It would be faster to ask what is working with xbox, as it needs only one word : Nothing.
They release all their games on pc day one, they even put them in gamepass day one, which means that you can play any of their games for less than its full price as a month of gamepass is not the price of a full price game and you can pretty much finish any of their games in less than a month if you play all days on it.
The only way for them to succeed is to say that you need an xbox for xbox games and that all xbox games stay exclusives to xboxes, not even on pc. If they did that with cod and if tes 6 had been released years ago, maybe they would have had a chance to sell xboxes.
Now, they are dead as a hardware brand and they will always be as... even if they do stop gamepass, which they'll never do, they release all games on pc day one. An xbox could have been a choice for some users with a bad pc if they wanted to play games like flight sim, but as soon as this one very demanding pc game releases on ps5, the xbox brand is doomed (As you either have to upgrade your pc or wait for its timed exclusivity to end).
You don't have to be a genius to do simple math, if all of the 30 millions xbox owners have gamepass and pay one month for a big game, it earns them less than these same people paying the game full price, therefore they are doomed as when a game cost 500 millions to do and every xbox owner (let's say 30 millions for easier math), have ultimate game pass at 20 dollars a month, it makes 600 millions per month. But, if these 30 millions all pay the full price of the game, at 80 dollars, well... 4 times that... 2,4 billion dollars. Yes, on one shot, but you have to do it 4 months in a row to make it even...
Noone has to be genius to understand that when you sell the same product (gamepass vs full price for day one release), and that one is cheaper than the other, everyone will go with the cheapest option, earning you less money...
And since everything is an xbox, as they say, and that you don't even need to have a powerful system to play their games, their hardware is doomed and it'll be from day one for the future. Who will buy xbox 5 when you already know that you will get the game even without buying a 500 euros one purpose only box with no purpose at all ?
The same happened with blu ray discs, they all are on digital shops, therefore no one is buying 4k blu ray discs. Why would you as apart from consoles, there are few 4k blu ray players with one use only and that you have to pay like double the price for the disc?
And it's even more stupid with games because sometimes, the game isn't on the disc and you even have to install it anyway, disc or not.
This generation is the first lost generation of all times, for everyone. Who can say that even a gta game will be more common than it was on ps2 or ps3 era as most people might buy gta 6 digitally, making it the least gta sold physically even though it might sell more than any other (Tell me how many of you have one, let alone lots, of gta 5 physical game dics). Yeah, ps3 versions, ok, but since then...
The last console maker to fall will be Nintendo, as their doom as a hardware seller will happen only when their games will release somewhere else (which they already do, illegally). Why would you buy a ps5 for ff7 part 3, the next god of war or the last of us ? You already know that you won't need a ps5 for these games, as you'll only need patience and a better pc (which you could afford easily since all consoles always are weaker than up to date pcs... I was playing trials of mana, a ps4 game, on a pc with only an hd610 integrated graphic card on a 50 dollars processor).
Apart if India and China become big console markets, the days of the consoles are a past and we might only see some big moments from Nintendo from now on (As of course, ps5 and 6 will sell less than ps2 since it's not cheaper and games get a pc release date at some point).
If you don't own a ps5 already, which i have, why would you even consider buying one ? Demon soul, Astro bot and gt7. Yeah, great games, but back when i began gaming, you would buy a snes for final fantasy 6, chrono trigger, secret of mana, zelda 3... And as good as the 3 aformentioned ps5 games are, they are nowhere near these snes legends. (Plus one is on ps3 and the latter on ps4).
The only reason Xbox didn't do a sega, it's because it's microsoft, who prints money like i buy candy...
Last edited by Terramlea - on 15 January 2025