[Laura Fryer] The Future of Xbox

He asked about the casual public. Numbers don't lie. I sold my Series X when GS gave me over $400 for my launch console. The writing is on the wall. This is the 1st time since the OG Xbox I have not owned their console. They needed to correct course years ago, and Phil kept pointing the ship towards the rocks right next to the whirlpool. Leadership failed the Xbox brand, and its why people like me no longer believe in their hardware business and see through their lies.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I was implying no one owns an Xbox (and yes, that's exaggeration, but to a lesser and lesser extent these days).
 
It says on news.xbox.com that Microsoft is making future first party consoles.


Laura Fryer was in charge of gears of war, right? I don't know where the idea that MS Xbox was officially going full on software-only started. Spencer said in an interview that there would always be MS Xbox hardware, the implication was for the foreseeable future I believe.


Hang on, that wording suggests they're building both a console and a PC.
 
Their messaging around "play anywhere" and what this actually means, is getting heavily misinterpreted. It's their own fault for their shocking level of communication and marketing. Even in that video, I think she wasn't even fully understanding it. Which is a massive problem.
'Play some games in Microsoft Supported environments' just doesn't have the same ring to it.
 
Hang on, that wording suggests they're building both a console and a PC.
It does doesn't it?

Series 13 Reaction GIF by Doctor Who
 
He asked about the casual public. Numbers don't lie. I sold my Series X when GS gave me over $400 for my launch console. The writing is on the wall. This is the 1st time since the OG Xbox I have not owned their console. They needed to correct course years ago, and Phil kept pointing the ship towards the rocks right next to the whirlpool. Leadership failed the Xbox brand, and its why people like me no longer believe in their hardware business and see through their lies.

It honestly amazes me that anyone wants to stick to the Xbox ecosystem. I've said it before but if the situation was reversed and PS was doing all this shit I would have been gone a long time ago. Probably right after the "Just four games" announcement. I'm not obsessive about my old games though because I barely have time to play the old shit. I do need Mass Effect everywhere I go but that's it.
 
Spencer, just make an app that tracks achievements, play time, owned games(game pass and storefront too), wishlisted games, microsoft rewards, friends list, steam overlay equivalent with copilot, something better than Playstation Home was, and put it on all gaming devices. Or make that the dash/UI and make it the same on all game devices.
 
I don't know if you've caught on yet but that feature is killing Xbox.
No point even trying with these people. They just simply cannot see or admit that the MAIN reason Xbox is in the situation it's in is cause of Gamepass.

Instead, they'll blame lack of games on the Xbone, even though they paid for games on the 360 to be exclusives and could've done the same on Xbone (which they started doing at launch). Excuses and more excuses for this joke of a brand that was once mighty in the games industry.
 
The casual public own a Playstation, a Switch, or both.

PlayStation home consoles have been fairly steady and easy to understand. They're clearly numbered and everyone knows what they're getting. Apart from 3 they've all managed to sell over 100 million, no other company can boast that. PS6 will likely be no different.

Nintendo's handheld consoles have all been fairly successful too and Switch 2 seems to follow the Sony model of clear naming. Should Switch 2 be successful (which I'm sure it will be) then expect Switch 3 in 2033.
 
No point even trying with these people. They just simply cannot see or admit that the MAIN reason Xbox is in the situation it's in is cause of Gamepass.

Instead, they'll blame lack of games on the Xbone, even though they paid for games on the 360 to be exclusives and could've done the same on Xbone (which they started doing at launch). Excuses and more excuses for this joke of a brand that was once mighty in the games industry.
I heard it was because they lost in the most important generation, all of them.
 
No point even trying with these people. They just simply cannot see or admit that the MAIN reason Xbox is in the situation it's in is cause of Gamepass.

Instead, they'll blame lack of games on the Xbone, even though they paid for games on the 360 to be exclusives and could've done the same on Xbone (which they started doing at launch). Excuses and more excuses for this joke of a brand that was once mighty in the games industry.
I don't see a lack of games when I fire up Gamepass. I see a whole lotta games actually. 🤷
 
PS6 will likely be no different.

I wouldn't be so confident in this. I think 5 will do well but track behind 4. 6 is a whole different story if it is going to really be as expensive as speculated. We also have to consider that Windows/Steam and even the PS5 will both be competitors to any new device Sony puts out.
 
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Jez, Stallion, Boomstick, Parris, Destin all right on cue to try and defend XBox…the drones have been activated.

I'm sure Colt, XBoxEra, etc. are out there with some brain dead takes….the Iron Lords tried to talk circles around the layoffs and XBox's issues and sounded so dumb.

It's hilarious how these goofs don't even try to hide it anymore…at least people can see through their bullshit now.

Fuck em all.
 
This video was posted recently. Laura has pretty good insight of the games' industry, and this video sounded really factual and of interest.


Xbox Team managed to take over the Windows 11 x64 handheld segment from the Windows client team. Windows 11 Home Edition is not fit for the purpose.
 
I wouldn't be so confident in this. I think 5 will do well but track behind 4. 6 is a whole different story if it is going to really be as expensive as speculated. We also have to consider that Windows/Steam and even the PS5 will both be competitors to any new device Sony puts out.

They won't be competitors in any way that they weren't already.

