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[SenjutsuSage]

1 Billion in revenue from subs? Didn't Ragnarok made more than half of that by itself?

Almost like subscriptions make more money as time progresses.

That is, in the next quarter, the drop in xbox equipment will not be 30%, but 28%?
That's a definite success, mate.
And again, we don't have gamepass numbers. It's unfortunate that Microsoft has not been able to do at least one good PR for xbox in the last month.

We don't have the numbers for Game Pass, but what we do know is it has grown every single quarter since the numbers were last reported. Something tells me they want the Activision deal to close before reporting on the number. Or they could reveal it at the showcase. Either way, doesn't matter. That's for Microsoft to worry about. As their console supply issues are cleared up, Game Pass subscription growth should further accelerate. There will be a lot of very good reasons to subscribe throughout the year.

The one thing that's quite clear in everything Microsoft mentions about their gaming division is that confidence in Game Pass subscription growth is pretty damn high.

Something good is clearly happening in Xbox content and services, and it's name is obviously Game Pass.

 

[Nautilus]

even Nintendo lost.

Lost what?

 

[feynoob]

Phil was head of first party throughout all of Mattrick's tenure and all he managed to do was shit down studios/teams and screw up external partnerships.

But that is all meaningless, if the Ceo isnt giving you your own 1st party studio to manage.
There is a limit to how much you can ride on external studios.

So you just want to ignore the last decade?

I didnt ignore Xbox one. That was a decade of failure of not investing proberly on their first party studios.

Xbox went a head for too long without 1st party games because of that. They also didnt have a proper compeling first party games, due to their limited studios.

Look at Sony and Nintendo. Their iconic games are from different studios, which prints out new games from gen to gen.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Good to see hardware down while they arent releasing games. Get some games out ms...

 

[adamsapple]

1 billion revenue from sub services (game pass) in one quarter.

For reference it earned 3 billion (2.9b) revenue all of 2021. Keeping this trajectory, it will generate another billion in revenue this year.

GG. Game Pass is a juggernaut.

 

[wolffy66]

Ps+ exists

And?

 

[Humdinger]

They sure take their time putting out good exclusives.

 

[Brucey]

Growth is up.
They also cancelled the 1$ one, so gamepass revenue is now going to be higher for them.

They cancelled the $1 trials on March 26th afaik, so a very limited effect on the reported quarter. Next quarter should see full effects of that move. Potentially with family and friends plan incoming may be able to get it for around $5 a month of splitting with 3 friends.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/26/23657627/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-trial-offer-stopped

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Lost what?

they had to merge their development efforts/attention/market in just one product.

 

[bender]

They are pivoting because their sales suck. Otherwise you would hear them harping about it on Twitter like they did last year when Sony couldn't make enough PS5 because of the chip crisis

The pivot started prior to Series devices decline in sales.

 

[TheGodfather07]

Good to see hardware down while they arent releasing games. Get some games out ms...

Exactly. This is what real xbox fans should be demanding. Not Jerking off over their revenue! Are you fans or shills?

 

[Nautilus]

Leveraging their IP in other mediums is exactly what Sony is doing.

Its not in other industries. Its on other platforms that they don't have any control over. That they don't get a 30% cut from, but rather pay 30% to the platform holder themselve. A medium that the hardware focus isn't necessarily gaming.

They are trying to either go third party by putting on as many systems as possible, OR(and this is my guess) they want to be a Steam of sorts, waaaay down the line, where they would have THE storefront where you would get all PS games, and whose storefront would be downloadable from most devices, and not just Playstation.


Hence the term: Platform Wars.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

This gen wont surpass X360. MS needs to work on 3rd party to do that.

Depends if you're talking about consoles sales or other platforms/devices + Game Pass + MTX etc. Xbox is easily going to surpass the 360 days when you look at what they're doing outside of Xbox consoles/hardware.

For example say you put 150M Switch + 150M PS + 50M Xbox and you get 350M total. Now consider the recent stats of 3Billion gamers when you include all media/devices/platforms. You can see why MS/Xbox are heading where they are. When MS drop a mobile store and content plus actually start releasing tent pole games and marketing pushes post ABK things are going to ramp up pretty quick. No doubt Nintendo and Sony are killing it more than Xbox and have been this gen and last gen. Xbox is gunning differently these days.

