Xbox pivots back to advertising console hardware
- Thread starter ManaByte
- Start date
SkylineRKR
Member
The problem MS faces is that GP's largest gateway is likely an Xbox console. They're kind of stuck with it. Good luck with that service on PC with competitors, or on mobile devices barely anyone seriously uses for (core) gaming.
mitch1971
Member
If they are like cinema seats, there's a gap down the back of the seat. That guy behind isn't tasting, he's sniffing them there fingers.
He's Phil's taster.
As you can see, he's licking his fingers because he tastes Phil now and again to see if he is ripe enough or needs to be Phil Spicier.
Vindicator
Member
Wait, wait, it can be even more embarrassing....... Release COD BO6 bundles after the shopping and Christmas period.....
Rob_27
Member
This company is a shambles. I grew up with xbox and playstation. It was fun times. Xbox and Xbox 360. After that hmm. They never seemed to recover from that Don unveiling of Xbox one. Now what the fuck are they doing jesus.
I'm sure we could all manage that division easily. Clear the dead wood and tumours from the company.
But I'm quite happy playing on the Pro. But we need competition.
I'm sure we could all manage that division easily. Clear the dead wood and tumours from the company.
But I'm quite happy playing on the Pro. But we need competition.
Christmas sales, not that complicated. The whole "this is an Xbox" campaign was probably a little premature as well - not everything is actually an Xbox…yet.
I agree, but not about the competition part. If Microsoft is tripping over their dicks and not putting out any meaningful games, who cares? Keep enjoying your Pro.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Wait, wait, it can be even more embarrassing....... Release COD BO6 bundles after the shopping and Christmas period.....
Should have done $299 Series S bundles with BO6 for the holidays. Would have sold like gangbusters.
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DryvBy
Member
This is a Dreamcast
Checks out!
M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
How is that fat fuck still in charge is beyond me, he is the worst of the leadership
UltimaKilo
Gold Member
There's no strategy. How is that leadership still employed?
Maybe bundled with one or three months of gamepass non poop tier? Doesn't make sense to actually bundle with bo6 when it's "free" with sub. Fortnite ps5 digital bundle for $375 means the S is a poor value comparatively speaking or even compared to the digital series x (4tflops to 12 tflops for additional $100).
Fess
Member
A little premature?
There is literally no changes from early this year on which devices are an Xbox.
Zero changes.
You still need Windows and the Xbox App for native installs on other device for Microsoft Store versions.
You still need Steam for Steam versions.
You still need a web browser for Xbox streaming.
There are still just 4 PS ports.
Microsoft's PR team seems to think something has changed. Maybe they just found out that they hadn't actually rolled out whatever they plan to roll out yet. So back to Xbox, oops ??
Yeah, that was my point - nothing has changed, the places you can play Xbox games hasn't been revolutionized, they're only trying to create that perception at this point. I do think their PR team jumped the gun but they're clearly eager to grease the wheels of what's coming (TV's with gamepass pre installed, etc)A little premature?
There is literally no changes from early this year on which devices are an Xbox.
Zero changes.
You still need Windows and the Xbox App for native installs on other device for Microsoft Store versions.
You still need Steam for Steam versions.
You still need a web browser for Xbox streaming.
There are still just 4 PS ports.
Microsoft's PR team seems to think something has changed. Maybe they just found out that they hadn't actually rolled out whatever they plan to roll out yet. So back to Xbox, oops ??
Fess
Member
Yeah spot on, it's such a weird behavior tbh and even big boss Satya went out to talk in an interview about it as well, and yet there is still no changes.
It reminds me about what they did with Xcloud when Stadia was unveiled. They pretended that they were ahead or on the same level as Stadia somehow, but in reality Stadia was so far ahead but MS wanted to pretend that they had the same things ready.
I wonder if they're doing this in a similar way because Valve is getting ready to roll out Steam to more devices? Maybe they want to pretend that they're ahead again, when they're really not at all.
Goalus
Member
An apt representation of the PSVR (PlayStation V....n Race)Psycho Microsoft is back
jm89
Member
Wait, wait, it can be even more embarrassing....... Release COD BO6 bundles after the shopping and Christmas period.....
