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[coachmcguirk91]

Activision must not even give a shit about YouTube. They have 3 videos there in the past year. Most current one was from 4 months ago. Looking at their history, their video postings died off after the acquisition announcement. Since they are part of Xbox Game Studios, I assume they must be relying on their Xbox youtube then. However the Activision main webpage and the COD main webpage both advertise Game Pass for Blackops 6.

Call of Duty youtube page, which is run by Activision, has tons of trailers and ads. From what I have seen, they don't market Call of Duty on gamepass or Xbox at all. Some of their videos garner millions of views, sometimes 10's of millions. COD on the Xbox account is dead, comparatively

https://m.youtube.com/@CallofDuty/featured

 

[GHG]

Sigh...

I think PC gamers really have a giant blindspot with their demand for everything to be on Steam. If Valve took 5% or something, fine, but they often are taking 1/3rd which is pretty insane. At least buying games on a MS, Sony or Nintendo storefront is putting money back in the pocket of a company that reinvests in great games. Valve is harvesting 30% out and giving you hats and 1 GAAS game every decade. That's a gigantic sum of money basically lit on fire as far as the gaming consumer is concerned.

Not this shit again. There is a reason why people use Steam and continue to do so:

Instead of crying about it being unfair and blaming the people who use Steam, why aren't you asking for more from these so called "competing" storefronts?

It's a huge undertaking to develop and maintain something like Steam. Nobody else is willing to put in the work, so this is the result.

What I hope MS will do is build in to their new Windows-lite overlay some ability to have a unified library showing everything you own on Steam, Epic, MS Store, etc in one place. I think that's the only way they'll be able to eventually get some people to move away from only buying on Steam.

The GOG launcher already offers this.

No one should want 1 store to control everything like that.

They don't:

Game deals - Find video games on sale - GG.deals

Compare prices of video games from almost 60 stores, find the best game deals online. CD keys for all PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC games on the market at the best price!

gg.deals

If you buy physical games at Walmart and Target, you can still display it in your 1 library at home. There should be a store agnostic digital library as well. Ideally it would even show multiple stores while shopping so you can compare pricing, but that will likely never happen. It's a real problem if more of the industry transitions to PC, and all we get out of it as consumers is watching Gabe get 5 more yachts and no notable 1st party output.

Why is first party output important in the context of having a consumer friendly storefront? It's got nothing to do with anything else you've touched on.

 

[Humdinger]

The problem I am having with Xbox currently is the lack of clarity. This statement, for example, just says games are coming. They don't specify if there is any red line or even time exclusivity, so any sane and reasonable person will assume it means every single game is coming and it is probably going to be day and date.

No, I don't think so. I consider myself sane and rational, and I wouldn't leap to that conclusion just yet. Why assume it will be every single game day-and-date? That's rather "all or nothing," isn't it? Certainly there could be a grey zone between those two extremes. For instance, maybe - and I actually think this is the most likely scenario - they will drip feed these releases slowly, choosing them carefully, holding the "Xbox pillar" franchises back to not further upset the fanbase, and approaching the PS5 announcements with more nuance and skill than they used with Indiana Jones. They may get to everything day-and-date eventually, but it will be a slow road. They do have the current Xbox base, which carries most of their GP subs, to be concerned about. It wouldn't be smart to go all in right away.

 

[Ozriel]

Do you have any casual gamers in your friends circle? I'm the only "real gamer" (man that sounds awful) in mine. They all got a PS5s and Switchs, but other than Mario and Zelda i don't know any of them having bought any exclusive. GTA,, RDR2, Fifa or COD sure thing. The son of my best friend only plays Fortnite and Goat Simulator 3 (lol). But of course me and my friends are not representative for the world, but that's why i think the way i think.

Anyone who can play GTA and RDR2 can easily play Ghost of Tsushima, God of War and Spiderman 2. These games appeal to a mainstream audience, and it’s because they have themes that resonate.

Ghost of Tsushima - “Samurai game set in Japan when you kill with your sword an ride a horse”

God of War - “Badass Kratos killing gods and monsters in epic fashion”

Horizon - “Kill robot dinosaurs”

Spiderman 2 - Duh

The God of War Ragnarok launch trailer got a ton of folks in my gaming WhatsApp group excited, especially that bit with Kratos clashing with Thor. Thats the kind of badass spectacle people go crazy for.

Microsoft struggles to sell many of their games in that way.

Games like GoW and Spiderman 2 don’t sell 20+ million units without tapping into an audience bigger than just the hardcore.

Back to your question, most of the gamers I know IRL are firmly in the PS ecosystem and consider Nintendo games to be somewhat kiddie, to my dismay.

