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Sea of Thieves on PS5 reveals Microsoft's Trojan Horse to turn millions of PS5 users into Xbox users

ManaByte

Banned
Again, here never says Xbox achievements or Xbox account. My account even is an account from the Games for Windows Live" era. You are reaching with this Xbox obsession.
I specifically said in the OP that I had two Xbox achievements unlocked while playing on the PS5 and my PS5 playtime was reflected on my Xbox account. What the fuck are you talking about.

While the PS5 trophies are disabled, my Xbox mobile app notification popped up showing the achievements were unlocked - while I was playing on the PS5. Those 12 hours I played in the PS5 beta were also added to my tracked playtime on Xbox for the game.
 
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welshrat

Member
Thanks to the power of ambiguity and doublespeak, the joke is on you. Despite your intention not to buy an Xbox, you will still be playing on Xbox anyway! Wait what?
Lol yes, I have corrected my swipe type errors. Didn't make much sense.

However I don't mind playing Xbox on pc or ps, just doesn't warrant me buying another of their consoles.
 
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welshrat

Member
I completely ignored the typing errors while replying lol
Fair enough.

I don't mind their service though for the few games that interest me. But I have tried to invest in their eco system each gen. Every time I end up selling within a year, being able to play on ps and pc is a win for me
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I understand your thinking but tbh that is a dated way to look at the industry, especially regarding Microsoft who has been using services and monthly active users on multiple devices in PR for years. MS are pushing full speed ahead to be an account based platform holder on multiple devices. Xbox as a launcher.

I said early on in this thread that all this means is that Microsoft is a third party publisher. OP is pretending all this shit is some "trojan horse". Just a silly way to look at it.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
If an achievement is unlocked on the Xbox platform it’s an Xbox achievement.

I think where we are going with this is "so what"? It's not like MS pulled off some crazy stunt to have you unlocking Xbox achievements on PS. The only difference between their account and another third party account is that Xbox had a failed console first and Ubisoft didn't.

I don't see any other differences. lol
 
It’s the same account!

The nomenclature is different, therefore unless you already know they're one in the same, you're not going to perceive they are.

And that is the case with the vast majority. Hence why saying something like "if you're a SOT user on a PS5, you're still playing on Xbox" is going to be laughed at. Because the perception of what an Xbox actually is, is not in line with what you're trying to sell ITT.

Even if what you're saying is technically true, if you define Xbox as a backend application/tracker/whatever, you know as well as I that is not how the majority view the Xbox brand. And that's the most important part in all of this.
 

sendit

Member
So what you're saying is that Microsoft have effectively turned their Xbox console userbase in to a bunch of cucks?

Comedy Kfc GIF by Barstool Sports
Episode 7 Cuckold GIF by The Simpsons
 
Ambiguity that blurs the line between Xbox as a service and Xbox as a console. It suggests that "you no longer need to use Xbox hardware to play on Xbox", while the context of "playing on Xbox" has always been as a contest vs. PS, and when you use phrases like "trojan horse", what are you really getting at?

By framing it as a trojan horse it makes it seem like Xbox is making some savvy move in their age-old war against Playstation that Sony does not expect. The reality is that they are simply a third party publisher releasing a game on PS and the fact that you log into MS/Xbox account to play it isn't a "trojan horse" of any significance.

Glad that was picked up on. The more Manabyte replies, the more noticeable it gets.

How you view it doesn’t dismiss the facts of what it is.

It does because you're referring to something that Microsoft thinks the market (i.e customers) should see the brand as, versus what the vast majority of the market actually sees the brand as! People do not view 'Xbox' as a service; they view it as console hardware.

Microsoft can tell their shareholders every SOT or HiFi Rush or whatever player on PS5 & Switch is an Xbox player all they want; most enthusiasts are not going to accept that definition. Most in the market won't even understand that definition, because it's so roundabout and they already have an image of what 'Xbox' is when it's mentioned publicly.

If we listened to Microsoft or certain analysts without question the console market would've died back in 2012. It didn't, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
 

panda-zebra

Member
We’re now in the land of delusion where Microsoft accounts are not Xbox accounts. It’s he same thing.
Exactly the same thing, yes, (EDIT: not according to Topher Topher ) but we've been signing to them on playstation for years to play Minecraft with friends for instance and therefore being counted in the MAUs for quite some time already. Nothing new or unique about it. It's the bizarre trojan horse and turning ps5 users into xbox users revelation that people seem to be having issues with - your framing leading to them questioning the sincerity in making a thread and choosing that title.

Playstation players signing in to microsoft accounts mandatorily when the game dictates or voluntarily in order to obtain benefits/perks doesn't turn them into anything, but they do become MAUs of MS's network at the same time. That's honestly not in any way a big deal - MS is a big 3rd party publisher now and MAUs are obviously back on the menu as they're a useful metric when evaluating a variety of facets of that kind of business. PS5 users aren't changing state or becomming anything they were previously not, they are still ps5 players who also get tallied in MS network MAUs.

In the case of MS accounts they are the same. When you play SOT with a MS account you’re accumulating Xbox playtime and unlocking. Xbox achievements. This has been explained multiple times in this thread.
Spencer says there are three pillars of xbox; they're a publisher of games, a platform for which other publishers can create & sell games and a hardware platform. Saying "xbox", though, will still only register as the console/hardware platform for most and that's likely to be the case for some time until hardware ceases. Players sign in to their network same as they do with any big 3rd party's online accounts these days, and that's so their behaviour and actions can be tracked and analysed, it's all valuable data. From a player's perspective, that MS keeps a tally of hours played and tracks achievements for identical trophies obtained on playstation is wholly irrelevant. He might have put it a bit more crudely than I might have, but what GHG GHG said was not incorrect...