Azelover
Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Reminds me of old school Sega..This:
Every time.
aries_71
Junior Member
I believe what we see MS doing is sheer incompetence and not a well thought out plan. BTW, somebody help me understand a basic concept: is third party publishing that lucrative for the likes of Microsoft? I mean, the benefit margins out of somebody like EA or Activision are that interesting? I'm constantly hearing that modern game development is too costly and margins are minimal, so what is MS trying to do here? Just be some kind of super-Ubisoft? The same guys that are used to see the colossal margins out of Office or Azure do really think selling only games, without the benefits of managing a platform, is that interesting?
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Dr.Morris79
Member
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
Gamepass is the answer. Microsoft spent 7 years teaching consumers that games are worth $1 or flop games quickly go to gamepass.
The consequences are that players don't buy the games, and this makes it unfeasible to have a platform even with 28 M consoles sold, this is an insoluble and perennial problem. There's no way they can have this type of platform that's why they're trying to be a Steam maybe.
aries_71
Junior Member
Thing is that GP seems inexorably linked to console players. PC and mobile players largely ignore it. There's no doubt that there was huge marketing failure when most of the non-hardcore players don't even know what it is.
But bear with me, that's not my main question. I believe GP is going to be hardly sustainable once they lose 20-30% of the current console market share early next gen (I'm being optimistic), digital store sales will plummet even more… so, is there really a place for a traditional 3rd party approach by Microsoft?
Would they really find interesting to operate as a bigger Activision? Is there really a business for Microsoft there?
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Fess
Member
I don't understand it. Having a platform and have everybody else pay to release games on your platform and getting a cut from every sale of game or DLC must be a better strategy.
Ubisoft/EA/Epic etc has been trying desperately to form their own ecosystem with their own launcher and store and achievements etc. But they all end up on Steam eventually. Well not Epic, yet. And jobs get cut and studios are closed.
So I assume that publishing isn't all that lucrative, they clearly want in on the platform holder thing.
But Microsoft think they can be a third party publisher on other platforms and still a successful platform holder as well even without exclusives to pull people in.
They clearly banked on Gamepass growing and getting the monthly tick going there for 50-100 million people or whatever. But that won't happen when the platform pulling most people in on GP is dying and when there is barely a handful of top games coming each year and with a $20/month price.
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
At the end of the day, MS wants to be a Google Stadia, but the market is not ready (and never will be).
there is no way to have everything, at some point on the horizon MS will have to choose between gamepass, xbox and being a big 3rd party.
aries_71
Junior Member
Agreed… still I don't see any sensible strategy here. I mean, I can understand a MS investing in a platform in order to have a foothold on the living room, or even to have some kind of hardware to leverage their AI once they failed on the mobile market, but I can't really understand a pure 3rd party model. And that's where they are headed, whether they like it or not, since the Stadia/cloud/service model won't get traction before Satya decides to sell or close it all.
Fess
Member
Yeah.
"Netflix for games"
One app on your TV, phone, PC, console with full access to a wide variety of games from many studios, subscription library or individual purchases, native installs or streaming depending on the device.
Once they have that in place the walls will go up again. Step 1, Gamepass exclusives. Step 2, streaming exclusives. Might try to sell it through a computation gain from cloud computing but in the end they just want control, and a reason for people to subscribe to their service instead of other services.
"Netflix Originals"
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Josemayuste
Member
Microsoft marketing department be like:
Humdinger
Gold Member
Right - which is what you would expect, if MS itself is confused. You would expect scattershot and contradictory initiatives and messaging, reflecting the confusion at the top. We are not seeing the results of clear vision, careful planning and execution. We are seeing the results of a failed vision, followed by an awkward attempt to turn a behemoth ship in a different direction.
It's no wonder that their strategy seems confusing. They are themselves confused. I get the picture of a company that is pretty much making things up as they go along, doing their best to adapt to a bad situation.
Horseganador
Member
Just 10 days ago they were at the TGA with the announcement of "this is an xbox" in front of tens of millions of people and the entire industry, re-announcing the console just a few days before Christmas will do nothing.
This has been on-going since 2008 or thereabouts when EA noticed TenCent and other Asian pubs making money hand over fist with their portals/platforms (and Ubisoft eventually noticed EA noticing - they were always a bit late to the party). Epic just tried to cash-in on Fortnite popularity (and so far it's - working better than for others).
