Support NeoGAF

[CyberPanda]

Latest episode available to download now, also shares more information on plans for the GamesIndustry.biz Academy

James Batchelor
UK Editor
Tuesday 21st January 2020


Matt, Marie and James discuss the biggest topics of the week, starting with Microsoft's plans for Xbox Series X.
The platform holder recently revealed that the next-generation console will have no exclusive titles to begin with, instead allowing games to play across both Series X and the Xbox One family of devices.
While this inevitably raised questions as to how the platform holder hopes to shift units without system-selling games, our contributing editor Rob Fahey observed that this is the next natural step in Microsoft's bid to create an 'evergreeen games platform.'

We discuss our own thoughts on Xbox's plans for the next generation, and the potential stumbling blocks the platform holder faces as it asks the entire games industry -- and the games-buying public -- to embrace a new business model.

Then we turn our attention to a little news of our own: the launch of the GamesIndustry.biz Academy. We share more about its origins, its goals and how you can get involved in expanding this ongoing and free resource. If you want to reach out, you can email academy@gamesindustry.biz.

(And in case you missed it, we ran a dedicated episode to the news that Sony is skipping E3 2020 last week. You can listen/download here.)

You can listen to our latest episode below, subscribe to our RSS feed, or download the file directly here. It is also available via Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Player FM, TuneIn and other widely-used podcast platforms.

————
The embedded version of the podcast can be found here:

The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Xbox's plan to reshape the console industry

Matt, Marie and James discuss the biggest topics of the week, starting with Microsoft's plans for Xbox Series X. The pl…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Birdo]

The only thing the Series X will reshape, is your entertainment unit.

 

[mejin]

To reshape = to destroy and maybe rebuild.

 

[ethomaz]

That is my biggest fear

Well I will need to stop to play games eventually because the industry will never go back to be good like the old days again.

 

[Hobbygaming]

The gamers dictate the future of the industry and good AAA games will take you the furthest, over any features

 

[Bryank75]

I have too many concerns about Microsoft and Xbox to support their endeavors... it looks like they have already proliferated many of them with the imminent arrival of the next-gen, such as going all-in at the start of the generation with a lot of money hats and so on...

 

[Neofire]

I do as well believe Microsoft is trying to reshape the industry, seeing that they are struggling to compete in a traditional realm of gaming like Sony and Nintendo so they figured "hell let's change how the gaming industry is ran". Games as a service, cloud gaming etc, non of which I support but it seems to be Microsoft's vision.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

They wish to reshape it in their own GaaS image, taking gaming in the same direction they've taken their Windows software and hosting architecture.

It's not a dumb approach. Nintendo continues to shape consoles in their own image and profits greatly from their impetuousness.

 

[MilkyJoe]

That is my biggest fear

Well I will need to stop to play games eventually because the industry will never go back to be good like the old days again.

Nothing stays the same. Once you accept that, you'll find peace

 

[Neofire]

Nothing stays the same. Once you accept that, you'll find peace

True but doesn't he has to accept it to be at peace. He should just move on, like many would if Microsoft's vision takes hold.

 

[MilkyJoe]

True but doesn't he has to accept it to be at peace. He should just move on, like many would if Microsoft's vision takes hold.

The industry shifted as soon as the internet plugged into the console.

 

[ethomaz]

Nothing stays the same. Once you accept that, you'll find peace

I don't need to accept... I just need to give up and stop to play games... it is easier.

 

[mckmas8808]

The industry shifted as soon as the internet plugged into the console.

Shifted yes. But it hasn't changed so much to do a 180 yet. Wanting streaming-only consoles is something I'd consider a 180. And I believe that's what MS wants long-term.

 

[SuperLupeRap]

That is my biggest fear

Well I will need to stop to play games eventually because the industry will never go back to be good like the old days again.

Wrong reply

 

[ethomaz]

Wrong reply

Wrong?

 

[SuperLupeRap]

I'm fine with the world moving to all digital. Made music, movies, books and basically all kinds of content a lot more easy to access and more abundantly. So yeah bring it on for gaming. If Gamepass is any indication then I'm 100% in.

Those who want to be stuck in the past can carry on using CD players, use Nokia 3310'S and stick to all physical

 

[SuperLupeRap]

Wrong?

Didn't mean to reply to you.

 

[Neofire]

The industry shifted as soon as the internet plugged into the console.

There is no disputing that but not all parts of evolution is good. This "change" that is happening isn't all natural its mainly due to Microsoft and their deep pockets.

 

[Tripolygon]

Deja vu

 

[Hobbygaming]

I don't need to accept... I just need to give up and stop to play games... it is ⁰0000⁰⁰000000000easier.

