Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

LudicrousSpeed said:

The problem Xbox has isn’t GamePass, their problem is their hardware is selling a lot less than they expected. Their idea of the kind of revenue they’ll be pulling in and how much of it is affected by GamePass gets way out of whack when the pie is a lot smaller than expected. GamePass can still be profitable in that scenario, and multiple Xbox execs have said it is profitable numerous times, but what higher ups want to see is growth. And without a steady supply of new hardware owners, you don’t see growth.

Buying ABK only made this lack of growth all the more apparent to the higher ups and now they are trimming the fat. This sucks for the developers who lost their jobs, but overall it’s no different than what everyone else in the industry is doing right now.

The problem going forward for Xbox is how do they increase that revenue pool if the Series hardware is not going to sell what they expected? Well, obviously releasing more games on other platforms is the easiest route and they’ve already started taking it. But they’ll need to continue to show growth now that Nutella and the execs are keeping a close eye. Eventually they’ll have to start releasing their bigger games on other platforms as well.

Personally I’ve never given a shit about Xbox games on other consoles, because they’ve been on PC for generations now. The Xbox is NOT a console you buy if you want great exclusives, because exclusives simply don’t exist here. But the only worrying part about all of it is what happens to Xbox hardware. Papa Phil said a year or two ago that Xbox lost the most important generation because it was the generation where everyone built up their digital libraries and now people don’t want to lose access to that and I think he’s right. I don’t think there’s much of anything they can do to compete hardware wise with Sony or Nintendo so where does that leave them?

They’ve made numerous references recently to a next generation of Xbox hardware. Who knows if it will be a real dedicated successor to the Series hardware, of if it will just be something more like a PC with the Xbox UI. Something powerful for the hardware gamers. Maybe this pivot to releasing more of their games on other consoles is the only way they could make the numbers work to remain in the hardware business.

Yeah, I believe Xbox's future will be mostly multiplatform (Idk which/how long, etc, but it will increase), I do believe Microsoft will continue offering hardware though as a more niche option for those that want it for various reasons such as Game Pass, their library, etc. Them remaining in hardware will help them elsewhere too, such as with xCloud which uses Xbox hardware and perhaps knowledge sharing between the Xbox and Surface teams, which is also a niche device but Microsoft keeps making them. There are other things they could try to maintain decent numbers, such as new form factors (handheld), cheaper entry to market products (Series S) and the Xbox/PC hybrid.

The main concern is 3rd party support but all I see lately is Xbox's best third party support since X360 era despite all the talk of Xbox going 3rd party, increasingly even more 3rd parties abandoning exclusivity and deciding to release on everything. There are also publishers who consistently support even more niche platforms than Xbox's current market share, such as Stadia or Apple Arcade. There are multiple ways Xbox could either entice support (paying them, long-term publisher deals, GP deals, decreasing the 30% cut) or make supporting so easy there's no financial downside in just supporting said platform (such as the Xbox/PC hybrid) but these are Xbox's questions to answer.

It's inevitable though, the console market is stagnant/flat, Xbox specifically has significantly fallen each generation, it isn't ever reaching that 80m+ ever again and even if it could, it would simply delay the inevitable, investors would still ask "okay, how do we make even more money?" then we add on the fact that the console market isn't increasing but development costs are and you see why Xbox is pivoting to fully multiplatform and PS is pivoting more towards PC. Affects Xbox's worse because Xbox hardware isn't amazing to begin with but I think we'll see a future where everything PS is day one with PC eventually.

I'm not really against the third party move and will continue buying hardware depending on some questions that I need answered because I think ultimately it will be better for the health of Xbox's business, better for the developers, better for the IPs and it's the games I care most about but I also think it's the only way they will get money grabbing executives and shareholders off their back a little, they will not be happy if Phil goes off on some fools errand to make Xbox the #1 console again by turning everything exclusive at the cost of losing millions in sales (even COD surveys said people wouldn't switch to Xbox in large amounts), cratering IPs and profits for something that may not even work and likely won't work, instead of the proven method of making money which is to sell things to people wherever they are instead of trying to force them to come to you.

Plus the new generation of gamers largely doesn't care for console hardware, console gamers are a boomer breed, the new generation care more about their mobiles, tablets, etc. They don't care for the console wars, especially when the biggest blackhole games now are already multiplatform and cross-play, they care about being able to access their games on whatever device they have and do not like this archaic restrictive approach, they can access their favourite apps on whatever device they use, all the most popular consumer focused apps such as Netflix, Spotify, etc, are not restricted to a single device but available on all devices, only the console industry hasn't caught up.

I don't care as long as I get my games, if I can still play on Xbox hardware then that's great too, honestly if it wasn't for the layoffs and closures, Xbox going third party would in the long-run have helped their brand image too, there are a massive amount more Nintendo and PS gamers than Xbox console only users, look at how many millions of gamers simply refuse to get an Xbox full-stop but then the excitement of Xbox brining games to PS, Lol. Microsoft brings SoT/Grounded to PlayStation and they both blow up, likely played by millions more gamers right now, millions more loving Xbox created IP. Suddenly Sea of Thieves is no longer trolled by PS gamers but loved by them ;)

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 14 May 2024