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[Neo Blaster]

You guys know that xCloud allows you to steam Xbox games on Android phones right? It isn't about making Xbox mobile games it's about making Xbox games mobile. It's a novel idea and I'm interested to see how much reach they can have with it. Nintendo has shown there is a place for mobile gaming.

Except that mobile gaming on Nintendo is totally different from mobile on smartphones, those 3 billions are Candy Crush and Clash of Titan players who couldn't care less about paying a monthly fee for a service offering the kind of games they weren't interested anyway.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Glad to see some like minds on Satya / MS"s "billions of gamers" comments.

My only hope is that MS internally has far more realistic goals for Gamepass; well I'm sure they do.. but I hope they are going to be satisfied with a "console userbase" size of customer base. Because if they are expecting to ever, even with the greatest success, come close to a single "billion" of users they are delusional.

They are delusional at this point if they think 100 million is attainable.

I think they can find success with numbers much lower, but I do not know if MS's leadership would consider that success. The consistent mention of "billions" of customers leads me to believe their leadership has been sold a bunch of BS.

 

[PSX]

 

[Hawking Radiation]

This is Gran Turismo we're talking about, this shit was never going to have a timely release date. Shit, I wouldn't be surprised is this shit drifts into 2022.

I disagree.

Polyphony has started outsourcing 3D modelling work. Before they would spend months on modelling a car. This is quite a bit of workload off their shoulders so it would go a long way towards speeding up development. This game will drop in 2021. They have been making changes to their development processes so I expect quicker release timelines as compared to previous iterations of the game that took ages to release.

 

[Duchess]

... and especially not via streaming that unless you live in a rich country with unlimited data caps, it's really a non-starter.

It's cute that you think data caps would be the only issue facing streaming games :

(Control on Nintendo Switch via streaming)

 

[Tmack]

Tell that to Netflix..

You can`t compare it with netflix.

It`s a completely different medium.... netflix titles don`t have learning curve, you don`t have to download anything or commit hours upon hours on something that in the end turn out to be a subpar product...

If you waste 90 min after work watching in a subpar movie, that`s 90 minutes, so who cares? Also there`s a lot of (high quality) unique contente that you can get only in netflix....

Gamepass is very good for people with too much free time on their hand or with heavy user gamers.... They want to create a netflix for games, a plattaform for eveyone and in the end they came up with a very niche product for their current userbase.

 

[Handy Fake]

Apropos of nothing, I was just looking through Amazon (UK) looking for gifts (panicking) and noticed a listing for an Xbox Series X by a seller for £850.

Looks to be a bare bones and new shop with 100% negative feedback (2 reviews from the same person saying he had his order cancelled as the Lister priced it wrongly).

So I think we can surmise that scalpers have snuck into Amazon.


Edit: Just been in to find the listing again (it was under Women's in the Gift Finder section) and it appears to have gone. Can only assume some desperate soul has pounced in it.

 

[bitbydeath]

So because they couldn't sell 50M X1s they can't get more than that to play a mobile console game. I don't see how that works.

Maybe they’ll get more or maybe they’ll get less. 3 billion is impossible no matter how you dice it.

Tell that to Netflix..

All said and done - what Nadella is discussing as a vision isn't about consoles at all - consoles are simply an enabler to the broader vision that they're apparently targeting - it's about Gaming as a Service - that's clearly their focus over the next several years/decade.. Whether or not they succeed -

Gaming and movies are non-comparable services as they each attract different crowds.

 

[geordiemp]

Glad to see some like minds on Satya / MS"s "billions of gamers" comments.

My only hope is that MS internally has far more realistic goals for Gamepass; well I'm sure they do.. but I hope they are going to be satisfied with a "console userbase" size of customer base. Because if they are expecting to ever, even with the greatest success, come close to a single "billion" of users they are delusional.

They are delusional at this point if they think 100 million is attainable.

I think they can find success with numbers much lower, but I do not know if MS's leadership would consider that success. The consistent mention of "billions" of customers leads me to believe their leadership has been sold a bunch of BS.