Yep I feel closer to my plan of going retro gaming only. There's been a lot of games that I've missed over the years

 

[MilkyJoe]

Shifted yes. But it hasn't changed so much to do a 180 yet. Wanting streaming-only consoles is something I'd consider a 180. And I believe that's what MS wants long-term.

we're nowhere near that

 

[JLB]

That is my biggest fear

Well I will need to stop to play games eventually because the industry will never go back to be good like the old days again.

The old days were shit. Games were utterly expensive, no refund, forget getting a new release until 6 months later -at least where a Ilve-, no multiplayer, shitty graphics, terrible controllers, fighting to free some extended memory, changing config.sys and autoexec.bat and crossing fingers, and so much more.
Nostalgia sometimes makes us believe that the past was a wonderful place. It wasnt.

 

[ethomaz]

The old days were shit. Games were utterly expensive, no refund, forget getting a new release until 6 months later -at least where a Ilve-, no multiplayer, shitty graphics, terrible controllers, fighting to free some extended memory, changing config.sys and autoexec.bat and crossing fingers, and so much more.
Nostalgia sometimes makes us believe that the past was a wonderful place. It wasnt.

My old gen experiences resumes to put the cart or disc on console and play dozen of hours.

It was awesome.

Brought tons of games... one of the best parts where that game were almost bug free without needs updates

The whole online, updates, etc made the devs lazzy.

 

[DanielsM]

They better reshape their sales forecast, I have Xbox sales at less then 5m for 2019, my guess is 4.826m units but waiting on confirmation from statista. My guess is the Switch sold more in the month of December than Xbox sold the whole year, my guess is greater than 5m units for December alone for the Switch, annual at 20m+ (20.194m)

My guess the worst Xbox unit sales (for full year) in Xbox history. I think I will be right on sub-5m units, not below 4m units though.

Thurrott: You can probably play Xbox Games on your PC (soon).

https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/200140/microsofts-evolving-gaming-strategy-takes-a-giant-step-forward Earlier this year, Microsoft made a peculiar announcement on the Windows Insider blog related to gaming. With build 18334, Microsoft said they were bringing new technology to Windows 10 and were...

www.neogaf.com

I think I will be close on PS4 sales as well

Xbox hardware sales down 48%

Not meant to be a troll thread. Xbox hardware is down 48%. That's from their last quarterly report. Gaming division down 10%. Here's my source, take it fwiw.

www.neogaf.com

What I think sales will be for 2019 -
Switch 20.194m
PS4 14.132m
Xbone 4.826m

 

[Deleted member 740922]

Those who want to be stuck in the past can carry on using CD players, use Nokia 3310'S and stick to all physical

As opposed to what? "digital phones"?

 

[SuperLupeRap]

As opposed to what? "digital phones"?

Can you stream 5 trillion songs on a 3310 through an app?

What I meant was gaming is better today than on a N64 for instance. More options, easier, more practical and cheaper. Why would I want to go back in time?

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Can you stream 5 trillion songs on a 3310 through an app?

What I meant was gaming is better today than on a N64 for instance. More options, easier, more practical and cheaper. Why would I want to go back in time?

Interesting that you didn't mention the most important part; Games. While some aspects of UI and game mechanics have improved, the amount of time-wasting cookie-cutter shite we see in modern day games is an embarrassment and insult to the games from yesteryear.

Gaming peaked, IMO, between 98-2008. Almost everything after that has been a rehashed, poorly written, terribly executed turd, polished with golden graphics, emerald effects and ruby resolutions.

No one can look at me in the eye and tell me that Mtx, 'mobile-lite' console games and always online, GaaS are a good thing. Gimmicks do not a game make.

 

[JLB]

My old gen experiences resumes to put the cart or disc on console and play dozen of hours.

It was awesome.

Brought tons of games... one of the best parts where that game were almost bug free without needs updates

The whole online, updates, etc made the devs lazzy.

Or, games got orders of magnitude more complex thus having a complete bug free game day one is almost impossible.

 

[mckmas8808]

Interesting that you didn't mention the most important part; Games. While some aspects of UI and game mechanics have improved, the amount of time-wasting cookie-cutter shite we see in modern day games is an embarrassment and insult to the games from yesteryear.

Gaming peaked, IMO, between 98-2008. Almost everything after that has been a rehashed, poorly written, terribly executed turd, polished with golden graphics, emerald effects and ruby resolutions.

No one can look at me in the eye and tell me that Mtx, 'mobile-lite' console games and always online, GaaS are a good thing. Gimmicks do not a game make.

I couldn't disagree more with the bolded.

 

[sunnysideup]

xbox only exist to sabotage console gaming as we knew it.

The plan was simple, drag everything that was shitty about pc to consoles, let it yeast and then rot and then transform into an endless mold ofsubscriptions of streams of updates of forward thinking dudbro snot.

