If you run XBOX division, what strategy would you pursue?

If you run XBOX division, what strategy would you pursue?

  • Share Bethesda/Activision IPs with Sony and Nintendo to get as much revenue as possible

    Votes: 60 51.7%

  • Keep Bethesda/Activision IPs exclusive, make less revenue, but build stronger XBOX brand over time

    Votes: 56 48.3%
  • Total voters
    116
I would start by firing the entire Xbox leadership and going completely third party while shutting down the console side of the business. MS have no business making consoles as they've totally destroyed trust in the console brand and whatever mindshare they once had. Their only future in gaming is as a third party publisher, they just need better people to run their studios.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I would also kill day one games on GP or make a multi-tiered program like EA/Ubisoft currently do. If you want to play any of my games day one on the service you'll have to pay significantly more. The basic service would simply be a catalog of my older released games.
 
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Intelligent sharing.

Exclusive for 6 months depending on the IP for console only. Then PC and other platforms 6 months later or more.

Gamepass day one on specific titles only. Otherwise gamepass only offers a $20 discount on a title like a new Halo.

Gamepass on everything.
 
Honestly the truth is it's too late for the Xbox brand now as a hardware manufacturer the constant mismanagement and mixed messaging since 2013 has done the damage already they are so fractured, The next console won't make any difference.

If I was to replace Phil Spencer I'd drop the next hardware immediately and go full 3rd party releasing everything on PS5 Switch 2 and Windows, Develop a fantastic Xbox OS for PC and Handhelds that focuses heavily on improving gaming performance and compatibility featuring competitively priced games and a plethora of Xbox classics being revitalised on the platform.

GamePass = Focusing on and celebrating the history of Xbox and games from up and coming studios from indie to AAA, Big games coming to the platform eventually like PSN model.

I'd make it a priority to listen to what people want in games and what they're disliking about Xbox games and focus on making great games without the external bullshit of woke lgbtq agendas and shoehorning in shit to appease a small very vocal minority of idiots and straight up unhinged nutters.

Anyone with pronouns and blue hair etc who are employed based on what they are rather than skill and merit would be fired immediately, People with a history of being a whiner, activist, saying really dumb shit on the Internet aimed at potential customers past and present would be dismissed immediately and replaced with industry experienced developers who don't care about political parroting.

A clear goal that needs to be shared and believed in or GTFO attitude is desperately needed at Xbox, If they currently have this in place then it's clear as day the current management are the problem.

The whole culture would change FAST to a company focused on delivering great games and great value from a business filled with people who deserve to be their based on merits and experience and passion who want to make amazing software.
 
This is what i'd do.
Games that were always third party such as CoD, stays third party.
MS titles stop appearing on pc on day one, and are only released on there 12 months after it's out on the Xbox. You release them on both systems, and nobody gives a shit about the Xbox itself.
All MS exclusives stop coming out on gamepass on day one, and instead, only appear on there 12 months after launch.
You make online free. They need an incentive for people to buy their system over the playstation, and this is a good start.
You make sure that your next console is noticeably stronger than the ps6 because just like the above, you need an incentive for people to buy the Xbox over the ps6.
Decapitate all the management, and throw them off of a bridge. Everything needs to be replaced. This has been clear for well over 5 years. They need a crew of people that are likable, and with a competitive mindset. The fake smile shits have been with MS for long enough.

All of this is not an issue for a multi trillion dollars company. If they wanted to do it, they easily could.
 
That depends on what my boss would approve.

I'd love to build exclusives that justify a premium brand identity like Nintendo. But if the CEO says nope, just make as much money as possible for the next quarter, then I'd do whatever I have to not to get fired. If it wasn't me, it would just be someone else.
 
Fess said:
That's actually clever. I almost never buy full priced games, it's extremely rare. But around $50? Yeah, definitely more common! And at $30 I just put them on the backlog pile without much thinking at all.
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Not only do i think this would be a good idea for the vast majority of games, but especially for anything Microsoft. You're already giving everyone the option to play for less than that by subbing to game pass for a month. You would sell a lot more to people on steam, and even people on gamepass, some people buy the games to keep after they played them on gamepass, but no one is doing that for an 80$ game.
 
iu
re hire that hip bald guy then make a new pitch
 
Microsoft doesn't have and has never had a revenue problem with regards to Xbox.