Funny thing is, MS leadership believed in TV TV and own the living room 6 years ago, now its own the cloud.

The only thing they did correct in that direction is owning Mojang, but games like fortnite and the mobile games is what is needed to attract the very different market. Seems like MS want gaming division to be tencent in China but lack the vision.

 

[kyliethicc]

This is Gran Turismo we're talking about, this shit was never going to have a timely release date. Shit, I wouldn't be surprised is this shit drifts into 2022.

GT1 was 1997. 2-3 years.
GT2 was 1999. 2 years.
GT3 was 2001. 2 years.
GT4 was 2004. 3 years.
GT5 was 2010. 6 years. (Cell was hard for them)
GT6 was 2013. 3 years.
GTS was 2017. 4 years.
GT7 is 2021. 4 years.

Polyphony Digital are fairly consistent, other than GT5, which took forever cause of the PS3 architecture gave them issues.

They used to take 2-3 years, now they take 4 years. As all AAA game dev has grown to take longer over the years.

 

[DarkMage619]

You can`t compare it with netflix.

It`s a completely different medium.... netflix titles don`t have learning curve, you don`t have to download anything or commit hours upon hours on something that in the end turn out to be a subpar product...

If you waste 90 min after work watching in a subpar movie, that`s 90 minutes, so who cares? Also there`s a lot of (high quality) unique contente that you can get only in netflix....

Gamepass is very good for people with too much free time on their hand or with heavy user gamers.... They want to create a netflix for games, a plattaform for eveyone and in the end they came up with a very niche product for their current userbase.

Based on what? Out of 3B gamers NONE of those people who want ANYTHING MS could offer with their cloud gaming services? I highly doubt that. It's about reaching a larger audience and growing the base of people who might be interested in other gaming options. That is good for the entire industry. How do you know that Game pass will be a very niche product? Again how is it doing compared to something like PS Now? How does offering your customers more options a bad thing?

This whole thing reminds me of the backlash MS got for not including a modem with the original Xbox (no consoles have a modem today), or the attacks they received because of Kinect listening to you (Amazon Alexa and Google Home are both popular), or how they blended the line between console generations (the PS5 has many cross generational titles). Perhaps it's just about not liking MS a company and I can get that but they seem to be ahead of their time are many fronts. The funny thing is that offering Game Pass on mobile phone takes away NOTHING from home console gaming. You get BOTH.

 

[kyliethicc]

I disagree.

Polyphony has started outsourcing 3D modelling work. Before they would spend months on modelling a car. This is quite a bit of workload off their shoulders so it would go a long way towards speeding up development. This game will drop in 2021. They have been making changes to their development processes so I expect quicker release timelines as compared to previous iterations of the game that took ages to release.

Only 1 out of the 8 Gran Turismo games took "ages" to come out. That was cause of the PS3 Cell. Otherwise they are consistently putting out a game every 2-4 years, like most devs. Games take longer to make now than 20 years ago.

Its like this myth that Kojima takes forever to make games. Its not actually true.

 

[bitbydeath]

Based on what? Out of 3B gamers NONE of those people who want ANYTHING MS could offer with their cloud gaming services? I highly doubt that. It's about reaching a larger audience and growing the base of people who might be interested in other gaming options. That is good for the entire industry. How do you know that Game pass will be a very niche product? Again how is it doing compared to something like PS Now? How does offering your customers more options a bad thing?

This whole thing reminds me of the backlash MS got for not including a modem with the original Xbox (no consoles have a modem today), or the attacks they received because of Kinect listening to you (Amazon Alexa and Google Home are both popular), or how they blended the line between console generations (the PS5 has many cross generational titles). Perhaps it's just about not liking MS a company and I can get that but they seem to be ahead of their time are many fronts. The funny thing is that offering Game Pass on mobile phone takes away NOTHING from home console gaming. You get BOTH.

Stadias been going at it for a while now. How do you think they’re doing?

 

[Three Jackdaws]

Anyone know what happened to Project Awakening? trailer/gameplay looked so dam good but have not heard about it in a loooong time.

