply constrained, but that the floodgate is open we'll see the actual picture. I am not surprised honestly.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
XXL said:
This is just getting started, Spider-Man 2 is going to blast the PS5 to the next dimension.
Click to expand...

I feel FFXVI will also be a huge one. Its being hyped up well, everyone seems to love it, it looks awesome. I also wonder how it will fare in Japan.

Spider Man 2 not sure about though. It will be a huge seller yes, but I wonder if it will beat 1. I feel there is some MCU fatique going on.
 
XXL

XXL

Gold Member
SkylineRKR said:
I feel FFXVI will also be a huge one. Its being hyped up well, everyone seems to love it, it looks awesome. I also wonder how it will fare in Japan.

Spider Man 2 not sure about though. It will be a huge seller yes, but I wonder if it will beat 1. I feel there is some MCU fatique going on.
Click to expand...
I agree about Marvel fatigue, but yes, it will beat 1 in my opinion. The hype (even outside of forums) is real with that one and Insomniac has been on a tear. I imagine money is being poured into it, based off the success of the 1st game by Sony and Marvel. They have also been completely silent on it, which is a good thing imo. Silent Playstation is the best Playstation.
 
Woopah

Woopah

Member
Three said:
Not to be a Debbie downer but the real test is this month. It was when they weren't supply constrained last year.
Click to expand...
They'll still be up YoY, just not be such a crazy amount
TheAssist said:
Interesting that they have the software numbers for germany but not the hardware sales.
Does anyone know why and weather the hardware sales in germany developed in the same way.
I mean it should be the largest European market since GB isnt counted as European anymore.
Click to expand...
There are two different trackers for Europe (GSD and GfK) with access to different data. I would imagine that UK is bigger than Germany for consoles, but Germany would be bugger overall when you count PC.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
SkylineRKR said:
I feel FFXVI will also be a huge one. Its being hyped up well, everyone seems to love it, it looks awesome. I also wonder how it will fare in Japan.

Spider Man 2 not sure about though. It will be a huge seller yes, but I wonder if it will beat 1. I feel there is some MCU fatique going on.
Click to expand...

MCU fatigue didn't really impact No Way Home though. In fact NWH was the standout for Phase 4, and I think it's partly because the Spiderman films aren't really "viewed" as part of the MCU the same way the other films are. They don't have to worry about Disney/Marvel management screwing things up, which is easily to Spiderman's benefit.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
MCU fatigue didn't really impact No Way Home though. In fact NWH was the standout for Phase 4, and I think it's partly because the Spiderman films aren't really "viewed" as part of the MCU the same way the other films are. They don't have to worry about Disney/Marvel management screwing things up, which is easily to Spiderman's benefit.
Click to expand...

Good take. I didn't like NWH though, haha. But yes it was a huge hit. Perhaps its now a plus that Spider-Man wasn't completely disneyfied. We'll see. Sony however is in a good place with this IP.
 
jm89

jm89

Member
DEAD ORIGINAL said:
Embarrassing unless you're 10 years old or u got shares in Microsoft or employed as an ambassador why would u make a collage of game logos bragging u got Halo and Gears series way past there best.
Click to expand...
There was a tweet reply from Sarah bond from Xbox spurring him on a while back, his even pinned a picture of him and Aaron greenberg. They love propping up these dudes.
 
Last edited:
Snake29

Snake29

Banned
Go_Ly_Dow said:
So Xbox is being decimated in its strongest territories and this is without Final Fantasy XVI, Spiderman 2 and plenty more yet to land this year and then every year.

Also PS5 Slim, PS5 Pro and some sort of handhed companion to come.

Not good for Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Jup Spiderman is mainstream and will get a full marketing push around the world, same goes for Final Fantasy. Starfield isn’t that kind of game that will get this push and it’s not even a mainstream kinda game. Spiderman 2 alone will “destroy” Starfield on every front.
 
Last edited:
Poltz

Poltz

Member
DEAD ORIGINAL said:
Embarrassing unless you're 10 years old or u got shares in Microsoft or employed as an ambassador why would u make a collage of game logos bragging u got Halo and Gears series way past there best.
Click to expand...
The way Xbox have pivoted over the last gen is worrying for me. Game Pass does not interest me at all and it seems they are pushing PC and cloud more than the consoles sometimes.
 
Last edited:
Sanepar

Sanepar

Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
It's taken me a while to think about this, but I think I have a theory for what's happening with Xbox in Europe. See, it's not really about the Series X or even Series S themselves. We can say Series S doesn't have a lot of demand, and that's true. We can say Series X demand is overstated, and that's also true. We know Series S has been struggling to live up to certain performance metrics with games, even the X, both of these are true. We know there haven't been a lot of banger exclusives for Xbox the past couple of years, and this is true. We know they don't have marketing rights to a lot of the biggest games on the market, again this is true.

But none of those on their own, or even combined, are really accounting for what we're seeing IMO.

Xbox and PlayStation share like 90% of their library of games. All the Western support is virtually the same for AAA games and most AA and indie ones. They share most of the Japanese AAA releases, and a smaller degree of the non-AAA Japanese games but those aren't really system sellers in and of themselves anyway. List any major game that's 3P, chances are it's on both Xbox and PlayStation. GTA, COD, Fortnite, FIFA, NBA, Resident Evil, Street Fighter (once 6 drops), Tekken, Persona, Yakuza, Sonic, Assassin's Creed, DIRT, WRC...these are all multiplat games. The only notable 3P AAA exclusive that PS has that Xbox doesn't are the mainline Final Fantasy games, but that is literally ONE IP and only the main entries at that; Crisis Core was multiplat, for example.

