Jeff Grubb postulates on Xbox's next gen plans. Steam, Epic...Playstation!?

Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member


Some of this has been discussed in a previous thread unrelated to Jeff Grubb. However, Grubb adds that Xbox plans may have some pretty insane implications.
Some highlights:
- Xbox COULD make online free if you are playing your Xbox games through Steam (huge revenue loss, seems like a stretch to me)
- Xbox would try to make up for lost revenue by hosting other stores (Epic, Steam...even Playstation and IOS could if they wanted to)
- Xbox has allowed vendors to set up their own payment process 2 years ago which could make this a win-win for all involved
- The move to open up it's ecosystem could be argued in court to essentially coerce other platforms via regulation to open up their platforms (If this happens I will eat...something inedible)

All this sounds really far-fetched to me, but if they are even trying this...get ready for another mega-thread the likes on the ABK acquisition. Should be good fun, I really enjoyed that thread. So, what are your thoughts? Please watch the video first. It's like 11 minutes.
 
Last edited:
It's beyond far-fetched.

Yes, it seems likely that Microsoft's next hardware will host steam and epic, but their model is going to shift to that of a premium on hardware. You're basically looking at the equivalent of a Surface Desktop that runs the xbox store and you're looking at Alienware type pricing.

GamePass prices will merge into one tier as opposed to console and PC, but still be tiered for day one and not day one.

There is zero incentive for sony to put their store on Xbox hardware. First, Sony doesn't have a PC store (yet), second there's no incentive for them to make a niche port of their store that works on specifically an Xbox PC.

I think it'll be difficult for them to charge for online on what is essentially a PC box. As soon as you open things up to steam, why would people buy the Xbox versions other than GamePass... which is what we see on PC right now. No one is out there buying their games on the Microsoft store.

Advocates of the Xbox brand never really want to think things through to their natural conclusion, which always ends up in serious mental gymnastics to defend or support Microsoft's decisions or direction.

At best Microsoft will try to pull an Epic Games vs Apple and force their way on to PlayStation to be a rival store, but even that won't likely work for reasons such as scale, competition with other hardware makers like Nintendo, and that features would certainly have to be broken on an Xbox store, like no access to core PSN features like friends lists or cloud saves.

So what is the future of Xbox? A misadventure in PC gaming hardware followed by becoming a true 3rd party like Sega, but perhaps with a subscription model mirroring that of EA and Ubisoft.
 
Morale among the Xbox Army troops is low, they need to invent some delirium to raise the troops' morale
Now it's the master plan that forces Sony and Nintendo to destroy their closed platforms, just like the clown Phil Spencer destroyed the Xbox.

It's basically the same every two or three years, here comes the "master plan" of "4D chess from the super powerful MS that is actually not losing, just reinventing the game"

Now yes

didn't dominate the world with Kinect
didn't dominate the world with backwards compatibility
didn't dominate the world with Day One GamePass
didn't dominate the world by releasing its games on PlayStation

But Now It Will

Always with megalomaniac fantasies of world domination.
Everything they do, they think they will have a monopoly like Windows and Office.
 
Last edited:
Jigsaah said:
- The move to open up it's ecosystem could be argued in court to essentially coerce other platforms via regulation to open up their platforms
Click to expand...

This is what I have been wondering since Google and Apple's walled gardens started to get attacked. What's stopping the courts from ruling that Nintendo and Sony have to open their systems up for other stores?
 
Sony would be smart to make a PC store. I'd rather give them 100% of the money as opposed to Steam. But if they don't, their games are already on Epic and Steam so it honestly doesn't matter to anyone but Sony.
 
If xbox let's the PS store on there next console then it'll be one of the biggest embarrassments if not the biggest embarrassment in gaming history. It's essentially bowing down and kissing the feet of your biggest enemy and then asking them if they'd like a sandwich.
 
CrimsonTide said:
I had it, but thought the subscription part was just for certain features and browsing the web. I also thought you could bring your own ISP?

They partnered through AT&T I think, perhaps my family switched to them so I can have dreamcast online? Bill would have been around what other ISP's were at the time anyhow.