Why would this excite anyone other than Microsoft executives and corporate cocksuckers?
It certainly will not register with the average ps5 player sat playing at pirate ships, they won't ever know such things are happening and likely wouldn't care if they did. So why should anyone else other than MS suits? (and. of course, the corporate dong chongers).

You know what, I think this is just the first time ManaByte ManaByte has personally experienced this type of cross-platform account system so he got excited. Maybe if he played any games other than Sea of Thieves he may have noticed earlier.
That might be it. This isn't exceptional or new as such. Popping achievements that match trophies might be seen as revelatory now, for some at least, but it's kinda inherent when the game stores progress on universal servers... it'd be harder to prevent than anything.

tl;dr A player popping trophies and achievements simultaneously while playing a MS game on a PS does not mean they turned into an xbox user, if anything it just proves how much MS likes data they can work with. A slightly different thread title and a take more in line with just stating "all these ps5 players are now MS MAUs" would probably have resulted in less pushback that the trojan horse and turning into stuff did.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
We’re now in the land of delusion where Microsoft accounts are not Xbox accounts. It’s he same thing.

Incorrect statement. rodrigolfp rodrigolfp is right.

From Microsoft.....

"You’ll need a Microsoft account to create an Xbox account. A Microsoft account is not the same thing as an Xbox account, although you can use the same email address for both."

Creating an Xbox account is a step after creating a Microsoft account. PlayStation only requires a Microsoft account for Sea of Thieves.

 
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The whole point is you’re still in their ecosystem.

That's not how people buying the games on other consoles or non-Xbox PCs are going to think of it as.

And their perception is going to be what shapes a lot of the public discourse. Yes Microsoft technically has them in their gaming ecosystem, but that's Microsoft Gaming's ecosystem now, not Xbox's. Otherwise the division would still be led by Xbox in name; it isn't.

And that reality can coexist around the reality that players on other platforms aren't going to see it the way Microsoft presents it to their shareholders.

Incorrect statement. rodrigolfp rodrigolfp is right.

From Microsoft.....

"You’ll need a Microsoft account to create an Xbox account. A Microsoft account is not the same thing as an Xbox account, although you can use the same email address for both."

Creating an Xbox account is a step after creating a Microsoft account. PlayStation only requires a Microsoft account for Sea of Thieves.


Manabyte?

PCdC80j.jpg


'Ya lost, son. Maybe next time.
 
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When Xbox’s actual market share shrinks to 20m consoles sold overall next gen, losing Xbox hundreds of millions annually in revenue from their 30% cut, we’ll still have people on GAF touting 5m PlayStation players as a net gain for the company. This is chimpanzee logic sorry.
Yea, I don't get it. People act like where they sell they game doesn't matter. It literally does in terms of how much they pull in per game/MTX sold. MS is not doing anything revolutionary here, they are doing something that has been around for decades in this industry, becoming a third party publisher.
 

Killer8

Gold Member
The whole point is you’re still in their ecosystem.

In the flimsiest of ways which is not nearly as beneficial to Microsoft as it would be if you had bought the game on Xbox, as an Xbox player. Why do you think they are still talking about Xbox as the place to be when it comes to things like Fallout and Diablo 4 player counts? They still want people on Xbox.

When a PS5 player buys an Xbox game on PS5:

- they have less reasons to buy Xbox hardware because the games come to PS5 anyway
- they will not be paying money into Game Pass, because they don't have the hardware to do so and already have PS+
- as a result of the above, they will not be engaging with the rest of Xbox storefront and won't be purchasing more content for MS to take a cut of
- and speaking of the cut, Microsoft also have to give 20% of everything they make to Sony
- as the recent port analysis is showing, the PS gamer is even getting to enjoy the superior version of the game over the Xbox original

But sure, MS can include that player now in their corporate graphs to make themselves look better. All the while they are dying on the inside from the financial degradation of their brand and continued humiliation in the gaming space.
 
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IFireflyl

Gold Member
You're unlocking Xbox achievements and accumulating play time on Xbox.

Which means nothing in regards to whether you're an Xbox player or a PlayStation/PC player. If the device you're playing on isn't an Xbox, then counting that as an Xbox MAU is a blatant lie.

You're using PS5 hardware to play an Xbox game on Xbox services.

See above.

I unlocked two Xbox achievements not on Xbox hardware yesterday and clocked 12 hours of playtime in an Xbox game not running on Xbox hardware.

See above.

The more you post the more idiotic I think you are.
 
I guess some need to find any way to cope with an actual loss. MS is now publishing games in the PS5. That means they are officially going 3rd party. That also means they have to give Sony 30% of all of the revenue made off of those sales. This is a win for Sony, and you could say MS, not Xbox. No inflation of MAU is going to change the situation they are in.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I meant why does it matter in this particular case. To their shareholders maybe?

I gotta imagine a high MAU is the sign of a healthy environment. More MAU, more people spending money in the eco-system.

When people are buying or spending money on anything in Sea of Thieves, whether it's the game itself or any MTX / DLC content, it's more money feeding into the Xbox eco-system for MS.
 

Varteras

Member
I guess some need to find any way to cope with an actual loss. MS is now publishing games in the PS5. That means they are officially going 3rd party. That also means they have to give Sony 30% of all of the revenue made off of those sales. This is a win for Sony, and you could say MS, not Xbox. No inflation of MAU is going to change the situation they are in.

You just don't get it. Xbox lost a 20+ year console war so they could... *checks notes*... win the MAU war!

plan-planned.gif
moving-goalposts-goalposts.gif
 
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