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[LordCBH]

I feel like we should’ve seen the lackluster hw performance coming for like a decade now. For a few reasons

1) Since 2010, they haven’t been able to consistently get W’s out of their first party studios. Stuff like Grounded and Pentiment are great from a review perspective, but they don’t move the needle at all for the general gaming audience. These games are great at providing depth alongside some well known, massive bangers, but they don’t have the well known massive bangers.

2) Their hardware after the 360 is consistently well-designed, but often has some bafflingly bad decisions behind it too. Xbox One being $499 + Kinect at launch compared to the cheaper and stronger competition. But their $500 box was still competent, just massively overpriced. It was whisper quiet and the launch line up was pretty good. One X? Again, whisper quiet, but this time the price felt good for what it provided it just felt a little too late. Series X|S? Again whisper quiet, well built boxes but this time with proprietary memory expansion (gross) and, at this point, a reputation for having an anemic stable of first party titles.

3) They can’t seem to just settle on how to market something. The Xbox One marketing was awful (remember the weird “Beta Tested in the Future” posters?) 80% of the X|S marketing seems to be “look how powerful this one is and look how cheap this other one is + Gamepass”. I am not sure about the strategy of completely changing your console naming convention every gen. It worked with the 360, but that’s about it. Every 6-8 years their competition comes out with a new box, says “it’s better than our old one” and increases the number on the end by 1. Every 6-8 years MS comes out with a new box, says it’s more powerful than the old one, and snorts cocaine before naming it. I think this also works against them. The average consumer is an idiot, you can’t confuse them with off the wall names.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

You could bottle the salt from this thread and sell it as Vault-Tec Tears and it could keep a vault stocked for generations.

And who, prey tell, are the salty ones?

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

Why people in this forum always seems so happy with negative Xbox news? It's because they don't want to buy another console so they can have everything on their platform? It's because they don't want choice? It's just conservatism? I have seem people here celebrating even when a game get low metacritic score. It shouldn't be the opposite? After all, this is a gaming forum.

Xbox has a very good piece of hardware, offer choices in the way you play and pay and also lowered the barrier to access games. It still ships a variety of good and different games, which are being successful sold on Playstation and Switch. So, It seems childish to me to celebrate the fall or end of a competitor in such a limited, difficult and expensive Industry. I can only imagine the outcome with two console markers.

And by the way, Nadela is doing what he did in all the other divisions and he might know what's he is doing being the leader of the largest company in the world.

Honestly MS is too big already and has gobbled up far too much and has the ability to gobble up basically anything else they want without ever even making a dime in gaming if they want. So yes generally I would like things to be more balanced in the size Department and don't fear Nintendo or Sony getting more success as they don't have the money to make me scared

 

[digoutyoursoul]

You could bottle the salt from this thread and sell it as Vault-Tec Tears and it could keep a vault stocked for generations.

Name them big mouth

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I gave my One X to my nephew and am patiently waiting for Sony to release a PS5 that isn't god awful to look at before purchasing one - not sure if that puts me in blue or green these days.

But you're right. There's a very vocal group of users here on Gaf who seem really invested in how the other team is doing. Then again, some people care about football, others about baseball and even others about consoles, I suppose.

But the very people who complain about being too “invested” are themselves just as invested. They wouldn’t get involved if they weren’t.

Besides, there are plenty of “multiplatform gamers” here that simply don’t like Xbox. This high ground nonsense is as laughable as it is revealing.

Roronoa Zoro

If Microsoft had that kind of pull, they would have gone for it already. Look at the fight just to get ABK. Their money doesn’t give them an unlimited access to any and everything. You think they put their games on competing platforms because “sharing is caring “?

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

What is it Nadella is doing again?

Using the monopolies in PC OS and office software (which btw you're basically guaranteed to need windows if you want to PC game so not sure why Ms feels the need to keep going after the console market with steam's AMUs) plus massive gains in Cloud department to fund fun stuff for fundsies from what I can tell lol. I feel like at this point it might be a pet project to see how many IP he can buy before the gaming side turns around.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

But the very people who complain about being too “invested” are themselves just as invested. They wouldn’t get involved if they weren’t.