What will be different about PS6 is that it could potentially be the first PlayStation to get Microsoft games from day 1.
 
nobody knows but you can be guaranteed whatever Microsoft does, it will be very stupid.
Or at the very least be far to early with features that get made standard in the next generation.

Literally everything they trotted out at the Xbox One announcement minus the weird game sharing thing- which they rightfully backtracked from, kinect focus and the tv tuner is pretty much standard for all consoles now. That being said, i still wish my consoles now had a tv tuner, would have been nice to play and had the Premier league footy in the mornings. at the same time. oh well
 
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It's unusual for her to be so blunt about Xbox. You can tell she has a lot of great memories regarding its early days and a lot of frustration with the direction it's going in. I think it's because she genuinely cares about it, though.
Frustration might come from their focus on Windows. She said that she uninstalled Windows on all her computers and installed Linux after she left, haven't looked back. No idea what that was about but it might be difficult to display any excitement over their current strategy if it'll be focused on what you've spent 2 decades on trying to pull away from.
 
Iv been saying for a while that their play anywhere initiative is the best thing they have going. But as soon as they stop making consoles, it falls down like a house of cards. Right now it's great, buy a game and play that game on multiple devices with the same save. Take consoles out of the equation and suddenly it's no different to buying from steam/gog/epic.
 
Frustration might come from their focus on Windows. She said that she uninstalled Windows on all her computers and installed Linux after she left, haven't looked back. No idea what that was about but it might be difficult to display any excitement over their current strategy if it'll be focused on what you've spent 2 decades on trying to pull away from.

That's likely part of it but it's also Xbox related. I've watched several of her videos and even recently she was speculating that they were poised for upcoming success - due in large part to studios like Obsidian who have the ability to put out games on a realistic budget and time frame. A large part of what she's spoken about is where Xbox has gone astray, but also with a focus on what they're doing right and what more they could be doing. Her tone in this video is vastly different from what it was previously - to the extent that I found it quite surprising.
 
That's likely part of it but it's also Xbox related. I've watched several of her videos and even recently she was speculating that they were poised for upcoming success - due in large part to studios like Obsidian who have the ability to put out games on a realistic budget and time frame. A large part of what she's spoken about is where Xbox has gone astray, but also with a focus on what they're doing right and what more they could be doing. Her tone in this video is vastly different from what it was previously - to the extent that I found it quite surprising.

This echoes what most people here say

Xbox in terms of hardware and platform is a mess

Xbox in terms of games is healthy, and they should focus purely on this aspect going forward
 
This echoes what most people here say

Xbox in terms of hardware and platform is a mess

Xbox in terms of games is healthy, and they should focus purely on this aspect going forward

I'd say somewhat healthy. The idea she was putting forth with Obsidian was that if other studios under the MS umbrella could learn from their pipeline, there would be no longer be situations like Fable and the other games that have been stuck in development hell for years now. Not to take away from the successful games they've already released, of course, but more that there are areas in game development where they could improve and attain even greater success.
 
That's likely part of it but it's also Xbox related. I've watched several of her videos and even recently she was speculating that they were poised for upcoming success - due in large part to studios like Obsidian who have the ability to put out games on a realistic budget and time frame. A large part of what she's spoken about is where Xbox has gone astray, but also with a focus on what they're doing right and what more they could be doing. Her tone in this video is vastly different from what it was previously - to the extent that I found it quite surprising.
Haven't seen her other videos but maybe she was surprised by the extreme Windows focus?

In the end she'll be locked to using some Linux workaround to even access their games going forward, so how is she supposed to react? It's like asking an Android user to talk about a new feature in iOS. She's not using their OS. It's not really for her, anymore.


For me who's on PC and Windows I sense excitement for the future. Everything they're saying that they will do are things I've wanted them to do. Improving gaming on Windows, combining launchers, controller-only big screen mode.

Only concern is how well they can do what they plan to do. There are alternatives and there is stiff competition.

This is how things are today, fullscreen screen mode in Playnite, Xbox App and Steam.

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Playnite is by far the best one right now imo.
 
Worth bearing in mind their best selling console came 3rd place that generation and doesn't reach the top 8 best selling of all time.

Xbox has never been a big brand.
Come on now. Don't be a numpty. Xbox is a big brand. Most casuals know the xbox brand and the playstation brand.
 
Come on now. Don't be a numpty. Xbox is a big brand. Most casuals know the xbox brand and the playstation brand.

Depends where you are

USA and UK, yeah maybe, Europe and Asia absolutely not

Like I've said, globally Nintendo and PlayStation is the Coca-Cola and Pepsi of gaming.
 
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Making the xbox less like a PC and more like a traditional console has always lost money for them on hardware. It really stretches the imagination to say that it was a winning strategy.
 
Depends where you are

USA and UK, yeah maybe, Europe and Asia absolutely not

Like I've said, globally Nintendo and PlayStation is the Coca-Cola and Pepsi of gaming.

It's a global brand dude. Most people worldwide know what Xbox is. They just don't care about it.
 
They won't be competitors in any way that they weren't already.

What will be different about PS6 is that it could potentially be the first PlayStation to get Microsoft games from day 1.

PS5 already has all of Microsoft's biggest games except Halo. Unless you think Halo Infinite made waves, which it never did after launch. We basically know at this point that PS5 is going to get extended cross gen support, so if exclusives matter to you then expect a rough ride.
 
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