But the sheer amount of incompetence that has gone into building these platforms is hard to understate - When Ubisoft launched UPlay they literally had the database embedded in the client so you could just say 'I own all these' and server would go - 'why yes, you DO' and let you play the entire store for free.
And that's not even saying how bad the UX has been in these, how feature barren the launchers still are after decades of development (actively getting in the way of installing games as opposed to - you know - delivering content) and how much of resources hogs they all are.
Not saying Steam is exactly fantastic in the last regard (it's not) but at least they have a useable UX, and offer core functionality of the box that works, and actively improves user experience on a PC, as opposed to making it worse, somehow like all these other alternatives.
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Fess
Member
Yeah it's wild west on PC sometimes, comes with an open platform I guess. I jumped in late on PC about 10 years ago and mostly use Steam, it's more or less perfect. But I have games on GOG too and Epic and some in Ubisoft Connect and Origin. I definitely understand the problems when one actor is so dominant. But it's annoying to have to deal with so many launchers, they should work together somehow and make it easy to just go from store to store and launcher to launcher. But nobody wants to give up the control. Still, Valve is kinda the good guy now from my perspective. But things can change so it's good that there are alternatives. Someone has to keep the leader in check, and prices down, digital only and monopoly is not a good combo.
hououinkyouma00
Member
Sensible strategy and Xbox don't go hand in hand. Even their entrance into the console space was built purely out of fear.
Microsoft has enough money to just sort of tank the hits but still refuse to get aggressive with pricing which could get their consoles to sell better. The OG Xbox lost like $1B every year it was on the market. RROD cost Microsoft at least $1B as well. Get aggressive with the pricing of the console like you do Game Pass and you might be able to turn things around at least a bit.
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
With the Xbox console platform dying, MS seems to turn to Gamepass + streaming subscriptions (since that's how you can turn every device into an Xbox),. One problem: if Gamepass with the vast majority of subscribers playing locally on their own Xbox/PC hasn't been profitable, then how can Gamepass + streaming be ever profitable. Because now MS has to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in very expensive dedicated gaming servers that have to be placed in data centers all over the world close to where the players live in order to minimiza latency. The only way to make this profitable is by raising Gamepass subscription prices again and again.
Hero_Select
Member
Why are we acting like this is weird or confusing? What are they supposed to do - just stop advertising a product they want to sell?
Fess
Member
It's the flip-flopping that's weird. They go from essentially telling people that no Xbox is needed to now tell them to buy an Xbox.
It's like the PR department realized "Oh crap the multi device strategy isn't ready yet?! Sorry! Posting an Xbox console ad asap!!"
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Hero_Select
Member
I mean.. doesn't the console fall into that strategy? They already confirmed they're working on the next Xbox alongside of being able to play/stream across other devices.
I get giving Xbox a jab when they deserve it but people are just itching to scrutinize every little thing.
I don't get why people want Xbox to fail, leaving the "hardcore" console market to just Sony is a terrible idea.
Fess
Member
Oh I don't want them to fail. No no. I just want them to stop being stupid.
Yes the next Xbox console is said to be worked on. But how many do you think is interested in it when the talk goes that all new Xbox games Eli come to PS5/Pro too?
People won't just sit there waiting, people will keep on jumping over to PS in the coming 2 years.
They could've at least teased the next console at TGA like they did with Project Scorpio. With new footage of Gears or The Elder Scrolls VI. And no talk about a PS version. Then there could be some solid hype.
But they didn't so
DeltaPolarBear
Member
Well the point is, Microsoft's core business is software. So the bosses of the company would naturally feel going third party would be in the company's DNA to do so. Remember that Microsoft doesn't make Microsoft PCs.
Add to that, the Xbox hardware production is making massive losses by design, but with not enough software sales to balance it. And it it clear that Microsoft can see the Xbox hardware as redundant.
Compare to Xbox, Sony sees Playstation as important because they had always been a Hardware company, and getting paid rent for it. While Nintendo made it clear they love the locked down and control they have over their IP by making the console hardware the way they like it. So with the top two console companies they have a reason to run consoles. Xbox just does not.
ResetEraVetVIP
Member
Lol