Pun intended?
I've seen the poor pc sales and please don't tell me all Pc gamers have already played them on console.

No pun intended.
I’m not certain third party story driven games are as popular on PC as on console, but also these games get released on PC with very little fanfare. Sony’s marketing machine covers the console release.

Pretty sure the Steam release of GoW Ragnarok saw only a fraction of the marketing spend as we saw on PlayStation.

Day 1 releases get the marketing push.
Atlus’ Metaphor had a higher peak concurrent that’s double that of FF7Remake and FFXVI combined.

 

[Ozriel]

They aren't taking 5-10% of the PC market unless they can manage to provide the breadth of games that Steam offer, offer better launcher features along with a better ecosystem than Steam offers and better pricing (and purchase options) than Steam.

It's just not happening, at least not without significant outlay and effort. If they wish to actually sell a reasonable amount of copies of their games on PC then they would be wise to continue to leverage the existing PC storefronts as they are already.

All this talk about them creating their own launcher and it somehow being successful is delusion from people who don't use and/or understand the PC ecosystem. If it were so easy then why isn't Microsoft, who own and operate the dominant PC gaming OS, dominating in terms of their storefront? The reason they aren't is because it takes effort and investment that they simply aren't willing to put in.

The 30% isn't being given away, it's not "free" for valve. It's justified due to the fact that they do all of the heavy lifting that enables your ("your" being any 3rd party publisher/developer on Steam) customers to have a smooth and enjoyable end-to-end experience from the point of purchase through to engaging with the product.

You should also point out that for big publishers like Sony, Valve takes 20% after they hit an easy to reach revenue threshold.

So it’s ultimately a better cut than the 30%.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Anyone who can play GTA and RDR2 can easily play

Back to your question, most of the gamers I know IRL are firmly in the PS ecosystem and consider Nintendo games to be somewhat kiddie, to my dismay.

No doubt about that, i just think that the majority of casuals doesn't care or even know about exclusives when they make their console buying decision.
I think most of the casual's decisions are being made like this:

- I had a PS when i was a kid so i'm gonna buy one again for my kid or myself
- "Hey buddy i want to Play GTA and COD, what system should i get?" You buy what your friends already own and chances are very high it's a PS.

No pun intended.
I’m not certain third party story driven games are as popular on PC as on console, but also these games get released on PC with very little fanfare. Sony’s marketing machine covers the console release.

Pretty sure the Steam release of GoW Ragnarok saw only a fraction of the marketing spend as we saw on PlayStation.

Day 1 releases get the marketing push.
Atlus’ Metaphor had a higher peak concurrent that’s double that of FF7Remake and FFXVI combined.

I was already talking to another person about that. The lack of marketing is indeed one of the reasons for poor pc sales. To be honest i saw no marketing whatsoever for Sony pc releases. Another problem is that the games are already "old" and near full priced.

 

[Alebrije]

It makes sence for Microsoft become multiplatform, they are a software company on it's roots..Every Time they create a hardware they fail ( pones, tables) and now Xbox..

Xbox was great on the 360 era but after that the downfall began.

Anyway they can Even keep producing consoles but it's clear their Main goal is delivering software to.every device possible.

 

[m14]

The Xbox 360 sales were not a true indicator, it was an incredible console, but the RrOD meant i didn't know a single Xbox 360 owner who only bought 1 Xbox 360, they all had at least 3, so the sales were inflated by that, I had a launch premium, launch core, then I got an elite when my premium got the RrOD then I got an Xbox 360S when my Elite got the RrOD

The problem with this argument is that it ignores how many people never bought an Xbox 360 because of the RROD. The high failure rate in the early years was a disastrous issue for Microsoft in trying to sell the system.

As for Sony, only Japan predictably propped the PS3 up and that was nothing to do with it being a better console. Plus the YLOD wasn't a minor issue either..

 

[RetroGamingUK]

It makes sence for Microsoft become multiplatform, they are a software company on it's roots..Every Time they create a hardware they fail ( pones, tables) and now Xbox..

Xbox was great on the 360 era but after that the downfall began.

Anyway they can Even keep producing consoles but it's clear their Main goal is delivering software to.every device possible.

What was the cause of the Surface tablet failure?

 

[semiconscious]

Imagine having to mention Candy Crush first…Jesus.

it's not that you just weren't made for these times. it's that none of us really were...

 

[TheGodfather07]

Indiana Jones has a very short window and doom is day 1, so things are moving faster than expected. Next year will remove any doubts from even the most deluded fans that Microsoft are transitioning to fully multiplatform as they will progress even faster.

 

[Badlucktroll]

is satya cool or is a bobo head like ballmer?