Could be misremembering
Click to expand...
I don't know about the other ISPs, to be honest (it is entirely possible there was a way to BYOISP and save on upfront costs that way), but if you wanted to sign up for the Sega Network on Dreamcast through Sega, you were paying $21 per month (in 1999) and locked into a 2 year commitment.

The entire concept of paid online came from that initial Sega service. It made sense back then, I would even say it made sense for Xbox Live until the early 360 days, but by the time the PS4 rolled around, it was already a scam. It sucks, but this one is not at all on Xbox, it comes from Sega.

EDIT: It looks like they did initially allow online gaming for free with ChuChu Rocket, but eventually it became gated by the online service. It seems like it was similar to the Switch in that regard?
 
Last edited:
HeisenbergFX4 said:
I think I have heard something like these plans before.

Maybe someone has mentioned them before on this very forum?
Click to expand...
Heisenberg be like
scrubs-cox.gif
 
LakeOf9 said:
I don't know about the other ISPs, to be honest (it is entirely possible there was a way to BYOISP and save on upfront costs that way), but if you wanted to sign up for the Sega Network on Dreamcast through Sega, you were paying $21 per month (in 1999) and locked into a 2 year commitment.

The entire concept of paid online came from that initial Sega service. It made sense back then, I would even say it made sense for Xbox Live until the early 360 days, but by the time the PS4 rolled around, it was already a scam. It sucks, but this one is not at all on Xbox, it comes from Sega.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that was back in the day of AOL/Earthlink/MSN everyone had a dialup service

Dont think I ever played broadband on my Dreamcast, was maybe 2002 or so when we first got that. I just know all the dialup services were roughly $20 a month. Then we graduated to expensive broadband and $60 or whatever cause well, does not tie up phone lines and was mad quick!

I wonder if when we had "SegaNet" if that included our PC to go online through AT&T? if not, that would be super expensive lol especially for a bare bones service
 
CrimsonTide said:
Yeah, that was back in the day of AOL/Earthlink/MSN everyone had a dialup service

Dont think I ever played broadband on my Dreamcast, was maybe 2002 or so when we first got that. I just know all the dialup services were roughly $20 a month. Then we graduated to expensive broadband and $60 or whatever cause well, does not tie up phone lines and was mad quick!

I wonder if when we had "SegaNet" if that included our PC to go online through AT&T? if not, that would be super expensive lol especially for a bare bones service
Click to expand...
So I edited my last post with a slight correction, it seems like at least for a while, Sega did allow free online gaming on Dreamcast, before eventually gating it behind a paywall. It's impossible to tell the extent of what the paid and free windows were like, given how long ago this was, and that the Dreamcast was on the market for under 2 years, but there's at least a chance that you remembering being able to play on Dreamcast for free was accurate lol

Also, what I do remember is that once you signed up for SegaNet (or its regional variants), you would be able to go online via it even on your PC (this was actually a big marketing point for it back in the day), so at least there was that lol

Little Chicken said:
Why are some people threatened by this news?
Click to expand...
Who is threatened?
 
Last edited:
LakeOf9 said:
So I edited my last post with a slight correction, it seems like at least for a while, Sega did allow free online gaming on Dreamcast, before eventually gating it behind a paywall. It's impossible to tell the extent of what the paid and free windows were like, given how long ago this was, and that the Dreamcast was on the market for under 2 years, but there's at least a chance that you remembering being able to play on Dreamcast for free was accurate lol

Also, what I do remember is that once you signed up for SegaNet (or its regional variants), you would be able to go online via it even on your PC 9this was actually a big marketing point for it back in the day), so at least there was that lol


Who is threatened?
Click to expand...
Gotcha, so then the $22 was not too bad. Did not last long anyhow lol EarthLink bought the deal with Sega and they let everyone out of contracts or something like that anyhow.
 
If true, I guess that their plan is to be the definitive "console" maker, making one box for all. I doubt it'll work besides having steam on it though.
Still could work as a cheap PC if they implement Steam OS correctly.
 
clarky said:
Sounds like they are just making a PC.
Click to expand...

