From working with Microsoft on the PC side, I could see MS rolling out the initiative with Asus and maybe one other partner, if there isnt a traditional Microsoft produced box. MS can get friendly with a checkbook if it is in line with their business push. If they course correct, which they often do, they could just pull the plug.
My question to all this, what is the Xbox hardware team up to? there is a substantial team there, are they just being assigned controllers to design. That would be funny.
What do you think MS need to do to turn it around and have a successful product in the market?
I can see that too. I think they should
absolutely limit their partners to 1 or 2 OEMs. There's simply too much room for bad products when any OEM can make an Xbox.
Unfortunately, if Microsoft are fully offloading Xbox hardware to a bunch of other companies, their internal hardware team will be relegated to just that; accessories and support for the Xbox APU and miscellaneous third-party Xbox hardware. That would suck, massively.
I think Microsoft can do five things to turn Xbox around:
1. Get the jump on PlayStation by releasing a dedicated Xbox handheld earlier. I'm talking about an actual Xbox handheld and not a PC that's branded as an Xbox. All of the recent PS6 rumors point to a two platform strategy; console + handheld. If Microsoft can't beat Sony in the console space, beat them in the handheld space.
A successful Xbox handheld could be the key to getting millions of PS5 owners to ignore the PS6 handheld and instead, grab an Xbox handheld. Sony's failure with the Vita guarantees that a lot of people are going to take a wait-and-see approach before they invest in another dedicated PlayStation handheld. Microsoft can and should take advantage of this. Now, they can't just make a handheld in 24 months. What they can and should do is find a partner that is already in the handheld space (Lenovo is a good candidate) in order to significantly accelerate the creation of an Xbox handheld. No Windows anywhere; a pure Xbox handheld that has a great UI and plays and streams any and all future Xbox games.
2. Form as deep of a relationship with Nintendo as possible. Xbox is clearly not doing great in a lot of markets -- Japan and the entirety of Europe being key among them. Nintendo is the opposite, as they've become dominant in Japan and will more than likely be #1 or #2 in Europe depending on the country. The opportunity for Microsoft is to pair Xbox hardware and software with the Switch 2; sort of like the Wii60 'movement' decades ago, but this time, actual big bucks being put behind the association. The key is for Xbox to compliment the Switch and vice versa. Get people thinking about Xbox when they're buying Switch 2 stuff. People don't talk about mindshare as much, but it's still a real customer persuading phenomena. If people start seeing Xbox everywhere they see Nintendo, they will start to believe that the best combo for gaming is a Nintendo and Xbox device.
3. Radically different controller. I genuinely believe Xbox consoles have failed against PlayStation because of two reasons: one, they lacked great games for too long and two, they lacked a new controller. Every single PlayStation and every single Nintendo console
ever made have shipped with a new, different controller. The controller is, not-so-secretly, the
key to making a console feel like a new next-generation experience. Microsoft should break any future compatibility with the current Xbox controller and launch a brand new radical controller. The only controller that they should continue to support should be the accessibility controller -- and even that should be updated after enough time has passed. The Elite, the standard XSX/XSS controller, all current third-party controllers, current arcade sticks etc; throw them out the window. Features that people think are useless -- such as the touch pad and the speakers in the DualSense -- have made PlayStation controllers feel like they're more in line with touch devices (i.e., smartphones) than everything else on the market. A good start towards a radical controller would be to start thinking about ideas like a controller you can split in half, a controller that can change it's face based on what game you're playing etc. Get away from the archaic, static, boring Xbox controller and introduce a radical, living, next-generation input device.
4. Radically different branding, promotion, and advertising strategy. Xbox messaging, for over 15 years now, has been the exact same. It's the neon green, Mountain Dew, gamer fuel, harsh angles everywhere branding that's paired with a loud CAPS LOCK style of communication. With the amount of developers and IP that Xbox now owns, it makes
zero sense to continue leaning into this quick cut edgy fuck yeah dude look at all of this shit angle. It just feels like a relic of the Xbox 360 days that they never figured out had run it's course. I'm not saying they should have a sleep inducing, prescription medicine-esque brand strategy. But they should take a much less slime green approach to their branding. In the same way they introduced Kinect with a purple/lime green combo, they should introduce the future of Xbox with a completely different color scheme. They should get away from the color green entirely and introduce a completely new brand identity. Currently, blue is PlayStation, green is Xbox, and red is Nintendo. Yellow, orange, white, purple, teal, black etc.; plenty of colors available to choose from. As for the brand 'personality', they just need to stop courting the Jez Corden's of the world and start going after significantly more emotionally stable people. I don't mean that as an insult. There are simply too many people that Xbox proudly associates with who genuinely -- and I'm being serious -- make you never want to tell people you have an Xbox. That's horrendous for word of mouth and positive brand promotion. Get people associating Xbox with something that doesn't have caffeine, a passive aggressive X account, or an explosion.
5. Go after emerging markets and
invest more in Europe and Japan. Now is the worst time for Xbox to limit it's marketing and or retreat from massive markets. Even if their current console sales have collapsed (on a global scale), the best way back to being competitive is to slowly rebuild your audience in countries that your competitor is thriving in and in countries your competitor hasn't started crushing. PlayStation is significantly more popular than Xbox, but that doesn't mean people will just blindly buy PlayStation hardware. We saw what happened when Sony got cocky and believed people were sheep, and based on how PlayStation is currently making decisions, they run the real risk of repeating the PS3 generation with the PS6. There's a growing vibe that the people at PlayStation are out of touch with what their core audience wants; $700 consoles that don't come with stands, more focus on TV shows, GaaS everything, no live PlayStation events and just boring State of Plays etc. I say all of that to say that PlayStation's current lack of focus can open up a real opportunity for Microsoft to show up -- in emerging markets and other countries -- with a product that purely focuses on games and games alone. Price, ease-of-use, and localization are key in EMs and non-English speaking territories. If Microsoft makes great investments in these markets, they can find themselves being the face of gaming in them. Again, PlayStation is significantly more popular than Xbox so it won't be easy. But working with local developers, retailers, brands, artists, charities, events, sponsoring teams etc. This is how you start the process of getting people to see Xbox as a meaningful competitor again.