 

[pasterpl]

Define 'pretty well'.

And I can't remember the PS community begging for a Sea of Thieves port.
Those that did primarily fall within the demographic I mentioned before: former Xbox fans or people who own both systems and dont mind double-dipping, which most likely explains why SoT sold 'pretty well'.

Is this not good enough for 6 years old of game? I call it pretty well every day if GaaS (not f2p) is selling 1 million copies after being on PC and other consoles for years ago.

Microsoft's Sea of Thieves has surpassed one million sales on PlayStation 5 since its release earlier this year. Originally an Xbox exclusive, the title's expansion to Sony's platform has not only bolstered its accessibility but also significantly enhanced its revenue, bringing in approximately $40 million.

The details:

• Since launching on PS5, Sea of Thieves quickly topped sales charts in Europe and became the platform's most downloaded game in the US and Canada in May, maintaining a strong presence in top downloaded lists through July.

Sea of Thieves sales surpass one million on PS5, validating Microsoft's expansion strategy

The Microsoft first-party title has brought in approximately $40 million in revenue since being made available on Xbox's rival platform.

hitmarker.net

Overall with Xbox, PC and PS5 I think it will reach overall 1bn usd in revenue in couple of years, estimates for steam only reports around 0.5bn usd in revenue from the game. And they said they did achieved 40mln pirates just before PS5 version released.

Sea of Thieves: 2024 Edition

Sea of Thieves is a smash-hit pirate adventure game, offering the quintessential pirate experience of plundering lost treasures, intense battles, vanquishing sea monsters and more. Dive in with this revised edition of the game, which includes access to digital bonus media.

steam-revenue-calculator.com

No matter what metric you look at it is very successful game and it indeed did pretty well on PS5.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I don't think people like this realize just how insanely difficult it'll be for Microsoft to buy up more of the industry going forward. It's like they ignore:

1: The THOUSANDS of people fired post-acquisition​

2: The DROP in revenue by the acquired 3P post-acquisition (we've seen this already with ABK)​

3: Point #2 contributing to a drop in overall market revenue​

4: The closing of multiple studios post-acquisition​

5: The anti-competitive foreclosure strategy mentioned in multiple internal memos, including a document of studios/publishers Microsoft intended to buy to foreclose on Sony in the gaming market (which includes 3P this person mentions in their own post!)​

6: The arguments made by the CMA & EC WRT cloud gaming hang-ups​

7: Microsoft themselves saying ABK was needed to make them competitive, insinuating to regulators that all they needed was ABK to be competitive in the console, mobile, and cloud spaces. AKA, they can't use that excuse anymore for another major publisher M&A now that they own both ABK & Zenimax​

And that's not even getting into regulators being very concerned with a mega-conglomerate buying their way to a significant portion of the gaming market revenue, limiting variety/diversification in business strategies and funding routes for 3P who are consolidated under Microsoft's ownership. It doesn't matter if Xbox as a console still exists or not: the actual concerns about Microsoft consolidating the market were due to Microsoft themselves as a corporation!

Also what makes this take of theirs even funnier, is them thinking that MS buying more publishers will "finally" get their gaming revenue ahead of SIE's. But that was the argument they were already making with ABK, and it hasn't happened yet with them. So why are they recycling this talking point again? It really doesn't matter if Microsoft promised to keep their games multiplat on Sony & Nintendo hardware in perpetuity; the more they'd buy, the more "just" Sony & Nintendo wouldn't be enough. They'd have to make that commitment to Amazon, to Tencent, to Google, to Meta, to Apple....did people forget that Microsoft's own statements painted their M&A gaming strategy as a way to "lock out" other Big Tech companies from getting into gaming? Did they forget that MS buying Zenimax was a big reason why Google folded with Stadia? That they've explicitly mentioned themselves as gatekeepers against other companies from getting into the core gaming space, with this M&A strategy as part of that?

That's why they were surprised & upset when Sony rejected early terms and challenged them on ABK. Microsoft probably thought they had Sony & Nintendo's support "in the bag" to pursue massive gaming M&As to shut out other Big Tech companies, while those internal memos showed that a big part of their strategy was to foreclose completely on Sony and destabilize Nintendo (via using 3P investor firms as proxies like ValueAct) along the way.

Thankfully, those plans got ruined, but I'm going to keep mentioning this when necessary because some people (either intentionally or not) want to memory-hole everything that got revealed during the past two years when it comes to Microsoft in gaming, and what their real intentions were with these acquisitions.

I'm not letting people play revisionists history that easily.

What was the cause of the Surface tablet failure?

