drkohler said:
Are you seriously trying to say that XBox is "a leader in profits"? A few months ago, MS admitted losing $100-$150 per console sold. Shortly thereafter they reduced the price of the consoles by $50... How much does XBox pay the MS Server division for using Azure? For maintaining/expanding server hardware? "Volume sales can come later and capitalise on that". Yeah, we know that excuse: Phil Spencer in 2016: "Yeah this year wasn't really good, software wise. But next year, you will see..." Phil Spencer in 2017: "Yeah this year wasn't really good, software wise. But next year, you will see..." Phil Spencer in 2018: "Yeah this year wasn't really good, software wise. But next year, you will see..." ... Rinse and repeat and we are now in 2023. Still the same guy with the same announcement. XBox was and still essentially is a vanity project initiated by Balmer/Gates. For any "normal" company, it should have been killed 1-2 decades ago as it has been writing red numbers day one ever since its inception. |
I believe you totally miss his point. He stated that Apple is the leader in profits and that selling the most devices is not always the key to success. Also I doubt that MS pays the server infrastructure team anything beyond what their own duties are for maintaining the servers.
Also volume sales is not the measure of success, it depends on the infrastructure of the company. MS is a software subscription company and their strengths is in the volume of servers their have around the world supporting not only their software but other companies like Apple and Sony.
You are right in one area, that the Xbox was a vanity project until Phil took over and MS as a company decided to get serious about gaming with GP. A vanity project doesn't spend 70 Billion dollars for a pet project. If that doesn't tell you anything then maybe you are looking at the wrong things.
I want you to think about where Xbox was going before Phil took over. Think about the Xbox one, Kinect, lower spec console with a design not built to lead in the area it needs to be the strongest which is games. What happen after that, Phil nix all that stuff, MS started to invest more into games developers, purchasing studios, expanding teams when before they were getting rid of them. Focused the busines unit back on building a console for gamers. Yes, maybe Phil isn't moving fast enough for you but that is because you probably have way to much expectations in how fast MS can move. The Xbox one set MS back a whole generation and even with a lot of money you can only start with where you are at and build from there. Has MS stumbled, of course, they have but its a much better situation under Phil leadership than where it was going.
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