The brand itself has been devalued beyond recognition.

If they made AKB games exclusive, a good 30-40% of PS casuals would switch immediately.

There's a ton of gamers who play nothing but Fortnite, FIFA, COD...this would get them to switch.

Then work on building stronger, newer exclusive IP. Win win.
 
Hear me out

I would team up with Sega to build a brand-new Sega system.

A system that focuses on all kinds of wild peripherals and immersive arcade-style gaming. Every gamer account would be linked to a global leaderboard and include stats from all compatible games. Playing this console would feel like stepping into a never-ending arcade party—perfect for both casual fun with friends and intense, ranked tournament competition.

Light guns are back. Fighting sticks, dance mats, Guitar Hero—it's all back. The damn fishing rod is back. Seaman and Ecco, together in the same digital aquarium. The best console in the world.
 
Joel Was Right said:
There's a real risk people wouldn't switch, and that COD would die as a result.



Did you support the acquisition when it was first suggested?

g_wPOq.gif
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No, and no one with a brain should have celebrated these acquisitions.

Everyone knows that Microsoft is a big tech with a history of acquisitions, exemplified by Nokia.
But the Xbox lunatics went into a frenzy with the announcement, behaving like Orcs celebrating victory without using their brains and thinking.

None of the idiots who were in favor of the acquisition could think of "how will Microsoft recover its investment?" for them it was all childish fantasies of getting "everything for free from daddy Microsoft"

Now I'm, after getting everything sorted out about the "GamePass/Xbox/Phill Spencer model", trying to imagine how long it will take Microsoft to destroy all the assets they bought and report all of this as nothing as an accounting write-off like they did with Nokia.

Nokia took 2 years to turn to dust, how long will it take for Activision and Bethesda to meet the same fate?

Who knows, maybe 5 years?
 
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Executive teams: New fresh faces with quality over quantity the prime focus across all aspects. A order to Step back from social media, podcasts and interviews . Keep them to a minimum. The goal should be to let the products do the talking instead.


Hardware: At the very least be on par if not superior to what else is on the market whilst keeping it cost competitive. Retain the ability to use physical media. Aesthetically move away from the bland and make it more pleasing on the eye.

Gamepass : Rework to a more PS Plus style service. Less emphasis on first party day one releases and games being designed to fit the service model.

Games: A total revamp of product management and quality assurance. Quality over quantity with the added goal of building momentum year on year with steady releases to keep the consumer engaged. A desire to build what would be the next tentpole IP, a Halo , a Gears and new one that aims to have the impact they once had on the brand. Give the bigger studios more opportunity should it be desired, to move away from being singular IP factories . A better balance between first and third person games.

Branding: More green. The bland simple white logo with that obnoxious noise when it zooms into the screen, bin it. Something more stylish and a jingle that is more appealing to the ears. Power button on the console and controllers should have a green halo effect around the white logo.

Features: Slick new UI with the aim to be easy to use, feature rich and aesthetically pleasing. Improve on Themes with better animation and optional music. Much better Game Capture and sharing options. Finally deliver on the promised updated Achievement system.
 
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The very first thing I'd is is bring back Crimson Skies, online battles, huge maps, if people don't want it, they deserve slop.

There's tons of old Microsoft ips I'd love to, in theory, see come back but can admit they're too obscure and no one would give a shit, however Crimson Skies deserves that second chance.

In addition to that, Ninja Gaiden 4 is already a thing, but I'd fund DOA7 and yes, bring back the volleyball game to send the message that not everything has to be strained through the tight assed feminist lens.

Blood Borne said:
The Xbox brand was never loved by the masses. X360 was largely successful due to PS3's mishaps. Xbox was destined to fail.