Besides, there are plenty of “multiplatform gamers” here that simply don’t like Xbox. This high ground nonsense is as laughable as it is revealing.

Roronoa Zoro

If Microsoft had that kind of pull, they would have gone for it already. Look at the fight just to get ABK. Their money doesn’t give them an unlimited access to any and everything. You think they put their games on competing platforms because “sharing is caring “?

Dude they just bought the largest third party. They can do it again and won't get the pushback unless it's take 2 or something. They bought Bethesda without big pushback. In fact their hardware failing they'll probably make the same arguments even if their revenue is massive "Oh we're so tiny look at big bad Sony" meanwhile they're bigger than both their main competitors combined 2x over

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Dude they just bought the largest third party. They can do it again and won't get the pushback unless it's take 2 or something. They bought Bethesda without big pushback. In fact their hardware failing they'll probably make the same arguments even if their revenue is massive "Oh we're so tiny look at big bad Sony" meanwhile they're bigger than both their main competitors combined 2x over

Dude, they cannot just do what ever they want.

Them being bigger has translated to what? Putting their games on those “smaller platforms”. If they had this unlimited access you so fear, they wouldn’t have done that. It’s called options and theirs dried up.

Them buying ABK translated to what? COD is still on PlayStation and will remain biggest there.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

Dude, they cannot just do what ever they want.

Them being bigger has translated to what? Putting their games on those “smaller platforms”. If they had this unlimited access you so fear, they wouldn’t have done that. It’s called options and theirs dried up.

I truly hope you're right. Sorry but the fact that they can invest SO much with money from other departments feels like it really doesn't matter if they're selling 20m lifetime they can just double down and invest more tens of billions rolling in from cloud and office which are departments that will never dry up for them (I think Azure cloud is about to stomp Amazon even). If nadella retires eventually and the new person gets less obsessive with gaming then maybe I could see it but for now they are simply too large to not be scared of as a hardware maker. I just wish they'd be happy that basically they own the pc market since no gamer is gonna game on Mac seriously

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I truly hope you're right. Sorry but the fact that they can invest SO much with money from other departments feels like it really doesn't matter if they're selling 20m lifetime they can just double down and invest more tens of billions rolling in from cloud and office which are departments that will never dry up for them (I think Azure cloud is about to stomp Amazon even). If nadella retires eventually and the new person gets less obsessive with gaming then maybe I could see it but for now they are simply too large to not be scared of as a hardware maker. I just wish they'd be happy that basically they own the pc market since no gamer is gonna game on Mac seriously

Too much damage has been done. They’d, at most, be the biggest 3rd Party pub. But they can only have that kind of power if people buy the software and need hardware to do so. As long as they need Nintendo and PlayStation, they’ll always be on the beggars side of the coin.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

Too much damage has been done. They’d, at most, be the biggest 3rd Party pub. But they can only have that kind of power if people buy the software and need hardware to do so. As long as they need Nintendo and PlayStation, they’ll always be on the beggars side of the coin.

I'm fine with them being the biggest third party company. I wish they'd transition to that

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I came from a time before PlayStation and Xbox existed. Trust me, there is nothing apocalyptic about someone dropping out of the console race. That is what is needed for someone else to replace them.

There will be a newcomer. But not until Xbox leaves. That is why I cheer for it because Xbox had already lost. There is no "maybe they would make a comeback", Xbox is gone, the sooner they go SEGA the quicker we get a replacement.

I doubt anyone is actively going to get into console gaming at this juncture in the industry.

With Sony's market position, how much Microsoft had to spend to try and be competitive...

I thought maybe Apple would throw their name in the hat, but I really don't think it would go well. I thought they'd have more software support on their M series Macs or their latest iPhones and it just isn't there. I bet Resident Evil 4 did really bad on iPhone.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I'm fine with them being the biggest third party company. I wish they'd transition to that

They won't even be that for long.