If they mean in terms of sales drop, I think that's more due to the pandemic ending and people returning to the office. Surface sales (and sales for a lot of computers/laptops honestly) were driven during the pandemic due to lockdowns and WFH growing significantly.

 

[Astray]

All this talk about them creating their own launcher and it somehow being successful is delusion from people who don't use and/or understand the PC ecosystem. If it were so easy then why isn't Microsoft, who own and operate the dominant PC gaming OS, dominating in terms of their storefront? The reason they aren't is because it takes effort and investment that they simply aren't willing to put in.

Honestly speaking? Because they were so busy trying to fuck with Sony that Valve stole the PC gaming market from under them.

I think Microsoft now not only have the big IPs that can and likely will bring gamers over by force (let's be real, no one is going to ignore or boycott Elder Scrolls 6 or the new COD), but they can also tweak Windows to help add features that no other storefront can have: Quick Resume, Rest Mode, native RGB in-game integration etc etc.

These are both things that Epic or GOG have never had at their disposal.

Yeah, and that's fine with me. Quick resume and windows lite is good. And there should be multiple storefronts. If Nintendo ever goes this route in the distant future, it will 100% be only on their own store. I can't imagine the arrogance of anyone thinking Nintendo should put stuff on PC and give 1/3rd of it to Valve for no reason. I think PC gamers really have a giant blindspot with their demand for everything to be on Steam. If Valve took 5% or something, fine, but they often are taking 1/3rd which is pretty insane. At least buying games on a MS, Sony or Nintendo storefront is putting money back in the pocket of a company that reinvests in great games. Valve is harvesting 30% out and giving you hats and 1 GAAS game every decade. That's a gigantic sum of money basically lit on fire as far as the gaming consumer is concerned.

What I hope MS will do is build in to their new Windows-lite overlay some ability to have a unified library showing everything you own on Steam, Epic, MS Store, etc in one place. I think that's the only way they'll be able to eventually get some people to move away from only buying on Steam. No one should want 1 store to control everything like that. If you buy physical games at Walmart and Target, you can still display it in your 1 library at home. There should be a store agnostic digital library as well. Ideally it would even show multiple stores while shopping so you can compare pricing, but that will likely never happen. It's a real problem if more of the industry transitions to PC, and all we get out of it as consumers is watching Gabe get 5 more yachts and no notable 1st party output.

There's a lot to talk about here.

Nintendo going PC? I think that's more than feasible provided they can make a DRM of their own (I don't think Nintendo would like to pay Denuvo).

The %20-30 Valve cut? Absolutely absurd imo. EGS did a lot of stuff wrong, but look at how they're still in business despite only taking %12 at base. And I definitely agree with you about the 1 GAAS per decade thing.

I have thoughts on what a post-Xbox Microsoft hardware business model would look like, but that would have to wait as I'm kinda busy rn.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Is this not good enough for 6 years old of game? I call it pretty well every day if GaaS (not f2p) is selling 1 million copies after being on PC and other consoles for years ago.

Sea of Thieves sales surpass one million on PS5, validating Microsoft's expansion strategy

The Microsoft first-party title has brought in approximately $40 million in revenue since being made available on Xbox's rival platform.

hitmarker.net

Overall with Xbox, PC and PS5 I think it will reach overall 1bn usd in revenue in couple of years, estimates for steam only reports around 0.5bn usd in revenue from the game. And they said they did achieved 40mln pirates just before PS5 version released.

Sea of Thieves: 2024 Edition

Sea of Thieves is a smash-hit pirate adventure game, offering the quintessential pirate experience of plundering lost treasures, intense battles, vanquishing sea monsters and more. Dive in with this revised edition of the game, which includes access to digital bonus media.

steam-revenue-calculator.com

No matter what metric you look at it is very successful game and it indeed did pretty well on PS5.

It's a new release as far as Playstation is concerned.

Compare it to a game like Astro Bot, which is basically a glorified tech-demo. SoT is hardly a success, it sold decently at best.
Discussing revenue it makes is a moot point, as PS contribution will be negligible.