 

[DarkMage619]

Stadias been going at it for a while now. How do you think they’re doing?

Is Stadia doing what MS is doing? Pretty sure MS has a different approach. Again the closest thing to Game pass is PS Now. How do those 2 services compare? You know what? Go ahead and toss in Stadia too. How does THAT compare to Game Pass?

 

[bitbydeath]

Is Stadia doing what MS is doing? Pretty sure MS has a different approach. Again the closest thing to Game pass is PS Now. How do those 2 services compare? You know what? Go ahead and toss in Stadia too. How does THAT compare to Game Pass?

Not well man, they’re all performing with very low numbers. And yes Stadia has been longer on the market than xCloud by around one year.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Based on what? Out of 3B gamers NONE of those people who want ANYTHING MS could offer with their cloud gaming services? I highly doubt that. It's about reaching a larger audience and growing the base of people who might be interested in other gaming options. That is good for the entire industry. How do you know that Game pass will be a very niche product? Again how is it doing compared to something like PS Now? How does offering your customers more options a bad thing?

I mean obviously MS doesn't think it's ALL of the 3 billion, and nobody here is saying its NONE of the 3 billion.

The question is, with such obvious hyperbolic statements, just how big is the expectation for Gamepass with MS's leadership? Why is the person at the very top bringing up these pie in the sky numbers every time gaming is brought up?

Beyond that there's also the "we don't see Sony as a competitor, Google and Amazon are our competitors" tongue in cheek insulting of the console industry MS does. Spencer has outright stated he thinks the market is much larger than consoles.

Which means he's talking about 100 million+ at bare minimum. And with Satya consistently bringing up "billions", it's obvious MS leadership has been sold on some massive numbers. A doubling down on TWO unproven methods for selling people gaming content (subscription services and cloud streaming.)

 

[kyliethicc]

It's cute that you think data caps would be the only issue facing streaming games :

(Control on Nintendo Switch via streaming)

Change my mind - "Cloud game streaming is shit."

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Glad to see some like minds on Satya / MS"s "billions of gamers" comments.

My only hope is that MS internally has far more realistic goals for Gamepass; well I'm sure they do.. but I hope they are going to be satisfied with a "console userbase" size of customer base. Because if they are expecting to ever, even with the greatest success, come close to a single "billion" of users they are delusional.

They are delusional at this point if they think 100 million is attainable.

I think they can find success with numbers much lower, but I do not know if MS's leadership would consider that success. The consistent mention of "billions" of customers leads me to believe their leadership has been sold a bunch of BS.

This.

It's cute that you think data caps would be the only issue facing streaming games :

(Control on Nintendo Switch via streaming)

Lol, I didn't think data caps were the only issue. It was simply the only one I chose to mention. Of course you're right, there are many other issues standing in the way of streaming games taking off in the ROTW. You're example above is another great one.

Funny thing is, MS leadership believed in TV TV and own the living room 6 years ago, now its own the cloud.

This.

I just think MS executive leadership doesn't understand the games market. And internally, their Xbox business managers just sell the directors a bunch of baloney to keep them off their backs. It's no wonder by their comments they always seem so out of touch. Balmer was no different when he commented on their gaming business.

 

[Shmunter]

Stadia case study, as flawed as it is suggests streaming is not desirable by the masses. Gamers interested in full fat couch/desk games want quality. Super casuals will play angry birds. Where’s the market for the streaming service?

 

[IntentionalPun]

Funny thing is, MS leadership believed in TV TV and own the living room 6 years ago, now its own the cloud.

The only thing they did correct in that direction is owning Mojang, but games like fortnite and the mobile games is what is needed to attract the very different market. Seems like MS want gaming division to be tencent in China but lack the vision.

Well they aren't the only ones... MS/Google/Amazon all have the same thought. Apple is rumored to be having the same thought too. Can we stick a storefront on every cell phone on the planet? That's all they care about. (and for Apple and Google, 'are they trying to stick storefronts on our cell phones? lol')

They also all internally are almost guaranteed to have detractors, people who don't believe in the pie in the sky cloud gaming "vision." I'd love to be a fly on the various walls to hear those conversations; also quite possible they all have very different ideas for how large or quickly cloud gaming will grow.