 

[Wastelander92]

And that's after last year's -30% drop

 

[yazenov]

And that's after last year's -30% drop

At this rate of drops which they are forecasting they will have to give the hardware away for free.

Rent for shelves and storage space cost a lot of money.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

I doubt anyone is actively going to get into console gaming at this juncture in the industry.

With Sony's market position, how much Microsoft had to spend to try and be competitive...

I thought maybe Apple would throw their name in the hat, but I really don't think it would go well. I thought they'd have more software support on their M series Macs or their latest iPhones and it just isn't there. I bet Resident Evil 4 did really bad on iPhone.

What did you think happened when SEGA died?
You are giving Xbox too much credit. Sony is not invincible, Xbox simply sucked. You are assuming no one else could have a shot because you want to believe Xbox was the best we could get.

There are better companies, better CEOs, better corporations, who can run game ecosystems. PlayStation didn't get to where they are without effort.

Yes, Microsoft spent a lot of money. But perhaps you might have realize that money isn't everything? Get away from the warchest thinking. The idea here is that money is important, but money can't buy success. The Xbox replacement can easily do better than Xbox while spending LESS.

 

[Negotiator101]

Damn, I thought that's what it meant but wasn't sure. And contents and services was +1% without Activision?

What's this without Activision rubbish? They are part of Microsoft now, 51% increase in revenue growth is all anyone should be looking at.

 

[Three]

What's this without Activision rubbish? They are part of Microsoft now, 51% increase in revenue growth is all anyone should be looking at.

Sure but people aren't dumb enough to ignore that spending billions and merging another company's revenue with your own would lead to a revenue increase. It would be a complete and colossal disaster if it went any other way.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I came from a time before PlayStation and Xbox existed. Trust me, there is nothing apocalyptic about someone dropping out of the console race. That is what is needed for someone else to replace them.

There will be a newcomer. But not until Xbox leaves. That is why I cheer for it because Xbox had already lost. There is no "maybe they would make a comeback", Xbox is gone, the sooner they go SEGA the quicker we get a replacement.

I think MS is signaling there will be an opening for someone to do that very thing next gen because MS seems to be heading towards a dockable handheld and a much more powerful Xbox/PC

If someone wants to step up to the plate and go head to head to the PS6 absolutely nothing is stopping them

I don't see anyone taking on this task

 

[rhodesianshepard]

What's this without Activision rubbish? They are part of Microsoft now, 51% increase in revenue growth is all anyone should be looking at.

That is like taking out a 100,000$ loan and saying you are now rich. Do you know how long Microsoft predicts to actually payoff the 70billion$ acquisition of ABK? 35 years

 

[mayham2199]

What's this without Activision rubbish? They are part of Microsoft now, 51% increase in revenue growth is all anyone should be looking at.

Tell that to MS they are the ones telling everybody.

 

[Jaybe]

Sure but people aren't dumb enough to ignore that spending billions and merging another companies revenue with your own would lead to a revenue increase. It would be a complete and colossal disaster if it went any other way.

Plus what’s been masked with the combined reporting under Microsoft is that the ABK side of the business is -17% for the quarter vs year ago.

Using Welfare’s post and going back to ATVI earnings reports, it looks like the ABK side of the business lost a significant amount of revenue versus year ago (-17.3%) likely due to CODMW3 selling a fair bit less than CODMW2.

ABK JanFebMar2024: $1.971 billion
ABK JanFebMar2023: $2.383 billion
$ change: - 412 million
ABK year over year $ change, -17.3%

 

[Darsxx82]

Why people in this forum always seems so happy with negative Xbox news? It's because they don't want to buy another console so they can have everything on their platform? It's because they don't want choice? It's just conservatism? I have seem people here celebrating even when a game get low metacritic score. It shouldn't be the opposite? After all, this is a gaming forum.

Xbox has a very good piece of hardware, offer choices in the way you play and pay and also lowered the barrier to access games. It still ships a variety of good and different games, which are being successful sold on Playstation and Switch. So, It seems childish to me to celebrate the fall or end of a competitor in such a limited, difficult and expensive Industry. I can only imagine the outcome with two console markers.