 

[Klayzer]

I don't think people like this realize just how insanely difficult it'll be for Microsoft to buy up more of the industry going forward. It's like they ignore:

1: The THOUSANDS of people fired post-acquisition​

2: The DROP in revenue by the acquired 3P post-acquisition (we've seen this already with ABK)​

3: Point #2 contributing to a drop in overall market revenue​

4: The closing of multiple studios post-acquisition​

5: The anti-competitive foreclosure strategy mentioned in multiple internal memos, including a document of studios/publishers Microsoft intended to buy to foreclose on Sony in the gaming market (which includes 3P this person mentions in their own post!)​

6: The arguments made by the CMA & EC WRT cloud gaming hang-ups​

7: Microsoft themselves saying ABK was needed to make them competitive, insinuating to regulators that all they needed was ABK to be competitive in the console, mobile, and cloud spaces. AKA, they can't use that excuse anymore for another major publisher M&A now that they own both ABK & Zenimax​

And that's not even getting into regulators being very concerned with a mega-conglomerate buying their way to a significant portion of the gaming market revenue, limiting variety/diversification in business strategies and funding routes for 3P who are consolidated under Microsoft's ownership. It doesn't matter if Xbox as a console still exists or not: the actual concerns about Microsoft consolidating the market were due to Microsoft themselves as a corporation!

Also what makes this take of theirs even funnier, is them thinking that MS buying more publishers will "finally" get their gaming revenue ahead of SIE's. But that was the argument they were already making with ABK, and it hasn't happened yet with them. So why are they recycling this talking point again? It really doesn't matter if Microsoft promised to keep their games multiplat on Sony & Nintendo hardware in perpetuity; the more they'd buy, the more "just" Sony & Nintendo wouldn't be enough. They'd have to make that commitment to Amazon, to Tencent, to Google, to Meta, to Apple....did people forget that Microsoft's own statements painted their M&A gaming strategy as a way to "lock out" other Big Tech companies from getting into gaming? Did they forget that MS buying Zenimax was a big reason why Google folded with Stadia? That they've explicitly mentioned themselves as gatekeepers against other companies from getting into the core gaming space, with this M&A strategy as part of that?

That's why they were surprised & upset when Sony rejected early terms and challenged them on ABK. Microsoft probably thought they had Sony & Nintendo's support "in the bag" to pursue massive gaming M&As to shut out other Big Tech companies, while those internal memos showed that a big part of their strategy was to foreclose completely on Sony and destabilize Nintendo (via using 3P investor firms as proxies like ValueAct) along the way.

Thankfully, those plans got ruined, but I'm going to keep mentioning this when necessary because some people (either intentionally or not) want to memory-hole everything that got revealed during the past two years when it comes to Microsoft in gaming, and what their real intentions were with these acquisitions.

I'm not letting people play revisionists history that easily.



If they mean in terms of sales drop, I think that's more due to the pandemic ending and people returning to the office. Surface sales (and sales for a lot of computers/laptops honestly) were driven during the pandemic due to lockdowns and WFH growing significantly.

 

[mayham2199]

Honestly speaking? Because they were so busy trying to fuck with Sony that Valve stole the PC gaming market from under them.

I think Microsoft now not only have the big IPs that can and likely will bring gamers over by force (let's be real, no one is going to ignore or boycott Elder Scrolls 6 or the new COD), but they can also tweak Windows to help add features that no other storefront can have: Quick Resume, Rest Mode, native RGB in-game integration etc etc.

These are both things that Epic or GOG have never had at their disposal.

You are really underestimating PC gamers and their love for Steam here. Quick Resume, Rest mode, Native RGB integration none of that is going to get people to move from Steam over to MS and their store. Sure they can try to release their games only on their store like ES6 and that will get some people to buy it off their store but then they will go right back to Steam. It doesn't help that the MS store is still just pure garbage.

On Steam people have their profiles built, their trophies, their library, they aren't leaving all that because of some small console like features.

Microsoft would be better off waiting for Gabe to die and then trying to buy the company from whoever inherits it.

 

[Brucey]

Activision must not even give a shit about YouTube. They have 3 videos there in the past year. Most current one was from 4 months ago. Looking at their history, their video postings died off after the acquisition announcement. Since they are part of Xbox Game Studios, I assume they must be relying on their Xbox youtube then. However the Activision main webpage and the COD main webpage both advertise Game Pass for Blackops 6.

VP of Xbox Games Marketing is doing the best he can ok.

 

[Ozriel]

I don't think people like this realize just how insanely difficult it'll be for Microsoft to buy up more of the industry going forward. It's like they ignore:

1: The THOUSANDS of people fired post-acquisition​

2: The DROP in revenue by the acquired 3P post-acquisition (we've seen this already with ABK)​

3: Point #2 contributing to a drop in overall market revenue​

4: The closing of multiple studios post-acquisition​

​

Realistically, there's not any massive publisher left on the scale of ABK, and of the big ones, none really fit the bill aside from Take Two Nobody in their right minds would buy Ubisoft (for example) and take on the crazy number of staff. But aside that, some of the points you make are frankly misleading.

Claiming ABK had a revenue drop post acquisition as a result of the purchase makes no sense. Revenue decline was always expected since Diablo was released prior to the acqusition and made a ton of cash, and last year's COD was always a stopgap release that was never expected to break the market. Black Ops 6 should do much better.

