Cerebralbore101 said:
-_- I misunderstood what you were saying completely. Does their Xbox division really make money though? Will it continue to make money for them in the future? I've said a bunch of times in the past that I think XB1X will be their last console, and that they will keep selling the XB1X until 2022, while slowly backing out of the console market. A lot of companies see subscription based models as easy money. Why bother making a follow up to the XB1X, and take all that risk, when they can go for what they see as the easy route? Making a console means spending money on console production, and game discs, while taking the risk that your next system will flop harder than the Wii U. If MS has a bunch of money tied up into their console division, and then sales drop off a cliff, they are stuck holding the bag for all the money they spent. With digital or subscription there's no physical inventory or consoles to take a risk on. In other words they have two options. Option 1. Keep on making consoles and make more money than they would with just OS/Software, but be at a huge liability. (I mean, what if by 2022 console sales plummet for everything but Nintendo? If you were MS would you want to be a console developer in that position? Or what if by 2022 PS5 is a runaway success and MS is pushed back to the Original Xbox days, and their console division bleeds money? Would you want to be MS in that position?) Option 2. Make less money, but be in a much safer position, while possibly overthrowing steam as the default PC storefront/publisher. (I don't see them overthrowing steam, as being likely, but maybe they think they have a good chance at it.) Well those ideas aren't exclusive to PC. But I think console consumers would reject those strategies, aside from XBLive and PSN (those are already ingrained in console gaming for over a decade). Just look at the backlash with XB1 and not being able to sell your games without paying a fee to the developer. PC users on the other hand have been used to DRM for decades. They might even embrace subscription based sales models, claiming that it saves them money on games. |
The risk of making another Xbox after the One X isnt that high. They already have an established install base will end up selling 50m+ while having terrible press at the start of the generayion. If they just drop out of the console world they are losing 50m+ users and tens of million xbox live subs. Also they are already in the works of making a new xbox console after the One X.
Microsoft doesnt stand a chance against steam. If they put their IPs on windows store they will sell decently but it will be hard for them to get PC gamers to start using windows store compared to steam to buy third party games. By going the PC route they will be making less money. No xbox live subs, no hardware sales and they wont be able to make as much money from third parties.