And by the way, Nadela is doing what he did in all the other divisions and he might know what's he is doing being the leader of the largest company in the world.

It's very simple, it is the hate to the Xbox brand by some who, as you see, have no qualms about recognizing you.

That hatred leads to wishing for the worst (even if that harms themselves and the industry itself). Their wish is that XBOX as a console disappears and they now see an ideal situation for it to happen and they have had that hope.
Therefore, any possibility that MS decides to try again or argue in favor of them doing so is going to have a reaction of displeasure... I mean, FEAR after all. Funny that fear of a brand that they say is dead.
They don't want to hear about the possibility (no matter how tiny or miraculous) that Xbox could get it right and be successful, more now that it has become a giant in terms of Studios and IPs.

I mean,

I came from a time before PlayStation and Xbox existed.

I also came from that time and nothing compares. At that time the industry functioned very differently and there was no company with the power to "monopolize" as there is now.

Trust me, there is nothing apocalyptic about someone dropping out of the console race. That is what is needed for someone else to replace them.

Trust me, no company at this time will dare to launch a new console starting from O, without an infrastructure of first-party Studios and IPs that requires decades to gather. Less so at a time when the console market has peaked (and with other means of playing on the horizon) and the competition is Playstation.

We have already see the attempts of BigTech (Amazon, Apple, Google etc...), imagine the degree of naivety to believe that it will be easy to see a "substitute" for XBOX capable of competing with SONY

There will be a newcomer. But not until Xbox leaves. That is why I cheer for it because Xbox had already lost. There is no "maybe they would make a comeback", Xbox is gone, the sooner they go SEGA the quicker we get a replacement.

I will never understand what the problem/concern that MS still keep triying (sarcasm )

As I said, you have to be naive to believe that:

1-That the only reason why a new competitor has not appeared in the console market at this time is the existence of XBOX

3- That the market situation is conducive for a new competitor to consider entering and competing with nothing more and nothing less than PS....

The reality is that if XBOX abandons the development of console hardware there will be no new competitor to replace it in the horizon.
The only reason MS can keep trying is because it is the largest company in the world, it has reunited the largest 1st party Studios and IP structure in the industry, a strong and solid relationship with 3rd parties and indi Studios and editors, it has a recognized brand and loyal user base and the business that generates the hardware continues to be interesting at the income level and in terms of the future to address an ecosystem over which it has control.

Nobody out there is in that situation and of course the comparison with Sega is ridiculous because both situations are light years apart. If SEGA had had the position and means of today MS, the Dreamcast would certainly not have been its last console.

That is to say, whether you want to believe it or not, the reality is that there is no competitor on the horizon (nor expected) waiting for MS to throw in the towel to replace it. Rather, the problem is that Playstation exists and competing minimally against Sony's dominance in consoles requires decades and BILLONS and billions Of dollar investment, continuous hardware successes and support and even running the risk of losing the investment even if it manages to be successful.

 

[Punished Miku]

I don't see anyone taking on this task

It's literally impossible for anyone to compete at this stage. Never going to happen ever again.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

MS seems to be heading towards a dockable handheld and a much more powerful Xbox/PC

This sounds amazing!!!

Take out both Sony and Nintendo at same time.

Next gen will be best gen for xbox ever.

 

[user friendly]

Will the upcoming xbox exclusives release same day on PS5 or will they make PS users wait a month or two?

 

[FunkMiller]

I think MS is signaling there will be an opening for someone to do that very thing next gen because MS seems to be heading towards a dockable handheld and a much more powerful Xbox/PC

If someone wants to step up to the plate and go head to head to the PS6 absolutely nothing is stopping them

I don't see anyone taking on this task

Uncle Gabe could.

The Steam Deck shows Valve know how to make and sell good hardware. And be consumer friendly with it. The OLED upgrade proves that.

I'd sure as shit buy an upgradeable Steam Machine that sits nicely under my TV. Yes, that's pretty much just a PC... but market it right, and you have a solid bit of competition for Sony, without Microsoft's never-ending bullshit.