But MS's statements paint a picture of them being quite bullish on it. That's their public face, and it's hard to believe they aren't also internally having really high expectations.

 

[jose4gg]

One thing Netflix is doing is talking with big ISP providers to cache some content, you can read more here, https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/, the Idea of streaming quality content (4K) that cannot be cached has a ton of compromises...

 

[TVexperto]

One thing Netflix is doing is talking with big ISP providers to cache some content, you can read more here, https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/, the Idea of streaming quality content (4K) that cannot be cached has a ton of compromises...

so is that good?

 

[Metroiddarks]

Are we sure it didn't receive bad reviews because it ruffled sjw feathers?

In general all the journalist have bugs not Bethesda level but big enough to affect the review.

 

[VanSiriusGabriel]

Looks the bugs are one of the main problem for this title but still much better than many other titles is just not a masterpiece.

Well, let's try it before giving for certain, votes aren't everything especially when are that high. Could be very good or even a masterpiece, plus votes are influenced by bugs which are not guarantee to happen to all reviewers and will be fixed anyway.

Its like this myth that Kojima takes forever to make games. Its not actually true.

This.
Fucking thank you.

 

[DarkMage619]

I mean obviously MS doesn't think it's ALL of the 3 billion, and nobody here is saying its NONE of the 3 billion.

The question is, with such obvious hyperbolic statements, just how big is the expectation for Gamepass with MS's leadership? Why is the person at the very top bringing up these pie in the sky numbers every time gaming is brought up?

Beyond that there's also the "we don't see Sony as a competitor, Google and Amazon are our competitors" tongue in cheek insulting of the console industry MS does. Spencer has outright stated he thinks the market is much larger than consoles.

Which means he's talking about 100 million+ at bare minimum. And with Satya consistently bringing up "billions", it's obvious MS leadership has been sold on some massive numbers. A doubling down on TWO unproven methods for selling people gaming content (subscription services and cloud streaming.)

When you have the POTENTIAL to reach 3B gamers that's a good thing. Will you reach them all? Not likely. But what is Sony doing to reach that market? I see Amazon and Google doing more to reach those people and that's why MS said they saw those companies as their competitors. It's not a tongue and cheek insulting of the industry. What Sony = Game industry now? MS has been very supportive of the Playstation platform with multiple MS funded projects hitting their consoles.

Outside of selling the box by the TV how is Sony expanding the market? If you aren't buying their box they have nothing to offer you. That way of business might not be the most effective as we move more towards digital distribution of console software. At the end of the day MS is still using a multi-pronged approach and anyone that's into investing knows not to put all your eggs in one basket. I'd wait to the end of the generation before declaring MS' failure.

 

[megreotsugua]

WTF is that Bo ? I am going to penetrate you witha cucumber !

Omg what is happening here!?

 

[Imtjnotu]

It's cute that you think data caps would be the only issue facing streaming games :

(Control on Nintendo Switch via streaming)

what the actual fuck is this

 

[3liteDragon]

WHERE ARE THE DIE SHOTS?

 

[Imtjnotu]

WHERE ARE THE DIE SHOTS?

look about ten pages back!

 

[Tripolygon]

GT1 was 1997. 2-3 years.
GT2 was 1999. 2 years.
GT3 was 2001. 2 years.
GT4 was 2004. 3 years.
Tourist Trophy 2006
GT PSP 2009
GT5 was 2010. 6 years. (Cell was hard for them)
GT6 was 2013. 3 years.
GTS was 2017. 4 years.
GT7 is 2021. 4 years.

They used to take 2-3 years, now they take 4 years. As all AAA game dev has grown to take longer over the years.

Even then they released prologue, psp game and tourist trophy during that 6 year gap. They get a bad rep for long development or delay but it is really not accurate. They have been a hell of a consistent game studio.

 

[3liteDragon]

look about ten pages back!

