The Verge: "Microsoft is restructuring Xbox distribution across central Europe, resulting in some Xbox operations ceasing in some region"

Strange.

www.windowscentral.com

Xbox has turned a corner — the future for Microsoft's gaming platform once again looks incredibly bright

With the next-gen Xbox formally revealed, how are you, Xbox customer, feeling about Microsoft's gaming direction as of June 2025?
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com

What should I believe now? That sounded even more positive a few days ago.

I'm best off trusting Jez's objective opinion.
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mayham2199 said:
We will have to see what happens outside the US. Yes it will be expensive that's why I said they will have to pay. If they can funnel you to a device that functions just like a console that's a pretty good deal. Way better deal then I got when Sega exited the market. Listen will there be some issues that Xbox users have to deal with yes, but this is probably the best case scenario for them considering what's going on.
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"a console" like device already exists. It's called ... a console. PlayStation.

"But it has to be a PC?" >> There are already PCs out there that offer much more flexibility and value.

"But a PC in a console-like form" >> Steam Deck and Rog Ally. Dock them anywhere, and they are closed PCs.

But, to be honest, a PC is supposed to be an open, upgradeable system. For people who don't to deal with that have consoles. That's exactly why gaming consoles are for.
 
kaizenkko said:
I live in Brazil, and the way Microsoft handles our market nowadays is, to say the least, disrespectful. Ten years ago, they were doing an excellent job. The console was assembled here and sold at a great price. They distributed physical media, and all their games were fully localized into Brazilian Portuguese.

Today, it's been about two years since it's literally impossible to buy the Series X from official retailers (like Amazon, Kabum, etc.). They raised the price of the Series S to the point where it's priced similarly to the PS5 Slim Digital. Do you know those new models announced last year? They never officially launched here.

Based on my experience, my expectations for this next console aren't good. Doesn't matter if they create something for the fans if that thing ends up being an expensive device with limited distribution. At the end of the day, a lot of people simply won't be able to buy it.
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Brazil was one of their top regions during the 360 era.

What a half arsed mess!
 
Bitstream said:
sounds like they're switching to a third party chip maker, and will be creating MS chips that have hardware backwards compatability built in, and then selling them to MSI, ASUS, etc, who will then make their own console with an xbox sticker.
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If that is true, it's over. Asus Xboxes will be niche as fuck. MSI Xboxes will have to be given away or burned. I can see Acer Series S Xboxs doing well as they will be the cheapest, but we are talking 20-50k max. If Microsoft isn't, themselves, manufacturing another Xbox then it is over. Prebuilts with an Xbox sticker and traditional Xbox compatibility must seem like a genius idea over at Xbox. wtf.

I am not sure this is accurate though, I thought they were making their own units. Ignore this. I am reading thru the thread now and I know this has been asked.
 
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HeisenbergFX4 said:
I think most libraries will be safe the question comes into play if they will support whats on disc or not
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Looks like I will have to keep my Xbox one x around for ever then, to play my Xbox disc collection will I?
Be a shame if they didn't do what playstation do and offer a external drive
 
I was hoping for a bunch of drama but all we're getting is a wet fart and a whimper. Kind of a bummer when you think about it.
 
The nations of Central Europe are Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Germany.
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Are these what Microsoft considers tier 2 countries?
 
I like to thank the hardcore xbox community for making this happen. You guys are the real MVPs. You know who you are. Give yourselves a round of applause.
 
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gerth666 said:
To be fair, if you're going to get other companies to make Xbox s for you, you don't exactly need a distribution network
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But surely, they know this will dilute the brand and turn the casuals off from buying those next-gen Xboxs.....right?
 
mckmas8808 said:
But surely, they know this will dilute the brand and turn the casuals off from buying those next-gen Xboxs.....right?
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I honestly don't think they care so much about hardware anymore, it's all about getting Xbox games and services to as many devices as possible.
It's obvious they're abandoning to traditional console market.
Personally I don't think this strategy is going to go anywhere, I don't see the point when you can just build a pc.

To give them credit at least they're providing a means for the hardcore faithful to carry their accounts with them.
 
If you've followed the trends since the last year or so its obvious that MS abandoned hardware. They started to promote nearly everything as a vessel to play their games on, except for their actual console. They are going to bring all their prolific IP to other platforms as well, which they started doing a good while ago.

There is nearly no advantage for MS to release yet another Xbox, especially now that everyone knows their big hitters will come to Playstation anyway. Series already did bad without this fact.

MS should just sell software. They can be the biggest third party in the world. As for their subs, well, they can do stuff like EA etc do and push it onto every platform. I don't see why Sony should block this for example, especially when MS is no more competing with hardware. Sony also lets you sub to EA Play.
 
SkylineRKR said:
MS should just sell software. They can be the biggest third party in the world.
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You're spot on here. MS has always been a software and services company. Every foray into hardware has been a failure. Xbox has been their best hardware effort to date but they've been propping it up for two decades.

As much as I hate the corpo speak, Microsoft's core competency is software. Always has been, always will be. They'd do better to lean into that.