 

[jm89]

This sounds amazing!!!

Take out both Sony and Nintendo at same time.

Next gen will be best gen for xbox ever.

 

[Topher]

Every time.....

 

[rm082e]

Where do you get the figure of 59.5 million Xbox One from? I thought the semi-official number was 58 million.

That was the number I had in my memory from a long time ago, but googling now to try and find the source, I'm not seeing anyone reporting that number. I'm seeing the VGChartz number that is a hair shy of 58 million. So I'd say you are correct.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

What did you think happened when SEGA died?
You are giving Xbox too much credit. Sony is not invincible, Xbox simply sucked. You are assuming no one else could have a shot because you want to believe Xbox was the best we could get.

There are better companies, better CEOs, better corporations, who can run game ecosystems. PlayStation didn't get to where they are without effort.

Yes, Microsoft spent a lot of money. But perhaps you might have realize that money isn't everything? Get away from the warchest thinking. The idea here is that money is important, but money can't buy success. The Xbox replacement can easily do better than Xbox while spending LESS.

He didn’t suggest Sony was invincible, but they have managed themselves into a place that’s hard to compete with at this juncture.

However, someone could certainly come along and give it a shot. But it needs to be a real one (ala SEGA with the Genesis, Microsoft with the 360). Xbox failed itself more than anything and is where it is because a suit (or suits) forgot how to manage the console side of their business.

 

[Topher]

 

[zedinen]

(Jan – Mar) Operating Income Forecast (before Helldivers II launch)

G&NS ¥86 bn

Nintendo ¥46 bn

 

[Nydius]

Probably already posted as I skipped about 5 pages in the thread, but here’s Microsoft’s official reporting numbers for Xbox Hardware revenues for the last 7 quarters (so almost 2 fiscal years):

2023 Q1 +13%
2023 Q2 -13%
2023 Q3 -30%
2023 Q4 -11%

2024 Q1 -7%
2024 Q2 +3%
2024 Q3 -31%

Xbox as a hardware brand is in a dire state. Life support levels, even. There’s no amount of spin that can obscure that fact. These numbers are also why I have no confidence expanding my digital library on Xbox platforms. I don’t care how much their leadership proclaims they’re building new, great, hardware. I simply cannot trust that my Xbox digital library will exist or be available in the future.

 

[Little Chicken]

I came from a time before PlayStation and Xbox existed. Trust me, there is nothing apocalyptic about someone dropping out of the console race. That is what is needed for someone else to replace them.

There will be a newcomer. But not until Xbox leaves. That is why I cheer for it because Xbox had already lost. There is no "maybe they would make a comeback", Xbox is gone, the sooner they go SEGA the quicker we get a replacement.

Well there certainly were issues when Sega dropped out.

They were pioneering net connectivity as a standard while Nintendo were doing nothing and the PS2 was given a half-assed add-on years later.

The PS3 and Wii's online platforms would've been woeful without someone else coming in and setting an acceptable standard (Xbox).

 

[mckmas8808]

Why people in this forum always seems so happy with negative Xbox news? It's because they don't want to buy another console so they can have everything on their platform? It's because they don't want choice? It's just conservatism? I have seem people here celebrating even when a game get low metacritic score. It shouldn't be the opposite? After all, this is a gaming forum.

Xbox has a very good piece of hardware, offer choices in the way you play and pay and also lowered the barrier to access games. It still ships a variety of good and different games, which are being successful sold on Playstation and Switch. So, It seems childish to me to celebrate the fall or end of a competitor in such a limited, difficult and expensive Industry. I can only imagine the outcome with two console markers.

And by the way, Nadela is doing what he did in all the other divisions and he might know what's he is doing being the leader of the largest company in the world.

Many people actively do NOT like the direction Xbox has been going in. Plus MS has paid people to lie about the video game industry to better their chances in the market. Hence, why people are happy with the bad Xbox news.

 

[ViciousAgenda]

Serious "last days of Dreamcast" about all of this.