I'm talking about actual die shots of the PS5 APU.

 

[Shmunter]

I'm talking about actual die shots of the PS5 APU.

Not allowed, China would steal it and create rockets

 

[Imtjnotu]

I'm talking about actual die shots of the PS5 APU.

I just made up the ten pages back thing lol

 

[jasondefaoite]

Because for the broader general public - they don't really care or buy into the "moar power" discussions? Other than here and the various console warriors you see on reddit/YT - it's just not really a thing...

The majority of people buy consoles based on popularity, looks, and what's "cool" to own - typical FOMO - Sega proved this with their campaign targeting teen+ generation in the Nintendo/Sega "warz"..

Yes, I fully agree with this. Which is why I questioned the assertion that Microsoft marketing was successful in convincing a larger group of people that the Xbox was more powerful and the PS5 as a result under-powered. People, in general, don't care about this. If this was the plan, Microsoft's marketing team 'dun fucked it up'. What sells consoles is games.

 

[Krisprolls]

Yes, I fully agree with this. Which is why I questioned the assertion that Microsoft marketing was successful in convincing a larger group of people that the Xbox was more powerful and the PS5 as a result under-powered. People, in general, don't care about this. If this was the plan, Microsoft's marketing team 'dun fucked it up'. What sells consoles is games.

Yes, outside of people like us, nobody cares about power. It's all about the games.

 

[HoofHearted]

Gaming and movies are non-comparable services as they each attract different crowds.

perhaps very true... though I also remember a time when people thought Netflix would never beat out Blockbuster as well (considering that Netflix originally started out as a mail-in DVD service). I also remember many thinking that Netflix would never make it when they decided to go pure streaming.

I guess my point is... how we consume and use media (including video games) of various formats is constantly changing and evolving. IMHO it’s only a matter of time before we see GaaS offerings - whether it be from Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or Company X.

I believe this will most likely happen sooner than later - it’s already happening in certain use cases - the question is - which service/company will hit the “mainstream“ segment and how quickly?

The approach is the ultimately the same - people like perceived value no matter what the media is.. why pay $140+ for 2 games per year when you can get a service with hundreds of games for $180?

it will be very interesting to see how this generation of consoles change and adapt to new economical models over the next decade.

 

[DarkMage619]

Yes, I fully agree with this. Which is why I questioned the assertion that Microsoft marketing was successful in convincing a larger group of people that the Xbox was more powerful and the PS5 as a result under-powered. People, in general, don't care about this. If this was the plan, Microsoft's marketing team 'dun fucked it up'. What sells consoles is games.

It's a good thing MS moved away from TV TV TV and started a game service with multiple ways to access and play games. Respecting previously purchased games from older generations is also a fantastic move. It really is about the games. You are right.

 

[bitbydeath]

perhaps very true... though I also remember a time when people thought Netflix would never beat out Blockbuster as well (considering that Netflix originally started out as a mail-in DVD service). I also remember many thinking that Netflix would never make it when they decided to go pure streaming.

I guess my point is... how we consume and use media (including video games) of various formats is constantly changing and evolving. IMHO it’s only a matter of time before we see GaaS offerings - whether it be from Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or Company X.

I believe this will most likely happen sooner than later - it’s already happening in certain use cases - the question is - which service/company will hit the “mainstream“ segment and how quickly?

The approach is the ultimately the same - people like perceived value no matter what the media is.. why pay $140+ for 2 games per year when you can get a service with hundreds of games for $180?

it will be very interesting to see how this generation of consoles change and adapt to new economical models over the next decade.

When people start realising AAA games won’t be producible under this service it will fall flat on its face. The question is how much damage it would do to the gaming market in that time.

 

[SlimySnake]

They are delusional at this point if they think 100 million is attainable.

i dont know about this. ive seen crazier things happen. I still remember 2009 when the PS3 slim came out and finally started selling for $299 and outsold the xbox pretty much every month in the u.s until 2010 when kinect was announced and MS never lost a month after that... easily beating even the wii from that point onwards. This gen you have Nintendo literally doubling down on the Wii U by launching yet another mobile console, but this time they struck gold. I guess their genius stroke was not cockblocking themselves with a handheld and shackling even their AAA developers to a glorified handheld, but its going to end up as the fastest selling 100 million unit "console" of all time.