But they will attempt to market it like a console for this reason, and this reason alone:

Jigsaah said:
[
- The move to open up it's ecosystem could be argued in court to essentially coerce other platforms via regulation to open up their platforms (If this happens I will eat...something inedible)
Click to expand...

It's exactly how I expect things to go to be honest and I feel like this is the primary driver for them going in this direction instead of just unceremoniously killing Xbox hardware:

GHG said:
I actually agree with you here.

They will release the device and then go crying to the EU asking why Sony and Nintendo don't allow other (by other they will mean their) storefronts on their consoles.
Click to expand...

They want to get their store, and more specifically gamepass, everywhere so that Sony and Nintendo will also be directly impacted by the sale cannibalisation they've experienced.
 
CrimsonTide said:
True, Xbox Live did indeed invent pay to play online.

The PS2 was free (yes the PS2 had online games)
Dreamcast was free
PC always free
Click to expand...
Now I remember how despicable these guys are.
I bet you, they were also responsible for relativizing the concept of gen and exclusives. These damn people deserve to lose a lot of money. I use steam and I'm not going to buy this supposed-xbox-windows.
 
Det said:
Morale among the Xbox Army troops is low, they need to invent some delirium to raise the troops' morale
Now it's the master plan that forces Sony and Nintendo to destroy their closed platforms, just like the clown Phil Spencer destroyed the Xbox.

It's basically the same every two or three years, here comes the "master plan" of "4D chess from the super powerful MS that is actually not losing, just reinventing the game"

Now yes

didn't dominate the world with Kinect
didn't dominate the world with backwards compatibility
didn't dominate the world with Day One GamePass
didn't dominate the world by releasing its games on PlayStation

But Now It Will

Always with megalomaniac fantasies of world domination.
Everything they do, they think they will have a monopoly like Windows and Office.
Click to expand...

Nintendo took a huge risk with the Wii and reinvented themselves. They took another risk with the Switch and once again reinvented themselves.

Sony took risks with increased budgets for AAA games even licensing Spider-Man on one platform only. This doesn't seem inherently risky on the surface, but the reality is it was a massive risk and one that Microsoft had turned down. No Spider-Man game was selling 10 million units multiplatform, let alone 20 million units on one platform. These risks made Sony marketshare leader again. Sony also took a risk on live service games and that risk has not paid off much so far.

Some risks pay off. None of Microsoft's risks have paid off for them, but people think that risk must work because all things must be even.

They took big risks on 3rd party exclusives like Tomb Raider and they didn't pay off. They took risks on buying studios and publishers and it hasn't paid off. They took risks on GamePass and it hasn't paid off. They took big risks with PC Day 1 and it hasn't paid off. They've taken a massive risk on Xbox Anywhere and it hasn't paid off.

Risks have to be well managed and well executed. We see how Sony mismanaged their live service approach and we've seen how Nintendo managed the Wii and Switch well, but not the Wii U. Nothing is guaranteed and everything should be scrutinized if you care about the health and future of a platform. Xbox fans doubled down that Microsoft was infallible and as a result Microsoft never really course corrected on their failures. It's why Matt Booty is still in charge of Microsoft gaming...
 
Well if nothing else, they sure got my curiosity. I really can't wait to see how they launch all this. Rumors still point to next year with the new Xbox consoles right?
 
god! even the greenest of rats should be dreading the idea of another hype/failure/denial/embarrassment cycle, lead by the likes of this moron
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Breaking: Fandom Sells Giantbomb - Jeff Grubb, Jeff Backalar Now Own It
42
956
DenchDeckard replied
Jeff Grubb: Greek God of War game internally delayed to 2026
Rumor  2
61
710
Bond007 replied
  • Poll
Jeff Grubb: Oblivion Remake is set to shadow drop next week (UP: leaked screenshots added to the OP)
Rumor  17 18 19 20 21
1K
53K
Romulus replied
Jeff Grubb: Concord Responsible For PlayStation’s Latest Live-Service Cancellations
2 3
118
8K
DKPOWPOW replied
Jeff Grubb: It sounds like Sony has probably settled on a State of Play for June (rather than a Showcase)
2 3 4 5
211
2K
Hector Hall replied
Top Bottom