I like how some say Xbox has done nothing for years now and yet they've grown well past previous records in recent years and this current earnings held basically even (1% down overall for gaming). The services is where MS is, they're a software and services company following their Azure model in gaming. This earnings report just confirms more of that. I am very curious how MS go for the rest of this year and next year. I never expected them to come out and compete directly at 1:1 for Ninty and Sony at the start of this gen. I didn't expect them to be holding pattern/backwards at this stage. I do expect the mid to end of this gen to be an entirely different story, it's about to begin for Xbox; post ABK.

 

[MisterXDTV]

The pivot started prior to Series devices decline in sales.

That's not what I remember reading on the internet after Series X was revealed and had 12 teraflops.....

And they launched a SECOND console to undercut Sony at a lower price point

But let's forget about that, shall we?

 

[Nautilus]

I could have sworn I just watched Halo and the Last of Us.

Well, they are also obviously doing movies and tv shows. But they are also moving away from consoles, while Nintendo isn't.

Do I really need to spell everything out for you guys?

 

[GHG]

Hardware doesn't seem to be the aim of Microsoft's gaming division. Services and publishing is the pivot we are witnessing.



See above.

I'm not seeing where the "Xbox" brand fits with that, especially on other devices like PC where "Xbox" is a bit of a dirty word due to their previous failed ventures on the platform. But I guess that's why they recently rebranded gamepass on PC to remove the word "xbox".

Wouldn't be surprised if that rebrand also extends to other devices in the future.

Overall I'll say they lack focus though, they are all over the place. Are they trying to sell consoles or not? Are they trying to sell games or not? Do they need people to subscribe to gamepass or not? What's the cloud endeavour really about and how much focus are they putting on it at the moment? So many of the things they are attempting to do are at odds with each other and that really hurts from a marketing/branding perspective because it means you are stretched.

It's a prime example of the classic attempting to appeal to everyone means appealing to nobody at all. Even some of their most hardcore console fanbase are feeling the effects of this and are asking questions about being "second class citizens".

Edit:

This even extends to the fact that they have 2 wildly different consoles out there in the S and X. It's not helping developers, and it's not helping their customers.

Do one thing and do it exceptionally well, then expand your focus. They are attempting to expand before getting a fundamental core offering nailed down. Right now they are quite literally throwing shit at a wall and nothing is sticking so they are being dragged all over the place.

 

[bluecowboys]

This gen wont surpass X360. MS needs to work on 3rd party to do that.

They are literally buying the biggest third party publisher after buying out Zeminax.

At this rate, all the big third party publishers will be Xbox studios. Ubisoft is most defiantly next.

 

[bender]

That's not what I remember reading on the internet after Series X was revealed and had 12 teraflops.....

And they launched a SECOND console to undercut Sony at a lower price point

But let's forget about that, shall we?

Who the fuck is we?

 

[ulantan]

And?

Both of these can exist at the same time ps+ is currently higher than gamepass and they can sell big games. They also don't have to spend money making sure big third party releases releases on thier sub service.

 

[Dolodolo]

GG. Game Pass is a juggernaut.

Do you know that xbox live gold still exists, right?
Your juggernaut can't properly push xbox series s to the consumer if we assume xbox series x is in short supply (Which probably isn't either)

 

[Nautilus]

they had to merge their development efforts/attention/market in just one product.

It was just a natural evolution of what they were doing, and how technology is progressing.

A hybrid system was inevitable even if they had both successful home and handheld consoles.

Same thing for VR: If Nintendo ever tackles it someday, it won't be in a separate device, but rather alongside whatever new gen they kickstart.

 

[MisterXDTV]

I'm not seeing where the "Xbox" brand fits with that, especially on other devices like PC where "Xbox" is a bit of a dirty word due to their previous failed ventures on the platform. But I guess that's why they recently rebranded gamepass on PC to remove the word "xbox".

Exactly this...

People here are confusing Microsoft, the $2T company, with Xbox, the weakest division of that company

The Xbox brand is dying right now

 

[ulantan]

Well, they are also obviously doing movies and tv shows. But they are also moving away from consoles, while Nintendo isn't.

Do I really need to spell everything out for you guys?

There is no indication that sony is moving away from consoles.

 

[Three]

Can I buy used games still? Yes I can.

On a series s? Not really. Can you buy HiFi rush used or sell a copy? Not really. I'd say overall this gen is worse than the xbox one gen when it comes to second hand sales. A lot of retailers here don't even have xbox sections anymore due to Series S and gamepass making physical releases less important now.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

It was just a natural evolution of what they were doing, and how technology is progressing.

