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[DeepEnigma]

Xbox is no longer a console, but a "platform". They need to stop saying, "Everything is an Xbox," and start saying, "Xbox is on everything." That would make more sense.

It's all marketing manipulation and gaslighting, you see.

They're politicians.

 

[poppabk]

The whole "play anywhere" thing has never appealed to me. I play games on my TV, from my couch. I don't care to access my cloud saves on mobile, tablet, laptop, or whatever and then continue there. I understand this appeals at least somewhat to hyperconnected younger people, but I'm older, and this just isn't interesting to me at all.

Take a look at the Portal usage in the PSN yearly review thread. I play more on an ipad through moonlight than I do on my TV.
The problem MS has is that there are already a million ways to play your stuff anywhere - they don't have anything other than content to bring to the table right now.

 

[Humdinger]

Take a look at the Portal usage in the PSN yearly review thread. I play more on an ipad through moonlight than I do on my TV.
The problem MS has is that there are already a million ways to play your stuff anywhere - they don't have anything other than content to bring to the table right now.

That's cool. I was just speaking for myself. I'm not into gaming on handhelds, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, or whatever else. I just like to sit on my couch and play on the big screen.

 

[Three]

Take a look at the Portal usage in the PSN yearly review thread. I play more on an ipad through moonlight than I do on my TV.
The problem MS has is that there are already a million ways to play your stuff anywhere - they don't have anything other than content to bring to the table right now.

That's exactly what they're betting on. There is a leaked email from the court documents that states content is what they see as important in the future.

It's what their strategy relies on now. That's why they are trying so hard and pushing regulators to destroy platforms including those on Android and iOS devices. They don't have a strong hardware platform in this industry anymore and will try and use "Games as a platform" more than anything else.

 

[Mobilemofo]

I have an LG tv and i asked my tv "Are you an Xbox?" And my tv short circuited in a second

. You say that, I'm almost certain I heard my TV release one those tiny fart sounds and a small tear following the ad.

 

[6502]

With Sega it was a shame / heartbreaking when they left the hardware market. With Microsoft, even as a series X owner, it has just become annoying and cringeworthy. Just die already.

 

[noob smokes]

Oh please...stock up 1000% vs 185% for the overall market under his leadership. This after years of nothing under Ballmer.

They really blaming everyone but phil smh nutellas cleaning up phils mess

 

[Sethbacca]

And you think Sony would say "yes please"? I have a question, do you believe in farytails?

Sony allows EA plus and UBI subs on their platform. I don't see any reason why a version of Gamepass that only has MS first party games (probably without day one titles because Sony would want a cut of those sales) wouldn't be allowed. If anything, that's just complete MS capitulation to Sony and a marketing point in Sony's favor. "We're an Xbox too". You can get all the Sony first parties and MS on the same box, you'd have to be foolish to buy an Xbox at that point.

 

[cireza]

You think you can turn every single device into an Xbox.

But I am gonna tell you, you won't turn mine. *checks inside pants*

 

[m14]

With Sega it was a shame / heartbreaking when they left the hardware market. With Microsoft, even as a series X owner, it has just become annoying and cringeworthy. Just die already.

The tens of millions of people happily enjoying their Xbox consoles are flat out of luck then, because heaven forbid you're cringing.

 

[Elios83]

Just 4 games.
And some people believed it (or pretended to).


At this point I expect that their next showcase in 2025 will be pretty much a third party publisher showcase.

 

[Crayon]

why ease and not just do it?

They have more time to get them on board with the new plan. It's still several million people.Enough to consider a core audience. At least a start.

 

[mckmas8808]

I don't understand the strategy of microsoft/xbox anymore. I truly think that they're in desperation mode and just throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks because they're out of ideas. I think call of duty on gamepass was truly the last strategy they had to grow gamepass and now that it's failed they know they're screwed and pivoting.

I agree with you. This doesn't make sense, if you want Xbox to be a strong version of what it was. He's sounding more and more like a 3rd party publisher.