More so, Microsoft never really wanted to enter the hardware business. The sole purpose of Xbox was to prevent Sony from becoming a dominant chip manufacturer, and they've succeeded in that goal, thus there's no need to be in the hardware business anymore. They're returning to their core business model, which is software.

Microsoft becoming one of the world's largest gaming publisher is a smart business decision.
Xbox is dead. Even the name "Xbox" will eventually be scrapped. It will become just Microsoft.
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The 360 also gained ad advantage by simply coming out an entire year before the PS3, I assume they had to rush the thing out the door to do that and that's why it melted, but it worked in giving an advantage over Sony in having a lesser price and a bigger library of games by the holiday season of 2006.

But Microsoft fooled themselves into thinking that meant they were now the standard and PS4 very quickly regained that ground.
 
Kotaro said:
XBOX got great first party IPs after their Bethesda and Activision acquisitions.

XBOX line-up easily trounce Sony's first party line-up, they're on par with Nintendo's. I don't understand why they can't do what Nintendo is doing, keep their IPs exclusive to their platform, build stronger XBOX brand over time.
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LMFAO, quantity not quality…
 
The key here is making great games and not activist drivel or gamepass shovelware as a primary product.

I'd remove new AA/AAA releases from Gamepass, make it more of a legacy collection + OG Xbox & 360 Emulation. Then I'd make some good new games, timed exclusive for Xbox consoles for like 6 months, then goes to Gamepass/other platforms. I'd also remove the Series S clause and make a bunch of 3~ year dev time AA games in various legacied owned IPs and see what catches on, expand into AAA sequels from there. When I say AA, I strictly mean budget and team size.

If Gamepass suffers too badly for subscriptions, then you can reopen some of these shut down studios to make Gamepass filler with greater creative freedom. Maybe luck out and get a random meme/streamer hit like Schedule 1. I'd also have those studios work on mobile ports of games that make sense to play on a phone, to start building presence there.

The thing is, the games have to be good. Not "eh, I've played worse" and not "Bharvin' for Taash" shit.
 
I don't think it matters anymore. They've destroyed their brand and trust. Nothing they do will bring them respect. Just go full 3rd party or exit the game industry.
 
Rip the band-aid off, get out of hardware entirely (stop pussyfooting around with OEMs and crap), go full third-party, invest in the damn studios, and turn Game Pass into their own version of EA Play that becomes available on all platforms.

The second poll option gave me a good laugh because the Xbox "brand" has been in the crapper for years. The time to strengthen it was a decade ago. Now it's too late. Xbox is an afterthought to most of the world. Trying to make everything exclusive to their fading platform would tank the division completely in a quarter or two.
 
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That question was valid like 5 years ago . Microsoft had successfully fucked the Xbox brand up , I bet u can go to a Xbox executive and even they wouldn't know what their strategy is.
They are so dumb it's mindboggling
 
Remove Day One Gamepass, better Quality Control of my First Party Studios. Don't over purchase Studios, makes Management of so many Studios unnecessarily hard.
 
At this point it's too late to save the brand.

Five years ago I would have sealed the Bethesda acquisition and then be done with acquisitions. Find out why so many games end up in development hell at Xbox. Get the messaging sorted. Fire Booty, Greenberg and Bond and let Spencer go in a few years. Reform Game Pass. It's not sustainable and can only continue to exist if not everything is day 1. That's a hard one, though, because it would make a lot of subscribers cut loose.
 
Share and invest in new IPs, get better marketing teams and get rid of Satya. Make exclusives that define the brand identity like Halo did back in the day.
 
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Brand is everything.
- Strenghten their core franchise's significance (Halo, Gears of war, Forza).
- keep all franchises Xbox exclusive.
- Ditch Gamepass.
- Overhaul Xbox UI to be friendly and exciting.
- Find ways to increase community spirit and Xbox uniqueness.
- Improve Quality Assurance and increase oversight of game choices.
- Ensure target audiences needs are being met (eg, if majority of gamers are men, target their interests mainly) and make sure each game is adding to that xbox uniqueness.This includes re-introducing highly likable, unique and household name character driven games.
- build trust with game studios.
- develop AA games under a new branch of games, marketed as such to fill in gaps of AAA development time.
- bring back local co-op in core franchises and encourage studios to include this in their games where possible. Build this into the brand, like nintendo has done.
- develop a central asset library and encourage re-use to reduce budgets and development costs.
 