A hybrid system was inevitable even if they had both successful home and handheld consoles.

Same thing for VR: If Nintendo ever tackles it someday, it won't be in a separate device, but rather alongside whatever new gen they kickstart.

it was a natural evolution of several home console faliures. they lost that market

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Real talk, can we stop with the BS "Series X is hard to find" narrative already, as if the reason has nothing to do with intentionally suppressed supply out of lack of demand? Because that is another reason supply could be low: if demand isn't enough to justify production at volume relative the costs, then the volume won't be produced.

Even if there were as many Series X's available as PS5's, you would not see even half as many of them being sold simply because the demand is not really there. It has clearly softened for the brand, and it could be argued their sales in 2021 and early 2022 had more to do with the lockdown effect from COVID, and lack of PS5 supply, than it did for genuine demand of Xbox systems.

Because if the demand were as strong as people say, don't you think Microsoft would have done something to resolve Series X supply months ago? Hardware sales in total would not be down as much as they are; they would have at least held steady if not seen some modest increases. It's only barely the third year for these systems after all.

And if people think intentionally suppressing supply due to lower demand has never happened: Sega did the same thing with the Saturn back in later 1996 and throughout 1997. The reason was to not take as much a loss on hardware revenue, and to make it look like targets were being hit without expending too much of limited company resources.

 

[bender]

I'm not seeing where the "Xbox" brand fits with that, especially on other devices like PC where "Xbox" is a bit of a dirty word due to their previous failed ventures on the platform. But I guess that's why they recently rebranded gamepass on PC to remove the word "xbox".

Wouldn't be surprised if that rebrand also extends to other devices in the future.

Overall I'll say they lack focus though, they are all over the place. Are they trying to sell consoles or not? Are they trying to sell games or not? Do they need people to subscribe to gamepass or not? What's the cloud endeavour really about and how much focus are they putting on it at the moment? So many of the things they are attempting to do are at odds with each other and that really hurts from a marketing/branding perspective because it means you are stretched.

It's a prime example of the classic attempting to appeal to everyone means appealing to nobody at all. Even some of their most hardcore console fanbase are feeling the effects of this and are asking questions about being "second class citizens".

I don't think Xbox brand is long for this world at least in a traditional sense. Leadership will never outright say it but I think they understand the potential of hardware sales and the market they can capture with those sales. Services and publishing would seem to be the future and is something Microsoft is far better equipped to execute upon.

 

[feynoob]

Real talk, can we stop with the BS "Series X is hard to find" narrative already, as if the reason has nothing to do with intentionally suppressed supply out of lack of demand? Because that is another reason supply could be low: if demand isn't enough to justify production at volume relative the costs, then the volume won't be produced.

Even if there were as many Series X's available as PS5's, you would not see even half as many of them being sold simply because the demand is not really there. It has clearly softened for the brand, and it could be argued their sales in 2021 and early 2022 had more to do with the lockdown effect from COVID, and lack of PS5 supply, than it did for genuine demand of Xbox systems.

Because if the demand were as strong as people say, don't you think Microsoft would have done something to resolve Series X supply months ago? Hardware sales in total would not be down as much as they are; they would have at least held steady if not seen some modest increases. It's only barely the third year for these systems after all.

And if people think intentionally suppressing supply due to lower demand has never happened: Sega did the same thing with the Saturn back in later 1996 and throughout 1997. The reason was to not take as much a loss on hardware revenue, and to make it look like targets were being hit without expending too much of limited company resources.

Xbox did not have any game during 2022.
How hard is that for people not to understand it?

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

1 billion revenue from sub services (game pass) in one quarter.

For reference it earned 3 billion (2.9b) revenue all of 2021. Keeping this trajectory, it will generate another billion in revenue this year.

GG. Game Pass is a juggernaut.

Those $1 subs are really paying off. 333 million gamers paying $1 each per month for 3 months. Who knew. /S

Jokes aside GP is killing it, great strategy executed even better in recent years by MS/Xbox. GP is such a great service from top to bottom e.g. aligned PC/console/cloud as day one releases, ID@Xbox, ID@Azure, single ecosystem, discounts, first party and third party "free" games, family plan, parental controls etc. The library on offer for the price is beyond the best value in gaming, it's got real quality games in there and fuck all confusion to its ease of use and sharing.

 

[Topher]

On a series s? Not really. Can you buy HiFi rush used or sell a copy? Not really. I'd say overall this gen is worse than the xbox one gen when it comes to second hand sales. A lot of retailers here don't even have xbox sections anymore due to Series S and gamepass making physical releases less important now.