 

[HogIsland]

I agree with you. This doesn't make sense, if you want Xbox to be a strong version of what it was. He's sounding more and more like a 3rd party publisher.

nobody believes xbox can be a strong version of what it was, and it was never that strong at its best.

xbox is now the biggest (3rd party) publisher in the world. that's a lot stronger.

 

[Ozriel]

That's a definition of moving goalposts.

Lmao, not sure where you’ve worked, but targets are reviewed and set yearly by definition.
Moving goalposts would be changing targets and performance metrics mid-year, and nobody does that.

They are, without a doubt, doing everything they possibly can to get Game Pass on those consoles.

There’s zero indication of that, and the possibility of success in that regard would be minuscule.
It would be exponentially easier to get GP on Steam, and even with Gabe saying he’d be amenable to that, there’s no traction.

 

[ReBurn]

Lmao, not sure where you’ve worked, but targets are reviewed and set yearly by definition.
Moving goalposts would be changing targets and performance metrics mid-year, and nobody does that.

Not sure where you work but where I work targets change all the time due to fluctuations in the industry, to the point where we don't do performance-based goal tracking any more. Continuous monitoring is how we track success. I don't work for a massive software company any more, though.

 

[6502]

The tens of millions of people happily enjoying their Xbox consoles are flat out of luck then, because heaven forbid you're cringing.

Good on them, but they likely wont be enjoying another one. MS are making a very poor transition here and are speaking to customers like idiots.

 

[Deerock71]

Solve for X:

X=

Xbox wins.

 

[RCX]

Xbox is no longer a console, but a "platform". They need to stop saying, "Everything is an Xbox," and start saying, "Xbox is on everything." That would make more sense.

But they're trying not to get lynched by the people who invested in their platform for all these years.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Hopefully Game Pass comes to PlayStation and Switch. Would be nice to get at least the first party titles on other platforms as part of the sub.

 

[Astray]

I've never seen a company in dire need of a Product Marketing team who knows how to re-position and craft messaging for a product like Xbox does. Either they have zero power there, or they're all clueless.

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

 

[GloveSlap]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

Xbox and 360 used to be about dude bros, FPS, online multiplayer, and powerful hardware. They don't have that identity anymore, i agree. Both due to bad decisions and Sony catching up in other areas.

 

[Crayon]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

They had it for a minute. Halo tapped a new audience who had played a bunch of goldeneye in highschool, and then might have moved on when they got into college. Halo massively hit with what was coined the dudebros, and I had never, ever, seen dudes like that doing a keg stand in one room and having a lan party in the next. Then that carried on smoothly with xbox live, and eventually cod4 was a total phenomenon and 360 was the place to play it. MS screwed up thinking that audience was more loyal than it really was and pissed it all away. Those guys are like 40 now and playing cod on ps5.

 

[m14]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

The differentiator for Xbox in the past was Xbox Live. When Sony caught up with them in terms of online (which admittedly took over a decade) that big selling point was gone.

PlayStation took a lot from Xbox over the years. Xbox Live (including gamertags), Achievements/ Trophies, x86 processor as standard, developer friendly hardware and software, build in hard drive, even the DS4 was heavily influenced by the 360 controller. It's amusing to think of PS fans pretending that Xbox brought nothing to the gaming industry while enjoying all the many benefits that Xbox made standard.

Also, how can it be claimed that Sony is about high-end graphics when for the majority of the past 23 years Xbox had an advantage in that department?

 

[Astray]

Also, how can it be claimed that Sony is about high-end graphics when for the majority of the past 23 years Xbox had an advantage in that department?

I agree with the rest of your post, but this part is nonsensical to me. This is a brand whose leader thought the initial Halo Infinite trailer was good enough to show people.

Forza kept looking beautiful, and Gears 5 was nice.. What else did they have that was leading in graphics?

Meanwhile Uncharted 4 is a 2016 game that still looks comparable to games today.

 

[King Dazzar]

I just asked Alexa on my Fire Tv Cube if she was an Xbox and she refused to admit she was. So it appears to me that even she knows MS are full of shit.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Meanwhile Xbox Series X with the bluray is apparently being silently killed off here in Poland. You can't buy it anywhere (Series S is still available) and the only way to get it is to import it from another European country. We will embrace the all-digital future and cloud gaming and we will be happy.