 

[rm082e]

Why people in this forum always seems so happy with negative Xbox news? It's because they don't want to buy another console so they can have everything on their platform? It's because they don't want choice? It's just conservatism? I have seem people here celebrating even when a game get low metacritic score. It shouldn't be the opposite? After all, this is a gaming forum.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm not at all happy with negative Xbox news. It depresses me. I used to love the Xbox brand. I was surprised by how good of a job MS did getting into this space 20+ years ago, and I really liked that they were bringing competition to Sony when SEGA was clearly on their way out of the console hardware business. In the past, I prided myself on buying (almost) every console and playing the big games on each of them. I wound up enjoying my time on the Xbox more than the time I spent on the PS2. The Xbox and Xbox 360 were great machines that provided a lot of wonderful experiences.

However, the previous leadership team committed brand suicide with the original vision for the Xbox One. After they left, it was up to Phil and Nadela to clean up the mess and make the best they could of the situation. I don't blame them for the mess, or for how they tried to handle it, but it became clear by 2017 they were either not interested, or not capable of lining up a series of big exclusive games for the Xbox One that would bring player enthusiasm back to the brand.

I thought then and I feel even more confident now that a console platform needs great exclusive games to be successful. Yes, a console can have some high scoring exclusives and still not be successful for other reasons. But I contend that one key requirement of any successful console is a list of great exclusives. Seeing Microsoft leadership stay focused on Halo/Gears/Forza past the 360 generation struck me as a big mistake. I felt those IPs were past their prime and should have been retired in favor of creating new IPs that could have created fresh excitement in the brand. Over the years, it sounds like they tried to do this by starting some new studios, but they never managed to get off the ground. Maybe that's down to Microsoft culture not being a place that's capable of fostering creative leadership? Maybe they're too focused on business principles to take big creative risks? I don't know what the issue is exactly, but clearly they weren't able to do what PlayStation has done with their creative teams.

So I don't take pleasure in harping on negative Xbox news. But what we've seen is as the state of the Xbox brand gets worse and worse over time, their leadership keeps shifting the KPIs they report on to make things sound peachy, and their fans keep spinning the bad news. I feel if we can't have an honest conversation, then the situation won't change. The Xbox brand will be spun into the ground, and we'll lose any chance of it coming back and providing the competition we as players really need in the market. I'm sure that could be labeled as 'concern trolling' - all I can say is that's not my motivation. I just can't stand intellectual dishonesty.

With the above said, I think over the last 4 months I've come to realize any hope I had for the Xbox brand turning around and climbing back to the heights they reached in '06-'09 is completely gone. Part of this is my own 'bargaining' and 'acceptance' phases of grief as a former Xbox fan. Seeing a thing I used to really enjoy waste away is a bit hard. I know: "Don't get emotional over a plastic box." But it's not about the box. That box is tied to a bunch of friends and great experiences I had over the course of ten years. I don't have any contact with most of those friends anymore, and some of them are no longer with us. In a weird way, if the Xbox brand were going strong, it would still feel like I have an connection to those people. If the Xbox brand goes away, it will sever all remaining connection I have to those friends.

Xbox has a very good piece of hardware, offer choices in the way you play and pay and also lowered the barrier to access games. It still ships a variety of good and different games, which are being successful sold on Playstation and Switch. So, It seems childish to me to celebrate the fall or end of a competitor in such a limited, difficult and expensive Industry. I can only imagine the outcome with two console markers.

And by the way, Nadela is doing what he did in all the other divisions and he might know what's he is doing being the leader of the largest company in the world.

Choice in the market is an important thing we need. Just look at the PC CPU & GPU markets as an example of what happens when there's little competition. Intel dominated AMD for over a decade, and we got expensive products with very little improvement. It took AMD putting out Ryzen to start getting meaningful progress in CPUs again. Same thing with NVIDIA and Radeon GPUs. NVIDIA has dominated so fully they've at times provided very minor improvements while raising prices well beyond the pace of inflation. They get away with it because they don't have meaningful competition.

