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[Amaranty]

Yes, let's get rid of Xbox, so that Sony would have a monopoly. Then Sony can definitely provide consumers the best they can offer, because they don't have to worry about competition.

 

[massivekettle]

I will agree with you about bragging rights (for fans) but then still did nothing when all said and done. The idea of a powerful X was exactly to gain marketshare and increase sales given as you mentioned Sony benefitted from the power advantage early this gen, Do you really think MS put out the X just so their fans can have bragging rights? Its to counter Sony's advantage and hope it turns things around for them. Didn't even move the needle. Funny thing is they are being destroyed by the Switch (least powerful system). I mean if you are being "outshined" because of power, I think most of these companies prefer to be outshined instead of being outsold.

This wasn't for fans. It's so that Microsoft could more effectively market its offering. Remember this is business not a game.

Also, IIRC, the Pro and the X are geared towards enthusiasts due to higher price point and only represent a fraction of total system sales. So I doubt the X was meant to engineer a Microsoft comeback, but rather to show consumers it can put out a quality system ahead of the new gen.

Now Microsoft just needs to deliver on games.

 

[massivekettle]

I personally want them gone. Not because of the Brand, nor the games but because they're the only one pushing, promoting a form of toxic behavior by most of their corporate suits from Aaron, Major to Phil.

They're the only ones pushing for a GAAS future, they're greedy as fuck. Their first party games are full of microtransactions since Halo 4, Horizon 2. All of their upcoming games have multiplayer ..

EA? Epic? Take-Two/Rockstar? Activision? Ubisoft?

They all do it, and it's here to stay.

I personally think the concept of GamePass is pretty neat and would have absolutely subscribed to it had Sony offered something similar.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Microsoft wants to own a piece of console gaming for ever, back in the day it was very important to owe the console industry something.

 

[Moogle11]

People need to remember that the most powerful consoles don't win the sales race every generation and that the high-end PC gaming market is relatively small compared to consoles selling 50-100+ million. PC gaming is a HUGE market, but looking at the most played games shows that a lot of people are on midrange or lower machines playing things like CS GO, League of Legends, GTAV, Fortnite, Minecraft, various MMOs etc dominate the list way more than graphical powerhouse games that need a high-end PC to shine.

Moreover, the big AAA games with high-end graphics sell way more copies on consoles than PC. Showing that there's just not some huge untapped market of graphics whores who'd be thrilled if MS dropped consoles and went all in at optimizing their games for high end PCs. Enthusiasts on game forums care about those kind of things, but are a tiny and frankly irrelevant part of the market. Sony, MS and Nintendo wouldn't even notice if everyone in NeoGAF and ResetEra skipped their console. They care about the mainstream market as that's tens of millions of people who've always felt console graphics are good enough and who'll never buy a high end gaming PC. That's also mostly where the whales who'll buy all their subscription, DLCs and MTs are and that's their real cash cow nowadays.

Lastly, the console are already pretty much PCs and most games use standard and highly scaleable engines. Things like Gears 5 already look and run way better on high end PCs. Thus MS can still impress the many kf the pc graphics enthusiasts with their next gen games while having them on consoles and PC.

For me personally, I really couldn't give an explosive Coranavirus filled shit about graphics anymore. They've been diminish returns for me personally since last gen and I'm not excited about having to shell out $500+ for a PS5 to play slightly prettier sequels to my favorite games from this gen and some new IPs. I love Microsoft's approach of having things crossgen for a while. I'll play their stuff on my PC that should run the cross gen games fine for a while given how well it handled Gears 5 and me still being on 1080p and probably hold off on a PS5 for a while. PC won't get upgraded though as I've barely used it since I bough it in 2016 as Switch and PS4 dominates my playtime and GPU and CPU prices to really outclass the PS5/XSX are crazy.

 

[gypsygib]

Cause $60 a year from 20 million people is a lot of money to give up and it puts MS' brand in the minds of millions, who then might go an buy a surface one day, or choose windows over mac.

 

[GTPeter]

Some of you fanboys are too much.

Sorry if I offended you in any way. I own every system. If is about the toxic community that i mention I reply to you with one word. MIXER

 

[Journey]

Doesn't Sony stand to make more profit by putting all their exclusives on PC? I don't understand the logic. Having less owned studios to make games means less money. If Sony isn't making money on sold hardware, then putting games on PC is all profit without worrying about hardware sales.

 

[Kerotan]

They have tens of millions of Xbox live accounts, that wont work on PC. Its all about the services and licenses now, its not a conspiracy theory when Microsoft say that, its true. Consoles are not systems anymore where the only sauce of income is sales (at best Microsoft and Sony will be breaking even on XSX and PS5) and game sales. Gaming has moved on, they have so manys ervices and licence fees etc.. They wouldnt keep releasing consoles if they werent making money, big companies dont work like that.

Sony will definitely make a huge profit from HW + SW sales.

 

[SportsFan581]

Doesn't Sony stand to make more profit by putting all their exclusives on PC? I don't understand the logic. Having less owned studios to make games means less money. If Sony isn't making money on sold hardware, then putting games on PC is all profit without worrying about hardware sales.

Driving users to a closed platform for exclusives encourages them to play the rest of their games on that platform as well. Sony makes a good profit from licensing 3rd party games on the platform. This is where MS's approach falls down, initially.

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Because they make a shit ton of money even when in last place so why would they leave? That makes no sense.

 

[lastmessiah]

Haven't they effectively left the console industry already? They are focusing on Game Pass and xCloud. Once these get off the ground it will change the industry. With all Xbox games being crossplay, the XSX is akin to something that Alienware would sell - a moderately powerful x86 machine should you want it. Either way, MS is making money. The whole console exclusive thing feels more artificial today than it ever did.

 

[Shin]

why

The "future" of console gaming would be more pale if they did.
Let the multi million/billion dollar company worry about the why, they catered to a certain group with 12TF and I commend them for that.
Any sector where one company dominates or have free reign is bound to turn to shit and has been just look up at history.
They paid their dues with the One series, I had hoped that credit would be given where due but as it stands everyone is backing the familiar horse.

 

[skneogaf]

Wow this thread made realise there is an ignore button, thanks for the nonsense that the op wrote.

 

[Silvawuff]

I'm not into Microsoft's gaming ecosystem myself, but I respect the niche they've been carving. It's doing good things for the industry, especially where cross platform and hardware options are concerned.