I think the $299 Series S is MS clearly making a play for that $100 million. they think the same audience who didnt give a shit about nintendo games running at 360p wont care if their games run at sub 1080p. As long as the console is affordable.

Which brings me to my next point, why didnt MS make a handheld of their own? Yes, they dont have the prestige Nintendo first party titles but they have gamepass which means they have a shit ton of great third party games they can sell. TBH, as much as i hate the concept of a 4 tflops series s, i think a 4 tflops portable console wouldve been a far more attractive proposition.

 

[ZywyPL]

They can aim for those 3 billion "gamers" without buying bethesda or obsidian or ninja theory. They dont understand their own audience. The mobile or farmville userbase does not care about traditional games. If MS is aiming for those gamers then spending $7 billion on zenimax is straight up dumb. They needed a mobile developer acquisition instead.

Damn, that Bethesda acquisition really hit you hard out of nowhere, didn't it? You just cannot stop talking about it do you?

MS just doesnt understand the console business. Lets face it, they bought Bethesda because they wanted to win the console war. Not because they wanted to aim at the 3 billion userbase. it seems their CEO is completely detached from how the console business works and comes off as completely useless.

But they don't want to close themselves just on the home console market alone just because there are some random immature kids on the internet that want to fight some silly wars around some plastic boxes, deal with it. They can quit the console market all along if they'll see it's not worth it and focus entirely on GP, and there's nothing you'll be able to do about it. It's their company, their business, Nadella and Spencer are free to do whatever they want, whatever suits them the best, whether you like it or now, and the recent financial reports clearly shows their strategy works for them, the revenue is constantly going up despite hardware sales going down, also whether you like it or not.

It's really Spencer and Nadella's passion project that doesn't really fit with MS's core businesses

It fits precisely into MS' core business which is service-based, not product-based, just like any other company in the IT sector. And again, the financial reports show it works so much better for them

 

[Jemm]

One of the problems with Stadia is that is priced too high: monthly fee ($9.99/9,99€) for the best quality (4K, surround sound). Games have to be bought separately (á $30-$60). You can also subscribe to game libraries, like Ubisoft UPlay+, but it costs $14.99/month on top of other expenses. You also need the Stadia controller and a Chromecast that can be included in the initial fee.

xCloud, in comparison, is included in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which is the $15/month. Initial expense is the Xbox controller. No separate fees for games and the library is larger. With the Zenimax purchase they can grow their library even larger.

xCloud isn't really aimed at gamers like us, but casual gamers and markets where people don't have or care about game consoles. There are many countries where all they have is a smart phone and/or a tablet. With just a controller they can tap into console games via phone or Android tablet.

I personally would use the xCloud when traveling/commuting when I'm away from home console. Due to covid, haven't had really a need, yet.

 

[B_Boss]

One amazing aspect of the differences in power between both the PS4 & 5, is that on the PS5 you can now edit/trim video clips while a game is running without suspension. That’s actually pretty awesome for a console being that it’s my first experience with that.

The PS4 immediately suspended a game if you attempted to trim a clip while a game was running. I’d be really interested in the more technical aspects and reasoning as to how it is possible when it is not on the PS4.

 

[ZywyPL]

Games have to be bought separately (á $30-$60).

That's the main problem I see with Stadia, it just doesn't make any sense, they're repeating the very same mistake all previous streaming services made and don't even exist anymore, if you need to buy games separately and the monthly fee is only for a very questionable "hardware", you're better off getting a real home console for the same 10-15$ per month, where the payments eventually end, but you get instant, real-time performance, and you still have to pay for each game separately. What Stadia offers is not what I'd consider an alternative, a different way of getting to play games, rather a poor, inferior version of an already existing model, and I think I'm not alone seeing it's almost already dead.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

But they don't want to close themselves just on the home console market alone just because there are some random immature kids on the internet that want to fight some silly wars around some plastic boxes, deal with it. They can quit the console market all along if they'll see it's not worth it and focus entirely on GP, and there's nothing you'll be able to do about it. It's their company, their business, Nadella and Spencer are free to do whatever they want, whatever suits them the best, whether you like it or now, and the recent financial reports clearly shows their strategy works for them, the revenue is constantly going up despite hardware sales going down, also whether you like it or not.