5: The anti-competitive foreclosure strategy mentioned in multiple internal memos, including a document of studios/publishers Microsoft intended to buy to foreclose on Sony in the gaming market (which includes 3P this person mentions in their own post!)

This seems to largely be a forum invention, because aside from that suggestion from Booty back in 2019 (i believe), no such documentation of any nefarious plan exists. It certainly would have shown up in the FTC or CMA proceedings.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

The problem with this argument is that it ignores how many people never bought an Xbox 360 because of the RROD. The high failure rate in the early years was a disastrous issue for Microsoft in trying to sell the system.

As for Sony, only Japan predictably propped the PS3 up and that was nothing to do with it being a better console. Plus the YLOD wasn't a minor issue either..

Er wot? how does it ignore anything? I'm stating a basic fact, how many Xbox 360 owners do you know who only bought 1 console?

 

[m14]

Er wot? how does it ignore anything? I'm stating a basic fact, how many Xbox 360 owners do you know who only bought 1 console?

Anecdotal experiences are not fact. And it's certainly no more a fact than stating that the RROD would have discouraged many people from purchasing a 360 at the time.

It also ignores the actual reality that MS provided an extended warranty for consoles affected by RROD:

Microsoft extending 360 warranty to three years

[UPDATE 2] An apologetic software giant to replace any console suffering "red ring of death" for free worldwide; extension applies to every console sold since launch; company will take $1.05 billion charge.

www.gamespot.com

 

[awwr999999]

This cannot be a serious post.

"Gaming" is losing MS money across the board from questionable studio acquisitions to Game Pass and MS eating a percentage of each Xbox console's cost.
MS Gaming is laying off another 3% of their global workforce which is bad for MS and bad for gaming as a whole.
MS Gaming revenue for 2024 was 15.47 billion USD, down from 21.5 billion in the previous fiscal period.
Mentioning the four games being made available on PS and Nintendo provides a small glimmer of hope that both PS and Nintendo could have easily prevented.

 

[sainraja]

We'll talk again in a few years. I'm 100% sure singleplayer games will come day1, just a matter of time.

It's possible because plans can change. The current plan isn't to do that. I am thinking they want to do a bit more on the PC side (outside of just putting their games on steam) from a platform perspective before they start doing day and date.

 

[sainraja]

No one is saying we need to believe everything they say. I'm saying that when people paint Microsoft as universal liers, when they then select to believe one sentence that just so happens to feed into their narrative, it doesn't come across as logical or even cynical. It comes across as laughable.

You are doing the same.

 

[sainraja]

The drive to go multiplatform for these brands was always, you feel, going to happen. It was just a question of when. Microsoft's hardware failure has just accelerated the timeline for them, and their vast resources meant they could take the 'large publisher' approach.

The cost of games has increased exponentially, and these devices are being sold largely to the same people every generation. By owning the IP of large franchises, Microsoft are hedging their bets, ensuring that they will have a piece of the pie, regardless of what platforms emerge over the next 20+ years, whether they be handheld or even TVs. The console may be dead, but the brand has a future.

Nintendo and Sony have not been forced to have this conversation yet, but I wonder what their vision is.

Sony and Nintendo will likely have to do the same eventually. They might not have any plans right now but I am sure they are keeping a pretty close eye on what MS is doing so I think you might have a point.

 

[ZehDon]

You are doing the same.

What?

 

[Ozriel]

"Gaming" is losing MS money across the board from questionable studio acquisitions to Game Pass and MS eating a percentage of each Xbox console's cost.

Source?
Every console seller aside from Nintendo is losing money on hardware. They offset that with first party software sales, royalties from third party games and subscription revenue.

Do you have any evidence this results in an overall loss?

MS Gaming is laying off another 3% of their global workforce which is bad for MS and bad for gaming as a whole.

Pretty much every western tech company laid off employees this year and last year. Even those making profits.
Sony laid off 900 staff from PlayStation division earlier this year, including from Naughty Dog and Insomniac. Is PlayStation also dying too?

MS Gaming revenue for 2024 was 15.47 billion USD, down from 21.5 billion in the previous fiscal period.
Mentioning the four games being made available on PS and Nintendo provides a small glimmer of hope that both PS and Nintendo could have easily prevented.

Oh, you poor misled fellow. MS gaming revenue is up significantly. Statista had an error in the text that flipped FY2023 and FY2024 numbers around and that gets picked up by Google. It didn’t drop from $21.5mln to $15.7mln. It went up the other way.