Meanwhile, exclusives only account for like 10% of the respective libraries on both, and most of them are not big shakers. You have some like Spiderman and GOW, but you also have games like High on Life and HiFi Rush which, let's be honest, aren't really moving any systems whatsoever. Now for Xbox it could be argued they lack any actual exclusives since everything is Day 1 on PC, and that could be impacting their numbers. I think it does to some degree, but it's not the only factor at play.

My honest thoughts, are that what we're seeing with Xbox's decreasing market share in Europe today, is mirroring what we saw with Sega in the late '90s with Dreamcast in Europe as well. In other words, Xbox of today is paying for the mistakes of the brand from 2001-onward, the way Dreamcast paid for the mistakes of Sega's horrible business decisions from 1994 to 1998. We can even draw a parallel with the MCU IMO, how the recent movies are in part suffering at the BO due to the mistakes of Phase 4, but that comparison is outside the scope of gaming and I want to stick to just gaming.

I think Xbox's decline in Europe (and now as we're seeing, even in the UK and US) is the result of years of bad market decisions finally catching up with the brand, amplified by the continued success of Sony and Nintendo for making smart market decisions in these very same territories. The reason it's taken this long for the decline to set in is because, at least Microsoft didn't have a span of horrid market decisions in only 4 years the way Sega did, plus Microsoft were able to offset certain damages from really settling in due to quick reactions (only possible due to the advent of social media, i.e the XBO DRM reversals which would've been impossible for them to adjust at that speed if it were in the '90s or '00s) and having ample cash flow to pump artificial value into the Xbox division (large dev/pub acquisitions like with Mojang/Minecraft, more recently Zenimax and what they're trying again with ABK. Having the means to do accounting tricks with shuffling Xbox under different divisions that were actually doing well, etc.). Sega were either too busy eating themselves at the corporate level, or simply lacked modern-day conveniences (such as social media) to make timely 180s on bad decisions, to pull off similar, hence why it set in so much quicker for them compared to Microsoft/Xbox.

As a result, though, since Series S and X have really done little to remedy the continued brand issues of bad market decisions for European territories that were made over the past two decades, the declines are finally starting to show. And, it's much the same as how the Dreamcast, great a system as it was, found itself unable to fully address the bad decisions Sega made with the 32X & Saturn (and sudden cutoff of MegaDrive support) between 1994 and 1998; it wasn't enough to course-correct, so things just got worst. The only reason I don't see Xbox Series being Microsoft's Dreamcast (in terms of it being their last console) is simply due to Microsoft's wealth of income flow that more than offsets any losses Xbox incurs, and the fact they can use growth in other sectors to distract shareholders from caring about Xbox losses to the point of demanding the division be cut loose. That said, I can still see Xbox as a brand shifting from the traditional model to rebranding Xbox as a gaming-style NUC mini PC, and operating on that type of model.

Which would honestly be for the best. It'd remove the pressure of needing to be compared to Sony and Nintendo, meaning better brand optics by default (since Xbox has never consistently won in those comparisons). It'd allow them to sell Xbox consoles for a profit instead of losing money on them, by selling them as gaming-focused PCs with Windows installed (they can even replicate the Xbox dashboard with Steam Big Picture Mode-style options for users to default-boot into if they want that, alongside having the normal Windows boot-up option). It'd allow them to cut the scope of system production to manageable levels so that they aren't stuffing the channels with unsold systems. It'd allow them to zero in on pushing Windows as a gaming platform, which is what the GDK revamp tied to DX12U was already going for anyway (by streamlining Xbox development to Windows development). It'd allow them to be truly multiplatform with the vast majority of XGS, Zenimax and ABK releases to maximize gaming revenue & profits (aside from the occasional Flight Sim or AoE that might be Windows/PC-exclusive for a small period before getting console ports to PS & Nintendo) for PS and Nintendo platforms. It'd also free up management focus for them from Xbox towards their mobile storefront and its growth.

There are almost too many benefits and no downsides with this approach versus what they currently have to suffer through. I'm still fairly confident Microsoft will pivot and make these changes by 2025, or at least some of them by that time, maybe also including an option for Series S & X owners to upgrade to full Windows installs for a $199 upgrade fee. What these changes could do for them in the European market specifically, I couldn't necessarily say. But they would absolutely bring improvements there and globally IMHO.
Click to expand...
Xbox major problem was kinect and since them trying to force audience in Europe and RW besides US onto coop, gaas, shooters, denying triple A SP pure experiences on markets that value that.

They will never gain market share if they don't start to delivery high quality SP pure AAA experiences.
 
DEAD ORIGINAL

DEAD ORIGINAL

Member
Poltz said:
The way Xbox have pivoted over the last gen is worrying for me. Game Pass does not interest me at all and it seems they are pushing PC and cloud more than the consoles sometimes.
Click to expand...
I agree Xbox 360 first few years was full of quality exclusives and the dashboards were brilliant the fun avatars now it's just like own brand supermarket cola
 
W

Woody337

Member
So when does Microsoft pull a Sega and call it quits? Surely it cant be worth it for developers to continue making games for hardware that isnt moving right?
 
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