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[laynelane]

I think Starfield, among others, has already proven that people won't buy into the Xbox ecosystem to play a game. Making Oblivion exclusive would simply have reduced its overall sales. Plus, as others have said, MS is moving away from hardware to focus on increasing software sales.

 

[Hideous Snake]

Don't see it a system seller + Microsoft won't benefit from making it exclusive. They're already in the gutter so going multiplatfrom is the best decision they made

 

[vaibhavpisal]

No they are not, people are still buying PlayStation games. The issue is the Xbox brand it is just too dead, there is nothing they can do to revive it at this point. Regardless of what Xbox is going to drop it is always going to be over shadowed by whatever Sony is going to drop and Microsoft realized (albeit a bit too late) but they did.

Are you saying Playstation still has exclusives?

I don't see it. They are multiplatform.

Though not to same extent as Xbox.

 

[laynelane]

Microsoft's plan was actually to buy all those studios and then have them create Xbox exclusive games for Gamepass. The issue was that Xbox management expected Gamepass subscriptions (and Xbox sales) to go through the roof which would make up for the loss of software sales on Playstation and the costs of having tens of thousands new, expensive game devs on their payroll-- but that never happened. So now MS owned many more (expensive) game studios than just a few years before but they were selling less software and Gamepass revenues hit a plateau. That's when MS management stepped in and forced huge changes.

I wonder if Starfield was the turning point on the initial strategy.

Microsoft Admits Starfield Will Be Missing Out on at Least 10 Million Sales

Microsoft acknowledges that Starfield and other Bethesda games would sell millions of copies if they were released on PlayStation consoles.

gamerant.com

Perhaps even more shocking is that Microsoft saw those forecasted sales numbers and believed exclusivity was still the better option. Stuart said that Microsoft believed it would make up for those lost sales through increased Xbox console sales and Game Pass. That should make clear just how profitable Microsoft sees exclusivity to be for recently-acquired studios' new games. In other words, Microsoft very likely sees a huge upside in the possibility of taking Call of Duty exclusive.

*the forecasted sales mentioned in the quote was referring to missing out on at least 10 million sales on PS for Starfield.

Agreed that MS upper management stepped in. I think they had to since XBox management had some seriously unrealistic expectations.

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Are you saying Playstation still has exclusives?

I don't see it. They are multiplatform.

Though not to same extent as Xbox.

Where are you playing 2024's GOTY?

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Where are you playing 2024's GOTY?

Mine was POP The Lost Crown.

On Xbox.

 

[Goalus]

Are you saying Playstation still has exclusives?

They have no notable exclusives is how I would say it.

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

"Xbox exclusive"

 

[kruis]

I wonder if Starfield was the turning point on the initial strategy.

Microsoft Admits Starfield Will Be Missing Out on at Least 10 Million Sales

Microsoft acknowledges that Starfield and other Bethesda games would sell millions of copies if they were released on PlayStation consoles.

gamerant.com

*the forecasted sales mentioned in the quote was referring to missing out on at least 10 million sales on PS for Starfield.

Agreed that MS upper management stepped in. I think they had to since XBox management had some seriously unrealistic expectations.

Xbox management had completely unrealistic goals about Gamepass.

Microsoft bets on latest ‘Call of Duty’ to power up video games strategy

Tech giant hopes ‘Black Ops 6’ will boost Game Pass subscription service as Xbox sales decline

www.ft.com

Microsoft is seeking to boost its video games business with the release of the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise on Friday, pushing to increase subscription revenues through the new game to offset falling Xbox console sales. Black Ops 6 is the first of the best-selling series to be launched on the tech giant's Game Pass subscription service. It represents the biggest test of the company's gaming strategy since its $75bn deal to acquire Activision Blizzard — makers of Call of Duty — received sign-off from regulators last year. Microsoft hopes that the release will help achieve its target of reaching 110mn Game Pass subscribers by 2030, a substantial rise from 34mn in February this year.

Of course, the only reason the number of Game Pass subs is now at 34 million is because MS lumped Xbox Gold subs with Game Pass in order to artificially boost the latter.

 

[Melfice7]

Microsoft spent 100 billions trying to monopolize gaming only to realize people wont buy the games as xbox exclusives in sufficient numbers to be profitable

Just accept they are now a 3rd party publisher, even if another xbox is in the works

 

[GHG]

If they wanted next to no sales then yeh, that sounds like a solid strategy.

 

[PlayStaytion]

There's a positive side, I still think all this is part of the ABK deal, excluding the good part is hypocritical imo.