They had fucking 3 attempts, all failed. Every attempt worse than that before.

let it be dead.

Only kutaragi ken-san can save us.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I couldn't disagree more with the bolded.

Let me know your thoughts. I chose that period because the transition from 2D to 3D, while mind blowing and beyond anything I've witnessed since, was a slow process of understanding how stories could be told in 3D. I think around the time of the Dreamcast they began to nail 3D games. This is broad-strokes and generalising though, as some PSX games were astonishing but were few a far between.

98-2008 seemed to have heavy hitter after heavy hitter.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Microsoft's best position is milking Halo.

 

[mckmas8808]

Let me know your thoughts. I chose that period because the transition from 2D to 3D, while mind blowing and beyond anything I've witnessed since, was a slow process of understanding how stories could be told in 3D. I think around the time of the Dreamcast they began to nail 3D games. This is broad-strokes and generalising though, as some PSX games were astonishing but were few a far between.

98-2008 seemed to have heavy hitter after heavy hitter.

I agree with you there. That ten year period probably seen the biggest "leap" in videogames ever. But the PS4/Xbone era was a great period of refinement of games. Plus we have a wide variety of games too. At this point, an indie studio can as easily make a hit game as an AAA studio. I love that about this new era.

 

[Hendrick's]

I'm sensing extra high levels of fear and salt in this thread.

 

[The Pleasure]

That is my biggest fear

Well I will need to stop to play games eventually because the industry will never go back to be good like the old days again.

fuck that. I have enough games from the 80s to now to keep me playing for the rest of my life. I've been playing Super SF2 Turbo for decades. KOF 98 for a decade. We good. Kids? They ain't.

 

[DanielsM]

I'm sensing extra high levels of fear and salt in this thread.

I'm sure everyone at Nintendo/Sony are shaking in their boots with a sub 5m unit rate. (we got them right where we want them, we just need more marketing dollars)

 

[Clear]

I'm sensing extra high levels of fear and salt in this thread.

You have to be kidding. As per usual the problem is the hyperbole.

It's never "can the changes return Xbox to 360 era style success?" or something reasonable that tacitly admits that they have lagged way behind this gen. Its always verbiage that sounds like its come straight of a MS press release.

 

[Max_Po]

So MS is basically building the next "Steam" machines where ... they feel that they are offering various powered/various configuration of xbox....

shit - mid - "high" .... and high will be shat on by the hardcore PC Masta Race.

Shit - XboxOneS
Mid - XboxOneX to be replaced by their "Ultra Secret Lockhart"
High - Xbox Ser. X with 1.21 gigawatts

.. and its too lake to pay millions for "Timed-Exclusive" deals after their Xbox One flopped they feel they are "Revolutionizing" the game industry ....

I think all 3 will start to offer some kind of "streaming" service once 5G arrives and the Internet traffic data latency decreases after fiber lines are norm for service delivery.

 

[thelastword]

XBOX had plans to re-shape the console industry in 2013 as well...…...

 

[DanielsM]

So MS is basically building the next "Steam" machines where ... they feel that they are offering various powered/various configuration of xbox....

shit - mid - "high" .... and high will be shat on by the hardcore PC Masta Race.

Shit - XboxOneS
Mid - XboxOneX to be replaced by their "Ultra Secret Lockhart"
High - Xbox Ser. X with 1.21 gigawatts

.. and its too lake to pay millions for "Timed-Exclusive" deals after their Xbox One flopped they feel they are "Revolutionizing" the game industry ....

I think all 3 will start to offer some kind of "streaming" service once 5G arrives and the Internet traffic data latency decreases after fiber lines are norm for service delivery.

I'm convinced Phil has nude photos of Satya at this point.

 

[Hendrick's]

Its always verbiage that sounds like its come straight of a MS press release.

Ah, the "fake news" defense.

 

[MoreJRPG]

They better reshape their sales forecast, I have Xbox sales at less then 5m for 2019, my guess is 4.826m units but waiting on confirmation from statista. My guess is the Switch sold more in the month of December than Xbox sold the whole year, my guess is greater than 5m units for December alone for the Switch, annual at 20m+ (20.194m)

My guess the worst Xbox unit sales (for full year) in Xbox history. I think I will be right on sub-5m units, not below 4m units though.