You missed the point, bro.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Its not in other industries. Its on other platforms that they don't have any control over. That they don't get a 30% cut from, but rather pay 30% to the platform holder themselve. A medium that the hardware focus isn't necessarily gaming.

They are trying to either go third party by putting on as many systems as possible, OR(and this is my guess) they want to be a Steam of sorts, waaaay down the line, where they would have THE storefront where you would get all PS games, and whose storefront would be downloadable from most devices, and not just Playstation.


Hence the term: Platform Wars.

What the hell are you on about?

Uncharted
The Last of US
Gran Turismo
Twisted Metal
God of War
Ghost of Tsushima
Horizon Zero Dawn
Gravity Rush
Jak and Dexter

All films/series/animations.

Like I said, expand IPs to other mediums, like you said Nintendo is doing.

 

[GHG]

1 billion revenue from sub services (game pass) in one quarter.

For reference it earned 3 billion (2.9b) revenue all of 2021. Keeping this trajectory, it will generate another billion in revenue this year.

GG. Game Pass is a juggernaut.

Gamepass isn't their only subscription offering.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Xbox did not have any game during 2022.
How hard is that for people not to understand it?

And whose fault is that?

Don't they have "the best deal in gaming" called GamePass?

 

[adamsapple]

Gamepass isn't their only subscription offering.

Realistically, somehow I don't think XBLG accounts for a full billion. If there are any other gaming subscriptions they offer besides these two, I am not aware of it.

 

[Goalus]

Xbox did not have any game during 2022.
How hard is that for people not to understand it?

Grounded.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

I'm not seeing where the "Xbox" brand fits with that, especially on other devices like PC where "Xbox" is a bit of a dirty word due to their previous failed ventures on the platform. But I guess that's why they recently rebranded gamepass on PC to remove the word "xbox".

Wouldn't be surprised if that rebrand also extends to other devices in the future.

Overall I'll say they lack focus though, they are all over the place. Are they trying to sell consoles or not? Are they trying to sell games or not? Do they need people to subscribe to gamepass or not? What's the cloud endeavour really about and how much focus are they putting on it at the moment? So many of the things they are attempting to do are at odds with each other and that really hurts from a marketing/branding perspective because it means you are stretched.

It's a prime example of the classic attempting to appeal to everyone means appealing to nobody at all. Even some of their most hardcore console fanbase are feeling the effects of this and are asking questions about being "second class citizens".

Edit:

This even extends to the fact that they have 2 wildly different consoles out there in the S and X. It's not helping developers, and it's not helping their customers.

Do one thing and do it exceptionally well, then expand your focus. They are attempting to expand before getting a fundamental core offering nailed down. Right now they are quite literally throwing shit at a wall and nothing is sticking so they are being dragged all over the place.

Nah, that's a strawman series of arguments you have there.

No gamer or potential consumer is confused about Xbox consoles or GP -

• You own or buy an Xbox you can buy or play games there or GP sub.
• You own a PC you can buy games or GP sub.
• You own a mobile/device/browser you can buy/GP sub and stream.

The Xbox/GP ecosystem is just what they're marketing is selling; Play anywhere on any device. Pretty straight forward right?

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

30% down on your third year is terrible. I don’t think we’ve ever seen hardware decline so fast for a console before. No way to spin this.

 

[Three]

Realistically, somehow I don't think XBLG accounts for a full billion. If there are any other gaming subscriptions they offer besides these two, I am not aware of it.

They have things like ESO, Fallout 1st, as well now but I'm not sure what these are making.

 

[Nautilus]

There is no indication that sony is moving away from consoles.

For now. The moment its easier to just manage a storefront, especially considering that PS system are very similar to PC is terms of gaming innovations and how they interact with games, is the moment they move away completely.

But yes, I do agree that that future is at least 15 or 20 years away.

 

[feynoob]

Grounded.

AAA

And whose fault is that?

Don't they have "the best deal in gaming" called GamePass?

Gamepass isn't AAA 1st party games.
Starfield was delayed. Phil is at fault for not having a back up plan.

 

[Elios83]

Pretty much a disaster for console sales.
I guess for them console hardware will end up becoming just an option until they fully transition their business to PC and cloud based subscriptions.

 

[Brucey]

On a series s? Not really. Can you buy HiFi rush used or sell a copy? Not really. I'd say overall this gen is worse than the xbox one gen when it comes to second hand sales. A lot of retailers here don't even have xbox sections anymore due to Series S and gamepass making physical releases less important now.