It fits precisely into MS' core business which is service-based, not product-based, just like any other company in the IT sector. And again, the financial reports show it works so much better for them

MS core business is about selling licenses and servers to corporations (B2B) that are forced to pay a good chunk of money because they are audited and need to operate in a respectable way. That is not how the vast majority of the end consumer operates on PC.

When it comes to gaming they already sell their services on console + PC for years now, how is that going for them exactly? The only other "gaming" market left is mobile devices and, as others correctly pointed out, is a market not known to play "hard core" experiences, much less in streaming.

Lastly, the comment of "immature kids" and "silly wars around plastic boxes" really shows a severe lack of self awareness

 

[LivingD3AD]

 

[Snowdonhoffen]

But we still don't know the biggest question, is the God of War sequel cross gen?....

 

[ZywyPL]

When it comes to gaming they already sell their services on console + PC for years now, how is that going for them exactly? The only other "gaming" market left is mobile devices and, as others correctly pointed out, is a market not known to play "hard core" experiences, much less in streaming.

I'll say it once again - go check their financial reports from the past year or two and check how it's going for them exactly, all the info is there, publicly available.

Lastly, the comment of "immature kids" and "silly wars around plastic boxes" really shows a severe lack of self awareness

Does it? I constantly keep reminding people that it's all just a business and it's all about money, that's the sole reason those companies are into those industries, nothing else matters, if people cannot, or better yet - purposely don't want to accept that simple fact just because it doesn't fit the narrative of some imaginary race where someone has to "win", whatever that even means, then sorry but I cannot take such people seriously, that's not how a grown, mature adults act, rather the so-called "manchilds", which as the name says, are kids minds trapped within adults bodies.

Like really, you have a company that's (finally) figured out how to make the most out of the industry, and on the other hand you have guys in the internet going like "no no no, it doesn't matter, it's all marketing PR spin, the console market is the only relevant market, fuck those 3BLN people, they're not "real" gamers, and MS are losing it badly!", like really, what's in it for you? I could spam the same type of bullshit, like, I don't know, let's say "Sony doesn't know how to make a good MP game, they tried so hard during PS3 gen to establish any MP-focused franchise on the market and failed so fucking hard, all their MP IPs are long time dead, they just don't know how to make a good game without scripts and cut-scenes", but the reality is, they just figured out what works the BEST, for them, which is the TPP cinematic, narrative driven games, whether someone likes them or not, Sony could be pumping up Socoms, Warhawks, Killzones, Resistances, MAGs etc. with no issue, but that's just not what brings the most money for their business, it's as simple as that, and no once can blame them for doing so. People on the internet need to realize that they are the just end consumers with no voice, no decision making, no nothing, and the games/franchises are not "their" but belong to the companies that make them, and can do with them whatever they want, we are seeing many outrages about games not going into direction the people wished for, Diablo mobile being one example, TLoUS2 being another recent one, and again, does that how grown, mature adults act? I don't think so.[/QUOTE]

 

[kyliethicc]

But we still don't know the biggest question, is the God of War sequel cross gen?....

Sadly, most likely yes. Assume the worst and be happily surprised

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

It fits precisely into MS' core business which is service-based, not product-based, just like any other company in the IT sector. And again, the financial reports show it works so much better for them

MS's core business is selling IT service software and cloud software & network services to businesses. In what world is that anything like Xbox?

Also, what financial reports, pray tell, show their Xbox strategy is working for them? Every meaningful bit of info that could be used to ascertain the health (or lack thereof) of their Xbox business is obfuscated behind layers of creative accounting.