Thurrott: You can probably play Xbox Games on your PC (soon).

https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/200140/microsofts-evolving-gaming-strategy-takes-a-giant-step-forward Earlier this year, Microsoft made a peculiar announcement on the Windows Insider blog related to gaming. With build 18334, Microsoft said they were bringing new technology to Windows 10 and were...

www.neogaf.com

I think I will be close on PS4 sales as well

Xbox hardware sales down 48%

Not meant to be a troll thread. Xbox hardware is down 48%. That's from their last quarterly report. Gaming division down 10%. Here's my source, take it fwiw.

www.neogaf.com

What I think sales will be for 2019 -
Switch 20.194m
PS4 14.132m
Xbone 4.826m

Console sales are irrelevant, especially this late in a gen where they’re all selling at a loss. How many new subscribers of game pass was gained? That’s the only metric that matters to Microsoft. Whether someone buys an Xbox or not isn’t worth mentioning, hence why such a heavy push into PC and soon Xcloud. They realized where all the money is made.

 

[MoreJRPG]

I'm sensing extra high levels of fear and salt in this thread.

Tell me about it, I remember see all these posts on message boards during the 360 gen as well. Funny how that turned out!

 

[DanielsM]

Console sales are irrelevant, especially this late in a gen where they’re all selling at a loss. How many new subscribers of game pass was gained? That’s the only metric that matters to Microsoft. Whether someone buys an Xbox or not isn’t worth mentioning, hence why such a heavy push into PC and soon Xcloud. They realized where all the money is made.

Yet they had to give away gp for a dollar to get subscribers and won't release real paying subscriber numbers.

Most large publisher avoid the Ms store...so exactly what is Ms needed for?

They are simple reducing themselves to a normal publisher at this point, which is okay, but why are we talking about reshaping the console industry? I do agree with you in part, but at the end the day most publisher don't want anything to do with MS except to gain access to a closed system.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I agree with you there. That ten year period probably seen the biggest "leap" in videogames ever. But the PS4/Xbone era was a great period of refinement of games. Plus we have a wide variety of games too. At this point, an indie studio can as easily make a hit game as an AAA studio. I love that about this new era.

Are you picking this generation as your peak of gaming? Each to their own, I won't judge...

 

[Hendrick's]

Are you picking this generation as your peak of gaming? Each to their own, I won't judge...

Agreed. This was probably the worst generation as far as innovation.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Agreed. This was probably the worst generation as far as innovation.

If a brontosaurus ate a small bag of diamonds and then dropped a huge turd, it would a perfect metaphor for this generation; Beastly power and all we had to show for it was picking through tons of shit for the odd gem.

 

[EDMIX]

Yet they had to give away gp for a dollar to get subscribers and won't release real paying subscriber numbers.

Most large publisher avoid the Ms store...so exactly what is Ms needed for?

They are simple reducing themselves to a normal publisher at this point, which is okay, but why are we talking about reshaping the console industry? I do agree with you in part, but at the end the day most publisher don't want anything to do with MS except to gain access to a closed system.

This 100%.

At this point, MS might as well just turn into a 3rd party publisher if their goal is to get sales on games on many platforms. Who on earth makes a new system, only to then NOT MAKE actual content that can only be found on that system?

Yet they wonder why Sony beats them every gen like clock work.

How many times does this need to happen before MS realizes to move those units, they need AAA games only made on XB from the start as their focus and folks will come.

360- Makes a series of loose timed deals and pays to fund games they don't even own. Looses Mass Effect IP to EA, timed games go on PS3.
PS3 ends up outselling 360.

XONE- Ok guys, its different this time......you can only play games online with a internet connection, no used games and we are putting all our games on PC.
PS4 wipes the floor with XB once again by even a more extreme margin.

MS be like "wooooow what went wrong?"

Then Phil lets MS know "This should turn things around, I think I know what they really want now"


XB Series X...- Ok folks, get this.....no exclusives at all, everything coming to PC and even XBONE day 1, zero exclusives AT ALL on the Series X.

Yet some on here are seriously surprised when Playstation keeps outselling this damn system? Really?

The path for XB to beat Playstation is simple. Make XB, make AAA games ONLY FOUND on XB....thats it. Thats seriously what they need to do, as to why they are not aware of this is beyond me. Do people think Switch is selling well because you can find those games on PC? PS4? XONE? smh MS has created a culture of people who see their hardware as optional, and what they just did with XONE and are now doing with XB Series X is telling folks its 100% optional to buy their system to play those titles as they will be on XBONE, PC etc. At this point, if they want to move software sooooo badly, just leave the hardware industry and go 3rd party. For godsakes, putting games cross gen is more so a 3rd party thing, EA, Activision, Ubisoft etc, that isn't really something you see often by first party publishers, like rarely. If MS wants it so bad, I think next gen, they should seriously consider just making a plan to exit hardware and become a service, streaming, rental, publisher etc.

 

[MR ARCADE FOREVER]

Phil Spencer must have lost the main nut in his head or he is a Sony impostor infiltrated at Microsoft.

 

[Great Hair]

Didn´t microsoft state, they were going to share the "life time numbers&more" fall 2019?