Which country is this?

 

[GHG]

Nah, that's a strawman series of arguments you have there.

No gamer or potential consumer is confused about Xbox consoles or GP -

• You own or buy an Xbox you can buy or play games there or GP sub.
• You own a PC you can buy games or GP sub.
• You own a mobile/device/browser you can buy/GP sub and stream.

The Xbox/GP ecosystem is just what they're marketing is selling; Play anywhere on any device. Pretty straight forward right?

Thanks for proving my point. Out of all of that, what is the primary offering? How do you go about effectively and efficiently marketing all of those things? Even the "buy an xbox" point is flawed - which one?

You can't just say to people "hey we are everywhere and anywhere and can do anything you want". No product is capable of that. People need to clearly be able to identify "this is the product for me and these are the reasons why I want it" based on the marketing of said product. Right now if you look at some of their marketing it raises more questions than answers, to the extent that an audience who aren't hardcore gamers will ask "what are you even selling?". And I think we can all agree that hardcore gamers alone are not enough to sustain a platform that is getting investment on the scale that Xbox is currently.

Realistically, somehow I don't think XBLG accounts for a full billion. If there are any other gaming subscriptions they offer besides these two, I am not aware of it.

That's not what I said.

 

[Aguero9320]

I said this at the last earnings report - I was trying to buy a second Series X back then, and couldn’t find one that wasn’t a bundle. I’ve been trying right up to today, and haven’t found it once. I don’t check daily, but at least a couple of times a week on Best Buy and Target…

It’s fine, because it’s a second, but still. And those are some great financials from Microsoft - crazy. Keep expecting a downturn. Economics be damned it seems.

 

[Nautilus]

it was a natural evolution of several home console faliures. they lost that market

They didn't lol. Otherwise the Switch wouldn't be selling this well nor its main SKU would be the hybrid model, instead of the exclusively handheld one.

Just with like any other company, Nintendo had its ups and downs. But unlike most of these companies, Nintendo always came up on top at the end.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Thanks for proving my point. Out of all of that, what is the primary offering? How do you go about effectively and efficiently marketing all of those things?

You can't just say to people "hey we are everywhere and anywhere and can do anything you want". No product is capable of that.



That's not what I said.

Are you confused that Xbox anywhere on any device is used to buy, rent and play games? Really? Yeah, I cannot help you with that one mate. GoodLuck.gif.

EDIT: Apple and Google and Amazon should stick to one thing. I mean how can Bezos expect people to buy books and shoot for the stars?

 

[Nautilus]

What the hell are you on about?

Uncharted
The Last of US
Gran Turismo
Twisted Metal
God of War
Ghost of Tsushima
Horizon Zero Dawn
Gravity Rush
Jak and Dexter

All films/series/animations.

Like I said, expand IPs to other mediums, like you said Nintendo is doing.

For gods sake, go take a read at my post again.

Sony is moving away, just like MS, from focusing entirely on a dedicated console, to being more of a Store Owner, like Steam. And Nintendo is not doing that, Its expansion efforts are exclusively on its IP expansion. Never said anything about MS and Sony not doing movies and tv shows either, which they OBVIOUSLY are, just that they are not just console owners anymore.That's what was being discussed, for gods sake.

 

[adamsapple]

That's not what I said.

Right, you said GP is not the only subscription they offer. The tweet and Nadella's statement is specifically about gaming subscriptions.

The pickings are very slim in that department.

 

[GHG]

Are you confused that Xbox anywhere on any device is used to buy, rent and play games? Really? Yeah, I cannot help you with that one mate. GoodLuck.gif.

EDIT: Apple and Google and Amazon should stick to one thing. I mean how can Bezos expect people to buy books and shoot for the stars?

This isn't about me.

Like I said in my edit:

You can't just say to people "hey we are everywhere and anywhere and can do anything you want". No product is capable of that. People need to clearly be able to identify "this is the product for me and these are the reasons why I want it" based on the marketing of said product. Right now if you look at some of their marketing it raises more questions than answers, to the extent that an audience who aren't hardcore gamers will ask "what are you even selling?". And I think we can all agree that hardcore gamers alone are not enough to sustain a platform that is getting investment on the scale that Xbox is currently.

With all due respect, it's not me who you need to be wishing luck.

 

[jm89]

No way to spin this.

It's already happening in the thread