The biggest problem they face are the people who have built a digital library on the platform but I suspect that's why we see them making a push for emulation on PC and and APU that can natively play Xbox One and Series games. That way they can get out of hardware while still offering a path for people to retain their libraries beyond past hardware.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Sega cancelling the Saturn and Dreamcast was quite a big deal, but then they just came out and announced it.

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Read some of his answers, and you'll notice that this is the exact type of gaslighting we see nowadays from Xbox journalists shills and fans.
  • "Xbox is far ahead. They are adopting the future early."
  • "Xbox future is bright."
  • "Sega Microsoft is a software company."
  • "Xbox is doing PC titles, online titles. They have Game Pass. PlayStation and Nintendo are behind."
  • "Sony/Nintendo is not good at transition. They are stuck in the past."
  • "We'll keep supporting Saturn Xbox consoles"
It's like the Playbook is repeating.

And the best one is when Bernard says, "I can tell you emphatically there will be another platform. We will be highly competitive with it."

Reminds me of the "next-gen traditional Xbox" that will be so competitive that it will have Steam, and PlayStation and Nintendo will struggle so much because of it.

Corporate speak. And people still fall for it.
 
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Heisenberg007 said:
Read some of his answers, and you'll notice that this is the exact type of gaslighting we see nowadays from Xbox journalists shills and fans.
  • "Xbox is far ahead. They are adopting the future early."
  • "Xbox future is bright."
  • "Sega Microsoft is a software company."
  • "Xbox is doing PC titles, online titles. They have Game Pass. PlayStation and Nintendo are behind."
  • "Sony/Nintendo is not good at transition. They are stuck in the past."
  • "We'll keep supporting Saturn Xbox consoles"
It's like the Playbook is repeating.

And the best one is when Bernard says, "I can tell you emphatically there will be another platform. We will be highly competitive with it."

Reminds me of the "next-gen traditional Xbox" that will be so competitive that it will have Steam, and PlayStation and Nintendo will struggle so much because of it.

Corporate speak. And people still fall for it.
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Its a baffling piece, but also one thats almost 30 year old. I like these old mags.

Bernie is spinning Sony's huge library and third party support as a negative. And the unsold software, what about it? Its discs. Plus, Sega actually had unsold hardware they needed to buy back right in that timeline. On top of barely anyone buying Sega software at the time in the first place, and I liked Sega.

But its ballsy to flat out drop your current system as soon as 2 years before the successor would come out.
 
They stopped distributing at the end of last year already. People were very confused. Currently, you can only buy the disc-free version at some retailers and it's 50% more expensive than the PS5 lol.
The 360 era was very successful for them here, then Xbox One was still there, doing quite ok. Nowadays, all people that had Xboxes in the past I know, own a PS5. One friend from my work owns a Series X and that's it, really.
 
Rocco Schiavone said:
Strange.

www.windowscentral.com

Xbox has turned a corner — the future for Microsoft's gaming platform once again looks incredibly bright

With the next-gen Xbox formally revealed, how are you, Xbox customer, feeling about Microsoft's gaming direction as of June 2025?
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com

What should I believe now? That sounded even more positive a few days ago.

I'm best off trusting Jez's objective opinion.
6nTdFttvpTEuI8fQ.jpg
Click to expand...
What happened to Phil Spencer? He used to give one interview a week on how great Xbox future is going to be but now I haven't heard anything about him in months.
Did they lock him up in MS dungeon?
 
Bitstream said:
sounds like they're switching to a third party chip maker, and will be creating MS chips that have hardware backwards compatability built in, and then selling them to MSI, ASUS, etc, who will then make their own console with an xbox sticker.
Click to expand...
Pretty much what they already do AMD is the maker just like PS5 these consoles are all 3rd party made I think the ps3 was the last in house system made in the gaming industry
 
It is becoming increasingly clear that Microsoft wants to replace all human staff in its company and replace them with an AI that manages Gamepass and its online store.
 
Nydius said:
You're spot on here. MS has always been a software and services company. Every foray into hardware has been a failure. Xbox has been their best hardware effort to date but they've been propping it up for two decades.

As much as I hate the corpo speak, Microsoft's core competency is software. Always has been, always will be. They'd do better to lean into that.

The biggest problem they face are the people who have built a digital library on the platform but I suspect that's why we see them making a push for emulation on PC and and APU that can natively play Xbox One and Series games. That way they can get out of hardware while still offering a path for people to retain their libraries beyond past hardware.
Click to expand...

I don't get this. The Series X/S are well made machines, and arguably the Series X is a better machine than the PS5 in almost every measure. Just look at the recent game comparisons. Series X is competitive with PS5 Pro whilst being cheaper and consuming 30% less power.

The software lineup for XGS is far more questionable; the games just don't do good numbers on Steam and often get middling reviews. If anything, Xbox could be best as an Apple like platform where they hardly make games and collect revenue from third party software. Aside from Sony exclusives, Xbox has almost every major Steam game w/ controller available on their console store.
 
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memoryman3 said:
I don't get this. The Series X/S are well made machines, and arguably the Series X is a better machine than the PS5 in almost every measure. Just look at the recent game comparisons. Series X is competitive with PS5 Pro whilst being cheaper and consuming 30% less power.
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Tom Warren is that you

 
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