Ugh, don't remind me, loved Windows Phone at the time. And while not exactly the same money being thrown around as their recent gaming acquisitions but this was not too long after acquiring Nokia that they completely abandoned it.
To be fair, Neogaf and Resetera are bubbles with a quite distorted negative view of Xbox in general.
That's why GamePass is stagnating at 30M.
Neither is your take.
Bingo, couldn't have said it better myself.
Interestingly that experience possibly makes it less, not more, likely for Microsoft to shut the Xbox platform down.
If things are indeed as dire for xbox as some are claiming (I'm not convinced that is the case yet, but it could well be), then I expect it can very much be traced back to the xone gen, and that their failure their cemented their longer term failure.
Their whole effort was on gamepass and they weren't driven by console sales so instead of getting the likes of Halo or Forza Motorsport ready (they always had 2 year cycles in the past) and in a good state for a console launch by investing more to ramp up development, they did the opposite, they ramped down. Raked in the gamepass sub money as it was still growing at the time. A delay meant that they could collect even more revenue from subs before it hit. They didn't fear not selling many consoles even though they pushed for the new gen and released it with nothing. In internal emails they even mention that gamepass is their new platform now.
Even if you think that Game Pass subscriptions are not driven by having compelling content, my point is that we have already had 2 Forza games and a Halo title, and it seemingly hasn't changed the sales trajectory.
I know, this place is slowly dying. It's not a gaming forum about enjoying games, it's mainly a forum about hating games instead..
No. Just, no.
Good Lord like what is going on around here anymore. What is it with these constant panic/ doom threads. Get a grip.
Gamepass is driven by having compelling content I'm not saying it isn't. it was meeting targets in those years though allowing them to delay games and have nothing launch with the console. They were happy to do that. Console sales were not a priority even though they were the ones trying to push a new generation with absolutely no new gen games. Sony didn't mind prolonging that gen but I feel MS just wanted to stop PS4 gaining any more traction and put Sony under pressure to lower their margins. Sony however still selling at a loss unlike prior gens surprisingly didn't go into negatives.
They didn't secure chips as aggressively as others because again console sales were unimportant and secondary to them, they were prioritising trying to push their subscription services again (cloud) . I specifically mentioned motorsport but the years Halo and Forza Horizon launched were fairly competitive in terms of console sales. Keep in mind though that Halo and Forza Horizon was crossgen and free on gamepass because priority was about driving engagement and console sales were secondary. They gave no real compelling reasons to upgrade
I think gamepass is here to stay. As they mentioned internally "gamepass is our new platform". They want to be a services company. The point is that they didn't prioritise console sales and that's what cost them console sales, their strategy was all around gamepass which may have or have not panned out how they hoped. If they wanted to sell consoles they could have done several things better to make it more attractive but they didn't.
because gamepass was the reason that the lineup was weak. They didn't mind not having any games at launch for new hardware because they were too concerned with hours instead of concerned with selling consoles:
Xbox's Phil Spencer: 'We're not driven by how many consoles we sell'
As the Xbox Series X and Series S are released, Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer says the next games generation is all about how many players you have, not how many consoles you shiftwww.theguardian.com
They delayed games instead of spending more money ramping up development because they were still seeing gamepass growth at the time and that was beneficial to them. Delays meant revenue was coming from the sub every month while they worked on the game. Instead of spending more money for it to go into the sub quicker.
Resetera is anti-Xbox? That site where you get banned for posting factual sales figures? (which are not flattering for Xbox, but that's reality for you)
That's true, but simply prioritizing console sales is not sufficient to compete with Sony, as last generation proved. You need compelling mass market AAA content, which they lack. So a world in which Game Pass didn't exist may still be one in which console sales have significantly slowed by this point.
You've misunderstood everything. Nobody is saying they prefer to sell less consoles rather than more. You've missed the point. Phil was saying he doesn't care if you stay on past gen or other platforms as long as you subscribe to our new platform gamepass because we are trying to drive engagement rather than console sales. Hence why no new next gen games on the console and the most barren xbox launch in existence, hence why Halo and Forza were crossgen and on PC. Hence why they secured chips for cloud first. Their strategy was driven by gamepass first.
Did the numbers drop at some point? Even in 2022? No.
Nothing is too expensive to kill. Especially if it's more expensive to keep running. While not as big a chunk of the overall market share, I'm sure some people bought thousands of dollars in music on the Zune. Or thousands in app purchases on the Windows Phone. They still were killed off.
Where did I predict their downfall? I even said they'd win the generation no problem, and I want Sony and PS to strive. Its just 90% on here are anti Xbox and are trying to paint a picture of complete failure.
This works for you and myself at home. However, when I tried in the house we rented it was trash and if this was how it was all the time I would have canceled my sub. I think streaming is a great alternative. But we're a ways off of it being accessible for everyone. Shoot even consoles release in some markets late.
Interestingly that experience possibly makes it less, not more, likely for Microsoft to shut the Xbox platform down.
"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's Biggest Regret Is Ditching Windows Phone."
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's Biggest Regret Is Ditching Windows Phone
Microsoft officially killed Windows Phones in 2017 due to poor performance. Now Nadella admits exiting mobile phones is one of his biggest mistakes.www.pcmag.com
It might have almost 15 years that I see a vocal part of Neogaf community and other social media constantly predicting the end of the Xbox or how MS will destroy the market. I'm still waiting for any of this to actually become a reality. The market is actually quite more interesting nowadays if you ask me, with the exception of social media constant fud.
I think you may be right and that a long play strategy could work, but a couple of things matter. One, will MS continue to fund Xbox that long? They might not have the patience if Xbox isn't generating enough revenue. Two, they cannot keep removing games from their library if they want people's confidence in the service.
Xbox is losing all traction it made with the 360. And while Windows Phone didn't gain more than 4% WW market share, that's still millions of phones sold each year. With 200K+ plus apps, many paid for. Which means millions of people spent money on the WP store.
FIFY.
