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Ryuu96 on 04 February 2024
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EspadaGrim said:
Ryuu96 said:

That's why I mentioned COD though...Microsoft performed their own internal survey and conduct one by YouGov (a 3rd party) precisely to show that COD going exclusive would not cause a drastic shift in the market and many regulators agreed with Microsoft on this assessment (aside from crackpot FTC) that not even COD as an exclusive would significantly change things.

So COD Marketing + Game Pass may sell some consoles and provide a decent push but it will be nothing big if even exclusivity wouldn't change things and used as a reason as to why COD can be acquired (again, by independent 3rd party polling companies and regulators).

The issue with COD specifically, tens of millions of COD players have already swapped to PlayStation 4/5. Why on Earth would they switch back to Xbox for marketing? COD is basically a platform now thanks to the shitty COD HQ, all their purchases are PlayStation, all their stats are PlayStation, all their friends are PlayStation, they have zero reason to switch.

ES6 is really the only major individual console pusher left and Starfield failed to push Xbox hardware in a significant way, everything else has to be added together for a collective effect - And why Microsoft may be opting for this move, impatience, don't want to wait for that.

My problem is that they are giving up before even trying.

Fair but I think from Microsoft's perspective as well, you can almost see why they've became impatient.

  • Invested billions into Xbox content alone from 2018.
  • Invested over $80bn in acquisitions.
  • Had to deal with a lot of shit when acquiring ABK despite their lack of exclusives and 3rd place position.
  • Console exclusives restricts growth potential via acquisitions.
  • Polls conducted for COD showed even COD exclusivity wouldn't cause a major shift.
  • Hardware been basically flat since the Xbox One era, a huge decrease from Xbox 360.
  • Xbox Series hardware declining, even massive price cuts last holiday didn't meet their internal expectations.
  • Starfield which will be their biggest console pusher until ES6 didn't do much for hardware.
  • Game Pass sub numbers have stagnated on Xbox hardware.
  • Without ABK, MS Gaming would have declined in the recent quarter.

All their methods for making money, whether that be hardware or content and services would be either declining or flatlining without ABK being added on. Ol Phillip can't just keep acquiring to cover up a lack of growth or even a decline.

Maybe they could try for another dozen years to turn things around but people will be even more entrenched in PS ecosystem by then, it's going to basically be impossible to make Xbox anything more than a secondary console to PlayStation and the console market has hit a ceiling for a while now and Xbox's ceiling is 50-60m-ish. Would have been even less for Xbox Series LT. Decline overall. Microsoft would be waiting until next gen for any meaningful increase.

It smells of "we aren't pumping billions into you for small profit margins, increase your profit margins, now"