 

[Shifty1897]

Competition is incredibly important for the consumer, but Xbox lost years ago. It's time for Microsoft to bail out of the console market and let someone else try to break in.

 

[Astray]

To the OP:

 

[alabtrosMyster]

That ship has sailed a long time ago.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Starfield killed Xbox, when you think about, it's pretty fucking funny

I'm convinced Phil was given an ultimatum for that the succeed and shift console units by Nadella before going third party.

Microsoft didn't just make that decision instantly.

 

[LordCBH]

You know why they didn't, right? Because their own platform sales have been in the toilet for years now, and most of their customer base plays games on subscription. There's very few people out there who would see this game (or any singular game) and go and buy a $500 console for it.

 

[diffusionx]

It is Xbox exclusive

 

[FewRope]

I'm convinced Phil was given an ultimatum for that the succeed and shift console units by Nadella before going third party.

Microsoft didn't just make that decision instantly.

100%

It was the Starfield bomba that caused all of this

 

[RetroGamingUK]

100%

It was the Starfield bomba that caused all of this

Remember the hype for that game from Xbots?

 

[BigLee74]

That ship has sailed!

MS would have had to have gone down the exclusive route with all games from day one, sticking to their guns for a few years to see if they got any traction.

This may have been their plan all along if they could have made COD exclusive, but obviously that wasn't possible.

 

[AJUMP23]

They need to make some money, and this is a pretty easy way to do it.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

At least for a year or so. It doesn't have mod support anyway, and people would've bought the consoles in droves. Imo it's a lost opportunity for them.

EDIT: I see the memelicious responses coming in from fellow GAFers, but come on you can't deny it was an easy strategic move to grab a chunk of the console market.

Meh I doubt it. A remaster of a 20 year old game would significantly move the needle and all the sudden start selling more Xbox consoles? Nah. They want the game to sell and make lots of money, so it also goes to Steam and PS5. That's the world we live in.

 

[Doctor Hades]

At least for a year or so. It doesn't have mod support anyway, and people would've bought the consoles in droves. Imo it's a lost opportunity for them.

EDIT: I see the memelicious responses coming in from fellow GAFers, but come on you can't deny it was an easy strategic move to grab a chunk of the console market.

That way they would have guaranteed very low sales in my opinion since seemingly most people with an Xbox Series X|S would prefer to rent games rather than buy them. By releasing on PC and PS5, Microsoft have ensured that the game will be a huge success especially on PC where modding is very popular with Bethesda games.

Unfortunately, Microsoft do not have the user base or subscription numbers to feel confident releasing Xbox exclusives any more. Of course, the blame falls entirely on them but as someone who owns a now-unused Xbox Series X and no longer subscribes to GamePass Ultimate since May 2024, I think Microsoft have done a very, very good thing here by making this excellent if somewhat flawed (certainly when it comes to performance...) remaster available for Steam and PS5. My guess is that the game will likely sell more copies on those platforms than Xbox...

 

[Eimran]

Exclusive should die.

Everyone should be included.

Disagree. Lack of competition makes companies lazy, woke, easy money hongry cash grabbers.

Just look at Sony the last years.

 

[Schmendrick]

Microsoft is a 3rd party publisher now. That ship has sailed.
Aiming for exclusives at this point would simply be stupid when the target has shifted to just feed gamepass and make as much money as possible via all other venues.

 

[memoryman3]

No. Exclusives are generally a bad thing unless it is to show off features that can't be done on other hardware. Let Microsoft compete with better hardware and services. This is the same company who put Office on Mac.

A while back Phil Spencer stated that keeping games exclusive to a limited audience would have required raising software prices. Guess who went and done just that. Nintendo.

 

[Elfstar]

"You don't spend 68bn usd to keep games on Playstation!"

 

[AngelMuffin]

At least for a year or so. It doesn't have mod support anyway, and people would've bought the consoles in droves. Imo it's a lost opportunity for them.

EDIT: I see the memelicious responses coming in from fellow GAFers, but come on you can't deny it was an easy strategic move to grab a chunk of the console market.

IDK, there are droves of used XSX/S consoles on marketplace. No way would I go out and buy a new console for 1 game when I can get an XSX for $250-$300 all day.

 

[reinking]

Wrong game wrong platform to be an exclusive.

 

[BlackTron]

The entire existence of Nintendo is predicated on their exclusives. It's not delusional to say this.

You are correct, but Microsoft needs to decide whether they are trying to succeed as a third party publisher or platform holder and stick to a path.

Otherwise they are just constantly shooting themselves in the feet running in circles.