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Recreate an FPS/dudebro console image just like during 360 era
Gamepass only for smaller 3rd party of indies, great for families.
Focus on AAA games but don't release them on gamepass.
 
What they should do is decide if they want to be in the GAME business first. If they do they need to do exclusives in their consoles only but if they don't have the heart or willingness to dig deep and lose more to regain their gaming credibility than just be a publisher for all consoles
 
As it stands right now, I would try to get as many bonuses as I could and retire at some nice place while playing on the ps consoles. Xbox division is done either way.
 
powder said:
I'd shutter the business since they're allergic to making games.
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I don't think software is the problem anymore. Even with the cancelled games the software-side is healthy enough, especially when they now release on PlayStation's big userbase too. They're currently releasing games fairly frequently.

From late 2024 till 2025, so far:
Stalker 2 (publishing)
Indiana Jones
Avowed
South of Midnight
Oblivion Remaster
Doom The Dark Ages

On PlayStation:
Forza Horizon 5
Indiana Jones

Coming:
The Outer Worlds 2
Grounded 2
Gears Reloaded
Ninja Gaiden 4 (publishing)

Expansions:
Indiana Jones The Order of Giants


The problem is hardware, and the Xbox App. They just don't know how to get any of it truly off the ground anymore. I've been using the updated Insider Xbox App with Steam access, and it's embarrassing that they thought it was good enough to even let out of their office.
 
  1. Fire Spencer Asap!
  2. Cancel gamepass asap
  3. Backpedal their xbox everywhere crap, no one cares about that anyways
  4. $60 games, you make more selling toyotas than selling cadillacs
  5. Free online play, it was MS who started this crap to begin with.
  6. Make xbox the best platform to play COD.
  7. Restaff turn 10 and make sure the Forza Motorsport franchise survives, it is one of the 3 xbox pillars.
 
If I had that position, I wouldn't risk my position trying to increase the value of Xbox hardware, because the risk of devaluing these IPs by making them exclusive is much more likely than making the Xbox hardware strong, which is at its worst right now.
 
After thinking about it for some minutes... I actually don't know. Microsoft have maneuvered themselves into a position that is hard to get out off without sacrificing something. I think the most obvious they can do now is games, games, games. And high quality ones at that. And to make sure that their ecosystem is the most painless and slick to use experience ever. People are lazy cunts. So remove any unnecessary bullshit that might hinder people to buy shit on your platforms and make it smooth as fuck to use. Both Sony's and Nintendo's digital ecosystems are cumbersome at best and downright annoying at worst to use.
I'd still build a next-gen Xbox and try to have a stellar launch lineup. Make sure that the core IPs are fantastic. The next Halo needs to deliver. The next Gears needs to deliver. The next Forza Horizon needs to deliver. And keep investing in smaller, more niche (but also more interesting) stuff. I'd also just be straight-up offering Windows for the next Xbox. So it's essentially a PC. If they price it right, this could be pretty neat, seeing that the PC market in general is in a shitty place right now (and will be for the foreseeable future). If an Xbox can also be a gaming PC, this might not be the worst thing. Could be similar to how Steam Deck does it, where the "Xbox Experience" is just the default GUI/overlay that gets booted into. But users can also just close that and open the normal Windows desktop.
 
If you were trying to make any hardware platform enticing and had more studios than was necessary, I would think treating all of the studios as 3rd parties and choosing exclusives for the console to satisfy an idealised diverse lineup would be a good way to go. I'd release those titles through a publisher that shares the hardware branding and non-exclusive titles through another branded publisher.

I think that Microsoft now publish so many RPGs that having them all be exclusive would be counter productive.