As the chart above shows, revenue grew significant post Activision acquisition, as any sane person should expect. How did you imagine revenues would drop after adding ABK games to the portfolio?

Sales of Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Grounded and Hi-Fi Rush on PS5 probably added $200 mln to this, at best, with the majority of it coming from Sea of Thieves.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

We really need to distinguish between Xbox gaming and Microsoft gaming here

 

[nowhat]

We really need to distinguish between Xbox gaming and Microsoft gaming here

What is the distinction?

 

[Ozriel]

We really need to distinguish between Xbox gaming and Microsoft gaming here

What’s ’Xbox gaming’?

 

[Ozriel]

What is the distinction?

One allows him to try to carve out Activision and any ABK related revenue boost for warz purposes.

 

[DJ12]

Anecdotal experiences are not fact. And it's certainly no more a fact than stating that the RROD would have discouraged many people from purchasing a 360 at the time.

It also ignores the actual reality that MS provided an extended warranty for consoles affected by RROD:

Microsoft extending 360 warranty to three years

[UPDATE 2] An apologetic software giant to replace any console suffering "red ring of death" for free worldwide; extension applies to every console sold since launch; company will take $1.05 billion charge.

www.gamespot.com

I brought 3, 2 basic ones and one premium at launch. Sold the 2 basic ones which both broke almost immediately, sold the premium when the ps3 came out and was contacted by the buyer a few months later as he needed my details to put in a warranty claim.

I think you'll be hard pressed to find an Xbox fan that got a launch unit that didn't buy at least one more before the warranty was extended.

Obviously people can lie about it to prove points though.

 

[awwr999999]

Source?
Every console seller aside from Nintendo is losing money on hardware. They offset that with first party software sales, royalties from third party games and subscription revenue.
Do you have any evidence this results in an overall loss?
Pretty much every western tech company laid off employees this year and last year. Even those making profits.
Sony laid off 900 staff from PlayStation division earlier this year, including from Naughty Dog and Insomniac. Is PlayStation also dying too?

Across the board MS gaming is doing things that should worry shareholders.
MS is currently eating $100-200 per Xbox console sold, according to Spencer.
Neither Sony nor Nintendo is selling their consoles at a loss.
MS is cannibalizing sales of brand new games from studios that it owns via Gamepass subscriptions.
Neither PS nor Nintendo are doing that with their games.
Xbox hardware is lagging behind both Sony and Nintendo with no real controller innovation since the first Xbox which largely copied Sony's DualShock 2.
Both PS and Nintendo have been pushing the envelope with regards to controller innovation.

Finally, there's Xbox moving onto badly underpowered third party platforms in a last ditch attempt to boost game sales.
This is what desperate scrambling prior to an inevitable collapse looks like.

What’s ’Xbox gaming’?

Gates authorized the creation of Xbox to stop Sony from moving into PC territory.
MS owns Xbox.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I brought 3, 2 basic ones and one premium at launch. Sold the 2 basic ones which both broke almost immediately, sold the premium when the ps3 came our and was contacted by the sell a few months later as he needed my details to put in a warranty claim.

I think you'll be hard pressed to find an Xbox fan that got a launch unit that didn't buy at least one more before the warranty was extended.

Obviously people can lie about it to prove points though.

I know of friends and acquaintances that changed multiple Xbox. I can say mine (OG launch model, curse you update that removed the godly blades UI) lasted the whole generation, but it is an exception in a group that did change multiple ones.

 

[eerik9000]

VP of Xbox Games Marketing is doing the best he can ok.

Greenie works for Xbox Game Studios, not for Activision. They have their own marketing people.

 

[eerik9000]

What is the distinction?

Microsoft Gaming includes:
Xbox
Bethesda
Activision-Blizzard-King

In other words, Xbox is just a fraction of Microsoft Gaming.

 

[nowhat]

Microsoft Gaming includes:
Xbox
Bethesda
Activision-Blizzard-King

In other words, Xbox is just a fraction of Microsoft Gaming.

That's "Zenimax" (includes other studios like Id) instead of "Bethesda". But, up until recently, they were supposed to be the fundamentals of Xbox. What makes you really want to get both the console and a GP subscription. So what changed?

 

[eerik9000]

So what changed?

Microsoft acquired ABK.

 

[nowhat]

Microsoft acquired ABK.

But us consumers, investors, and regulators were all told that nothing would change!

 

[Ozriel]

Across the board MS gaming is doing things that should worry shareholders.

Shareholders will definitely be pretty pleased with the hike in revenue. MS has invested untold billions in AI and aren’t yet making revenue streams from that in line with that investment.

They’ll be tickled pink at the boost from this year’s COD sales.