"We don't put all games on PS5, we keep the best ones to make you buy an Xbox" sends the message that Halo isn't any good anyway when it comes to PS5.

 

[rm082e]

I played Oblivion once back in 2007. It was good obviously, but it's not a "favorite game". I wasn't much interested in a remaster until I watched their stream yesterday. That pushed me over the edge into "Eh, why not?" territory. I bought it on Steam.

I can tell you there is zero chance I would have bought an Xbox, or even signed up for PC Game Pass to play this game. Zero.

Microsoft has zero leverage over me at this point. Xbox and 360 were my main consoles for their respective generations, but the Xbox One killed the brand for me. If they want me to buy their games, they need to put them on Steam or PlayStation.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Leveraging any Bethesda game as an "exclusive" would both further anger the homeboys at Bethesda and run counter to MS' aims. MS does not want to be in the hardware business.

Additionally, I don't believe a remaster of any game has as much gravity to attract new buyers as OP believes it does. This is another card in the deck of your game catalog but it is no ace.

 

[Radical_3d]

Nadella when Phill suggest some exclusivity:

 

[Horseganador]

The denial phase should have been over a year ago. Xbox is a third-party company like Sega and has to release its games on all platforms to stay in business.

 

[Team Andromeda]

"We don't put all games on PS5, we keep the best ones to make you buy an Xbox"

Works for me *rollseyes*

 

[Sushi_Combo]

If the brand wasn't in the toilet, yes it would've made sense to have it exclusive.

 

[GulfCoastZilla]

No one is buying Xbox's, as a Xbox fan I don't even recommend this system to people anymore.

Why make it exclusive? People would just shrug their shoulders and play Clair obscure instead.

Would be a tremendous mistake.

 

[Team Andromeda]

The denial phase should have been over a year ago. Xbox is a third-party company like Sega and has to release its games on all platforms to stay in business.

SEGA, when it went 3rd party wasn't making a new console for the next gen, and SEGA didn't release its games on all platforms; only lately has SEGA started to do that
Get your facts straight, troll

 

[MrRibeye]

If your goal is to sell more Xboxes make World of Warcraft an exclusive with mouse and keyboard support.

 

[HogIsland]

The entire existence of Nintendo is predicated on their exclusives. It's not delusional to say this.

The entire existence of Nintendo is predicted on selling brightly colored cartoon mascots to children.

 

[spookyfish]

But it is. (Everything is an XboxTM)

 

[Aguero9320]

Can't wait for the day when we can all say 'remember when things were exclusive? How stupid was that!'.

Soon.

 

[Elfstar]

SEGA, when it went 3rd party wasn't making a new console for the next gen, and SEGA didn't release its games on all platforms; only lately has SEGA started to do that
Get your facts straight, troll

Yeah, and every single series they published as Xbox exclusive literally died because of it. Sad times.

They should've made everything multiplatform from the get go.

 

[IDKFA]

No one is buying Xbox's, as a Xbox fan I don't even recommend this system to people anymore.

Why make it exclusive? People would just shrug their shoulders and play Clair obscure instead.

Would be a tremendous mistake.

It's a shame because both the Series S and X are great systems.

I know the S gets a lot of shit in this place, but it really is a great budget system. I'm saying that as more a PlayStation man. I'm surprised it isn't more popular, especially in this current economic climate.

 

[GulfCoastZilla]

It's a shame because both the Series S and X are great systems.

I know the S gets a lot of shit in this place, but it really is a great budget system. I'm saying that as more a PlayStation man. I'm surprised it isn't more popular, especially in this current economic climate.

They are both excellent pieces of hardware, and gamepass is an amazing service.

But if the games are coming to PS5 anyway, the only reason to stay stay Xbox is….you like the controller.

Which to me is why I don't just sell my Xbox. I hate PS controller stick placements and I swear by my elite controller.

The day Xbox puts out a version of their controller for PS5, I'm done, I'm selling all the Xbox's in the house. (I already have a ps5)

 

[Bond007]

Microsoft isnt here to push consoles anymore.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

SEGA, when it went 3rd party wasn't making a new console for the next gen, and SEGA didn't release its games on all platforms; only lately has SEGA started to do that
Get your facts straight, troll

For Sega the decision to go third party was pretty early on in the generation.

Of course they wouldn't have been working on a next gen system in Jan 2001 when the decision was made.

As for which platforms received game, the 6th generation consisted of unique hardware resulting in more difficult ports where as porting from Xbox Series to PS5 is a doddle.

 

[Truthtellers]

Nah.

 

[damidu]

they are just another ea, ubisoft now, get over it