But it's not up to the gamers to buy lesser performing products to try and balance the scales in the market. It's up to these companies to make great products that motivate customers to come buy them. It's not the responsibility of gamers to prop up MS in the market place so we can keep Sony from getting arrogant and lazy. It's up to Microsoft to provide great games that get people pumped and excited to buy an Xbox and play them. As we keep seeing with these sales numbers, month after month, year after year, they're just not doing that. Game Pass might be a good value for some players, but that's not exciting.

At this point, it feels like they've given up and are leaning more and more towards just being a third party publisher. Bragging about how many Microsoft games are doing well on PS5 doesn't provide the market competition we all need.

And by the way, Nadela is doing what he did in all the other divisions and he might know what's he is doing being the leader of the largest company in the world.

Maybe. Or maybe he's given up on the Xbox brand and is happy to spin the situation while they "sunset" the Xbox brand and focus on being a third party. Maybe they're reprioritizing their investments on other areas of the business that have more growth potential. Only time will tell.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Well there certainly were issues when Sega dropped out.

They were pioneering net connectivity as a standard while Nintendo were doing nothing and the PS2 was given a half-assed add-on years later.

The PS3 and Wii's online platforms would've been woeful without someone else coming in and setting an acceptable standard (Xbox).

If SEGA never left, there would not be an XBOX at all.

 

[Mr Moose]

What's this without Activision rubbish? They are part of Microsoft now, 51% increase in revenue growth is all anyone should be looking at.

Cry about it and then tell that to MicroSoft, who are the ones saying it.

Xbox content and services revenue increased 62% (up 61% in constant currency) driven by 61 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Third party is the obvious move forward. Nobody gives a rip about their hardware anymore

 

[Topher]

Cry about it and then tell that to MicroSoft, who are the ones saying it.

Clearly stockholders want to know what impact ABK had on gaming financials. The fact that this highlights the issues with Xbox is going to hurt some feelings. If I'm a stockholder looking at this then my question is will the Xbox side of these financials become more in line with the ABK or will ABK become more like Xbox. Now that Bobby Kotick is gone I've got to wonder how these two drastically different business models are going to mesh.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Uncle Gabe could.

The Steam Deck shows Valve know how to make and sell good hardware. And be consumer friendly with it. The OLED upgrade proves that.

I'd sure as shit buy an upgradeable Steam Machine that sits nicely under my TV. Yes, that's pretty much just a PC... but market it right, and you have a solid bit of competition for Sony, without Microsoft's never-ending bullshit.

So in other words just a PC?

 

[AJUMP23]

Seems like buying Activision was a smart move.


Those hardware numbers are rough so we will see an early next gen Xbox.

 

[Topher]

So in other words just a PC?

 

[FunkMiller]

So in other words just a PC?

More or less... but maybe with SteamOS, and components that are easier to swap in and out to upgrade. Not sure if that's feasible, but if it was, it'd probably be the best of all worlds.

 

[FunkMiller]

Seems like buying Activision was a smart move.

Really? That 69 billion could have been spent making multiple games, securing multiple exclusivity contracts, aggressively marketing the Series X, expanding GamePass even more, and building a much stronger brand..

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

More or less... but maybe with SteamOS, and components that are easier to swap in and out to upgrade. Not sure if that's feasible, but if it was, it'd probably be the best of all worlds.

Maybe

I doubt that would be a competitor to Playstation though, most likely a product to compliment each other

 

[Nydius]

Seems like buying Activision was a smart move.

That’s like saying applying a tourniquet to a severed arterial bleed is a “smart move”. That’s essentially all the acquisition was: A temporary stop to the bleeding. The issue now, much like applying a tourniquet in real life, is what they do next. Without addressing the root causes of the bleeding, they’ll continue to bleed out and die, albeit at a slower pace.

Those hardware numbers are rough so we will see an early next gen Xbox.

So they can completely follow the SEGA model, I guess. They can name it the Dreambox.

 

[Unknown?]

Really? That 69 billion could have been spent making multiple games, securing multiple exclusivity contracts, aggressively marketing the Series X, expanding GamePass even more, and building a much stronger brand..

Yeah, it would have been better for the brand.