LavitzSlambert
Member
It certainly can contribute to revenue growth if you have a hardcore userbase to tap into, but in terms of userbase size, no an even more expensive device is not going to move the needle. Gaming is a mature industry and in the US, Japan, and Europe, we are seeing most people who enjoy gaming are already part of that audience.
If anything, a lower cost model to sell to other countries is the way to go. Look at Black Myth Wukong hitting up Chinese gamers. We will continue to see Microsoft and other companies that are focused on growth try to enter new markets and expand access to their software catalogues by increasing the amount of devices that can play their games.
They can do this by porting the crap out of everything, but that costs additional money and doesn't scale well with the additional sales. There is another way, and that's why Microsoft is leaning fully into software by purchasing ATVI and will maintain a smaller presence in the hardware market (higher margin focus), but they will be making their money with recurring revenue and being the middleman as largest publisher in the industry. They want to get a cut from whoever creates gaming content, period. This is exactly what Microsoft has always done, and the future is looking good for them as a company, if not as much for the Xbox brand itself.
Sony is moving toward simultaneous releases for some games and a shorter timeframe for their PC ports, as well as cashing in our their most popular franchises to get people who watch shows or movies into the games, and vice versa. Look at Uncharted and The Last of Us, that is the model they are chasing and it fits well with the rest of their business.
Where's Nintendo, you ask? They are licensing their IPs and partnering with other companies in areas outside their own competency to continue building their brand, the Disney way. You have movies, theme parks, and an absolute deluge of official licensed Nintendo toys and other products. In fact their licensing revenue has basically quintupled over the last few years, and you can see them do little experiments (like Alarmo). I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo TV series (especially aimed at kids) in the coming years. With all that said, I don't think Nintendo cares about growth the same way Microsoft and Sony do - Nintendo is very profitable as it is, and the company culture is still very conservative.
Anyway, long winded post but the point is there are many different ways of making money from people that's not releasing significantly more expensive consoles. This site really hates Phil Spencer, but he is dead on about business sense and you can already see all major companies making moves in this direction and in agreement with how to continue their business success.
If anything, a lower cost model to sell to other countries is the way to go. Look at Black Myth Wukong hitting up Chinese gamers. We will continue to see Microsoft and other companies that are focused on growth try to enter new markets and expand access to their software catalogues by increasing the amount of devices that can play their games.
They can do this by porting the crap out of everything, but that costs additional money and doesn't scale well with the additional sales. There is another way, and that's why Microsoft is leaning fully into software by purchasing ATVI and will maintain a smaller presence in the hardware market (higher margin focus), but they will be making their money with recurring revenue and being the middleman as largest publisher in the industry. They want to get a cut from whoever creates gaming content, period. This is exactly what Microsoft has always done, and the future is looking good for them as a company, if not as much for the Xbox brand itself.
Sony is moving toward simultaneous releases for some games and a shorter timeframe for their PC ports, as well as cashing in our their most popular franchises to get people who watch shows or movies into the games, and vice versa. Look at Uncharted and The Last of Us, that is the model they are chasing and it fits well with the rest of their business.
Where's Nintendo, you ask? They are licensing their IPs and partnering with other companies in areas outside their own competency to continue building their brand, the Disney way. You have movies, theme parks, and an absolute deluge of official licensed Nintendo toys and other products. In fact their licensing revenue has basically quintupled over the last few years, and you can see them do little experiments (like Alarmo). I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo TV series (especially aimed at kids) in the coming years. With all that said, I don't think Nintendo cares about growth the same way Microsoft and Sony do - Nintendo is very profitable as it is, and the company culture is still very conservative.
Anyway, long winded post but the point is there are many different ways of making money from people that's not releasing significantly more expensive consoles. This site really hates Phil Spencer, but he is dead on about business sense and you can already see all major companies making moves in this direction and in agreement with how to continue their business success.
.
. So here we are, indefinitely I guess.
.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10399581/xboxonex.jpg)