But saying you need an exclusive RPG, a shooter, a driving game, an adventure, etc. Every year and then either ordering it from your teams or marking one of their in development unanounced products for that purpose would make sense. I wouldn't mark entire studios as being studios that make exclusives, but some franchises I would keep exclusive - perhaps asking different studios to make an entry in the series.

I would definitely experiment with timed exclusivity or additional content on other titles to give first party hardware users something extra.
 
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Well, now they've started it would be almost impossible to go back to the old model.

So, with that being said, I would pull the plug on any future console and just go full 3rd party. The next 'console', i.e. a pc with xbox label slapped on it, is just delaying the inevitable.
 
Dannyufcfan said:
Well, now they've started it would be almost impossible to go back to the old model.

So, with that being said, I would pull the plug on any future console and just go full 3rd party. The next 'console', i.e. a pc with xbox label slapped on it, is just delaying the inevitable.
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While they're going full third party, they'd still prefer you bought their games on PC via the Xbox PC app

If slapping the Xbox logo on some PCs manages to lure Xbox console customers over then it could be worth it
 
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They have already killed the console side of the business. They have literally followed Sega step by step. Even their second console was the most successful. Its actually quite amazing how closely it aligns from the expensive peripherals, to the more complicated yet weaker third console and so on. They need to just go all in on third party. If they want to release a Game Pass box which would just be a small affordable gaming PC, then fine but it Will likely just sell a couple of million units.
 
Back to making good games without all the bloat. Stop wasting energy, resources and time on totally useless features or trying to please people that don't buy games anyway.

Making a great Halo game shouldn't take 10 years. Campaign, local co-op, local split screen, online co-op, online multi-player. Doesn't need to be the prettiest game on the planet, doesn't need anything else (forge or whatever). Or make a great single player / coop Halo, and work with Epic to make a new Unreal Tournament for multiplayer.
Make a good racing game, but maybe not Forza Horizon. Shake things a bit.
Release Fable, and make sure people will actually want to play the game. Design it for people who actually buy games, and not only for people who push political agendas. I get it, in Fable characters have never been super beautiful and that's fine, but how about giving the choice to the player on how he wants the main character to look like ? Would certainly help.
More third party initiatives like Ninja Gaiden 4. SEGA have been a great supporter, and Sakaguchi is still around.

Actually sell your games. Fuck Game Pass. Put the games in Game Pass 5 years later or never.
All of this on a good console with a good controller. The Series X already checks both of these.

Of course if you put all of these games on all consoles, then making hardware is pointless. Might as well stop immediately and not bother with third parties anymore.
Fuck Activision/Blizzard. They destroyed you and you didn't see it coming. Sell them. Keep Bethesda.
And if you put all your games in Game Pass, then maybe stop making games as well ? Yeah, just exit the market and stop crawling on the ground pretending you are alive because you have infinite money. Show some decency.
 
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1 - Fire every exec that took XBOX to where it is now.

2 - Invest in quality: hire the best artists, writers and devs for the current studios they have. Everyone that doesn't meet certain work standards, out.

3 - Make 2 tier of games: Exclusive AAA (not available on Gamepass for 12 months) and second-tier, also quality, but with a lesser budget. Those should feed Gamepass from day 1. Neither of them would ever go to another console.

4 - Only GaaS on PC, meaning that the premium Gamepass tier would be exclusive to XBOX consoles.

Microsoft has the money to pull this off. It would take a full generation to produce results and recover some of the trust lost
 
they're double-minded and unstable in all of their ways because they also have windows PC gamers to attend to and they can't go all in on their consoles
 
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Here

- Next Xbox 1 year earlier than PS6 with Call of Duty and Elder Scrolls 6 exclusive as a launch title, "it is coming to PS6 but it wont run on PS5 sorry" kind of thing
- $100 price cut on the day PS6 launches with a massive campaign
- End Gamepass

This might not beat Sony, I honestly don't think there is a way to beat Sony but it will keep Xbox around.
 
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If im taking over today?
Well then id just go full on 3rd party. Abandon Gamepass or alteast limit its scope bigtime.

If you take me back sometime. Focus on Exclusives and never let them off my console in any capacity.
 
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