 

[Nonehxc]

Am I a Xbox too?

YES.

A Fake one.

 

[m14]

I agree with the rest of your post, but this part is nonsensical to me. This is a brand whose leader thought the initial Halo Infinite trailer was good enough to show people.

Forza kept looking beautiful, and Gears 5 was nice.. What else did they have that was leading in graphics?

Meanwhile Uncharted 4 is a 2016 game that still looks comparable to games today.

It's a fair point about Halo Infinite. I was also thinking in terms of the power advantage Xbox typically had. Third party games were often best on OG Xbox and 360, not to mention that Halo CE would have been impossible on the other sixth gen consoles. Although arguably with the 360 the better performance of third party titles was more a result of developers not being able to get the most of the Cell processor. The Xbox One X was also the most powerful console in the later years of the eighth gen.

Forza Horizon 5 and Flight Sim are great looking games.
Quantum Break is a game of similar vintage to Uncharted 4 that many people think still looks fantastic.

 

[Ozriel]

I agree with you. This doesn't make sense, if you want Xbox to be a strong version of what it was. He's sounding more and more like a 3rd party publisher.

You have to understand the different roles played by Nadella and Phil Spencer.


As CEO of trillion dollar Microsoft, Nadella’s core focus would be on maximizing revenue and profit. Ditto for CFO Amy Hood.

Spencer’s job is to make the case that the maximum profit comes from selling hardware and software and subscriptions. Obviously he’s struggling at that and now Nadella and Amy Hood get to force him to focus on profit at all cost…including becoming increasingly platform agnostic.

Not sure where you work but where I work targets change all the time due to fluctuations in the industry, to the point where we don't do performance-based goal tracking any more. Continuous monitoring is how we track success. I don't work for a massive software company any more, though.

Energy sector here, and goals are kinda set in stone for the year. Miss targets and it’s a red on the scoresheet. And that performance history gets taken into consideration when setting the next year’s targets. So less of ‘moving goalposts’ and more of recalibration, since the goalposts don’t really move within the evaluated period.

Sounds like you’re not doing something entirely dissimilar, though probably over a much shorter timeframe (monthly?)

 

[mckmas8808]

You have to understand the different roles played by Nadella and Phil Spencer.


As CEO of trillion dollar Microsoft, Nadella’s core focus would be on maximizing revenue and profit. Ditto for CFO Amy Hood.

Spencer’s job is to make the case that the maximum profit comes from selling hardware and software and subscriptions. Obviously he’s struggling at that and now Nadella and Amy Hood get to force him to focus on profit at all cost…including becoming increasingly platform agnostic.

Yeah that makes sense. I just wish they'd just rip the bandage off at this point. You know what I'm saying? Just go all in, if that's what you're doing.

 

[DenchDeckard]

This is one of the cringiest marketing campaigns I have ever witnessed in my life.

Microsoft really has no shame.

 

[simpatico]

When bros find out you can play Starfield on a weed pen, copies of GAME PASS 30 DAY SUBSCRIPTION are going to start flying off digital shelves.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Yeah that makes sense. I just wish they'd just rip the bandage off at this point. You know what I'm saying? Just go all in, if that's what you're doing.

Yeah at this point they'd be better off just saying it out loud. Its obvious they are forced to go down this road to recoup their investments, as their own platform isn't going to cut it. They might as well just announce that all of their upcoming games are going to appear on other consoles from now on. At this point no one would be surprised anymore.

 

[PixelatedBeast]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

To me, its still the "dude, bro" platform, but anyone who is serious about playing competitive multiplayer gaming will be on PC, using a M&K or Playstation controller. They've tried to make it more than that by buying other studios for their RPGs, but that has only made them more of a "dude, bro" platform since the biggest games Activision and Bethesda have are first person games.

 

[awwr999999]

Microsoft’s CEO: Being an Xbox fan means playing Xbox games on “all your devices”

Plus: Mysterious cat-game developers deny AI/Web3 claims

www.gamefile.news

They'll transform old Xbox consoles into new Xbox consoles via streaming and sell gamepass subs to every poor family in America.