MS is currently eating $100-200 per Xbox console sold, according to Spencer.
Neither Sony nor Nintendo is selling their consoles at a loss.
Xbox hardware is lagging behind both Sony and Nintendo

“Xbox is losing money on hardware sales. But also their hardware sales are mediocre and lagging behind”

So basically they aren’t losing THAT much money in hardware subsidies, right?

Have you considered trying to keep your stories consistent and logical?

with no real controller innovation since the first Xbox which largely copied Sony's DualShock 2.
Both PS and Nintendo have been pushing the envelope with regards to controller innovation.

Ah yes. Controller innovation. Something shareholders care a lot about.

Finally, there's Xbox moving onto badly underpowered third party platforms in a last ditch attempt to boost game sales.

I’m not sure I’d call the PS5 and Switch 2 ‘badly underpowered’.

This is what desperate scrambling prior to an inevitable collapse looks like.

A 61% increase in gaming revenue is a sign of inevitable collapse?

Gates authorized the creation of Xbox to stop Sony from moving into PC territory.
MS owns Xbox.

I’m not sure what this has to do with the conversation.
Try to aim for higher quality posts.

 

[Kvally]

VP of Xbox Games Marketing is doing the best he can ok.

They should have kept Major Nelson and canned Aaron.

 

[Brucey]

Anecdotal experiences are not fact. And it's certainly no more a fact than stating that the RROD would have discouraged many people from purchasing a 360 at the time.

It also ignores the actual reality that MS provided an extended warranty for consoles affected by RROD:

Microsoft extending 360 warranty to three years

[UPDATE 2] An apologetic software giant to replace any console suffering "red ring of death" for free worldwide; extension applies to every console sold since launch; company will take $1.05 billion charge.

www.gamespot.com

Talk about rewriting history. Microsoft denied it was a problem for a long time. Hardcore bought multiple replacements rather than wait months for an RMA.

I would say it's fair to presume more people bought replacement units while MS was denying any problem in the first place, versus those that said ok this is too unreliable for me to buy. It wasn't known till after launch, and then the blame game of environmental conditions etc was thrown back.

 

[Brucey]

From your link:

"From its November 2005 launch onward, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been plagued by reports of malfunctioning consoles. While the company downplayed reports of faulty hardware for the better part of a year after launch, last September it acknowledged that its original batch of systems was failing at an unusually high rate. Microsoft extended the standard 90-day warranty to a full year, and promised to reimburse all those customers who had already been made to pay for repairs.

In April, the company once again tweaked its warranty service, saying it would no longer charge shipping on repaired Xbox 360 consoles, and would extend the warranty on those repairs."

So to summarize, in July 2007 MS finally decided to cover units that failed after launch. 18 months later?

 

[Brucey]

They should have kept Major Nelson and canned Aaron.

Major did have an old man pedo vibe, Aarons face seems friendlier.

 

[Brucey]

I know of friends and acquaintances that changed multiple Xbox. I can say mine (OG launch model, curse you update that removed the godly blades UI) lasted the whole generation, but it is an exception in a group that did change multiple ones.

Mine never died but I remember being surprised by how loud it was. As loud as the servers in the data center I was working at.

 

[m14]

From your link:

"From its November 2005 launch onward, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been plagued by reports of malfunctioning consoles. While the company downplayed reports of faulty hardware for the better part of a year after launch, last September it acknowledged that its original batch of systems was failing at an unusually high rate. Microsoft extended the standard 90-day warranty to a full year, and promised to reimburse all those customers who had already been made to pay for repairs.

In April, the company once again tweaked its warranty service, saying it would no longer charge shipping on repaired Xbox 360 consoles, and would extend the warranty on those repairs."

So to summarize, in July 2007 MS finally decided to cover units that failed after launch. 18 months later?

Does the hardcore audience who bought multiple units in the first eighteen months outweigh the potential customers that were put off from purchasing a 360 because of the RROD?
The idea that MS only benefited in sales because of RROD and never lost any doesn't stack up.

 

[Brucey]

Greenie works for Xbox Game Studios, not for Activision. They have their own marketing people.

I guess thats why they are taking an axe to many of the duplicate roles post acquisition. Welcome to "Microsoft HR".

 

[Brucey]

Does the hardcore audience who bought multiple units in the first eighteen months outweigh the potential customers that were put off from purchasing a 360 because of the RROD?
The idea that MS only benefited in sales because of RROD and never lost any doesn't stack up.

There really wasn't another console choice at the time. PS3 didn't launch for another year and then it was at $500 and $600.

Yes, some could have held off due to quality concerns. But many didn't.

 

[solidus12]

He’s still fighting