They’re trying to change the narrative from Xbox being a failure to this new transition being some kind of strategy they’ve had all along.

Xbox has existed as a means to an end from its inception.
Xbox is only here to bolster Windows.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

He lacks the flare of bill gates.

Bill gates used a burger to compare the size of Xbox controllers.

 

[Astray]

To me, its still the "dude, bro" platform, but anyone who is serious about playing competitive multiplayer gaming will be on PC, using a M&K or Playstation controller. They've tried to make it more than that by buying other studios for their RPGs, but that has only made them more of a "dude, bro" platform since the biggest games Activision and Bethesda have are first person games.

That could have been their brand had they stuck to it and added other things on top.

Instead they didn't and allowed Playstation to get the dudebro audience in addition to theirs.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

 

[Lillie]

I'm regretful for spending money for digital games on xbox for a decade for them to kill the platform - i should have put it into my pc or ps library

 

[Drunkensamurai]

they're still trying to sell consoles... i think? it's hard to tell. but they're definitely still making them.

Not doing really well selling anything, especially Xbox plastics

 

[Katatonic]

Hopefully Game Pass comes to PlayStation and Switch. Would be nice to get at least the first party titles on other platforms as part of the sub.

That's their next play. Get the refugees to demand GP on other systems as if those companies are responsible for MS' fuckups.

 

[ZehDon]

Xbox is no longer a console, but a "platform". They need to stop saying, "Everything is an Xbox," and start saying, "Xbox is on everything." That would make more sense.

Well said.

 

[powder]

I'm regretful for spending money for digital games on xbox for a decade for them to kill the platform - i should have put it into my pc or ps library

I’m on PlayStation but I’m pretty sure you’re not fucked. I think part of their strategy going forward will be total game release parity across all devices. They’ll always put all games out on the core Xbox (whichever permutation that might be, even if they let third party develop hardware). But also, I’m pretty sure they know people would riot if all the games they purchased on their Xbox ended up being non-transferable to a new device. As long as you have an Xbox account, all your games are likely future-proof.

 

[ahtlas7]

What does being a Dreamcast fan mean?

 

[Kumomeme]

microsoft latest 'winning' approach :

 

[Edmund]

 

[SkylineRKR]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

This is kind of true.

Nintendo doesn't need any explanation, but Sony also built a legacy after 20 years, you can see it when you play Astro Bot and all those familliar things and IP pop up on your screen. It has Playstation written over it and gamers get nostalgic over it. Right now they show the dashboards of all past systems on PS5, and they have retro themed consoles and accessories up for sale.

If you look at Xbox, which has nearly 25 years on the market now, there isn't much to go back to. They had Halo. But they're running this franchise into the ground for about a decade or longer. Gears is another shooter and Forza is a racing game (which in itself is obviously influenced by GT).

They cut ties with Team Ninja that gave them Ninja Gaiden. They tried other IP (like Rare's portfolio) and they were kind of big with FROM back in the day (Otogi, Murakumo, Chromehounds), but they either stopped or let them off the hook. Or refused to acquire studios that delivered good second party output. There isn't much that identifies Xbox. They used to be about Xbox Live and the best place for shooters. Which are in abundance on Playstation for the better part of its existence now too, and since PS4 even were more popular there.

 

[keefged4]

You can't give a soul to a brand that never had it.

They had +20 years in the business and have continually failed to build a coherent brand identity out of it.

Nintendo is about fun and focus on family, Sony is about high-end graphics, strong 3P relations and 1P that focuses on storytelling (even their GAAS games, whether hit or flop, has some form of storytelling happening).

What exactly is Xbox except for Gears, Forza and Halo? You could hire an elite team of marketing experts and they'd not be able to crack it.

This. SEGA survived when they went third party because they had an amazing portfolio of IPs, Microsoft couldn't do the same.

 

[Drell]

This. SEGA survived when they went third party because they had an amazing portfolio of IPs, Microsoft couldn't do the same.

Well they have an amazing amount of money so they can stay as long as they want to try to be profitable.