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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Microsoft CEO Nadella: don't confuse Xbox with company's "core"

ExplodingBlock on 16 July 2014
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Well, this is just me personally, but I like Windows a lot better than Xbox and I really want them to focus more on Windows than anything else tbh. Like, 2015 is when Windows 9 is suppose to come out and windows 8 for me was a mixed bag so when they release windows 9, I really hope they fix some of the issues


Speaking of Windows 9, I seriously want them to go back to the older style of Windows and BRING BACK THE FREAKING START BUTTON AND GET RID OF THE TOUCH SCREEN



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vivster on 16 July 2014
ExplodingBlock said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Well, this is just me personally, but I like Windows a lot better than Xbox and I really want them to focus more on Windows than anything else tbh. Like, 2015 is when Windows 9 is suppose to come out and windows 8 for me was a mixed bag so when they release windows 9, I really hope they fix some of the issues


Speaking of Windows 9, I seriously want them to go back to the older style of Windows and BRING BACK THE FREAKING START BUTTON AND GET RID OF THE TOUCH SCREEN

Wow. Haven't heard that one before.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Burek on 16 July 2014
kowenicki said:
Aura7541 said:
Dang, Nadella just inflicted a big boo-boo on the Xbox brand. I would've expected him to say something like "Xbox is an integral part of Microsoft's vision", but this was very unexpected.


he pretty much did just that.  to put the direct quote here for everyone to read...

I also want to share some additional thoughts on Xbox and its importance to Microsoft. As a large company, I think it's critical to define the core, but it's important to make smart choices on other businesses in which we can have fundamental impact and success. The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming. We are fortunate to have Xbox in our family to go after this opportunity with unique and bold innovation. Microsoft will continue to vigorously innovate and delight gamers with Xbox. Xbox is one of the most-revered consumer brands, with a growing online community and service, and a raving fan base. We also benefit from many technologies flowing from our gaming efforts into our productivity efforts – core graphics and NUI in Windows, speech recognition in Skype, camera technology in Kinect for Windows, Azure cloud enhancements for GPU simulation and many more. Bottom line, we will continue to innovate and grow our fan base with Xbox while also creating additive business value for Microsoft.

Well, you see that as positive news, I read it a bit differently:

1.) The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming  ----  They said core focus is mobile. They have already rebranded their games on Win Phones to XBox. All I see here is that they will continue to focus more on mobile gaming, Apple/Android style.

2.) Xbox is one of the most-revered consumer brands - I have searches and searched, but I couldn't find any list that has XBox in Top 25, 50, 100 or even 250 consumer brands. Sure, Microsoft as a brand is there always, and close to the top. So I just write this off as meaningles PR wording.

3.) Raving fan-base - i believe he is correct there.

4.) camera technology in Kinect for Windows - I guess Kinect for XBox is ancient history by now.

5.) we will continue to innovate and grow our fan base with Xbox - To continue would mean that they are currently doing that, but unfortunately there is no innovation, and I doubt that fan base is growing (unless, again, he is thinking about mobile/smartphone business)

 

All in all, just one fluffy, feel-good letter to all employees, some of which are soon to become former employees, stating nothing which can be seen as positive for XBox consoles - unless you try really hard to spin it that way.



Burek on 16 July 2014
kowenicki said:
I'm staggered (who am i kidding) at the way some of you are reading all of this. I am even more amazed some of you see is as some sort of doom announcement for MS.

Doom all you want... meanwhile MS spend $7bn on nokia devices and will post another huge profit for the year.... They have increased profits pretty much year on year for a while now with no sign of that letting up .

As for his references to Xbox... it is very clear he seen synergy, development opportunities that cross divisions and opportunities for it to add to the brand of MS. For what they spend on Xbox as a proportion of their income and other expenditure. its likely a bargain.

I actually see all of these statements as a nod to shareholders. He is reassuring them that he understands their core and that he is focussed on it but that Xbox can be a good and very useful addition to that core.

I haven't seen a single post ever since i've been a member here, and before while just reading the posts, that has made a doom announcement for Microsoft. That would be rather silly.

Doom announcements for XBox, however, are not silly at all, and are mostly based on facts, figures, and statements from both internal and external sources.

Sure, perhaps nothing will come out of it, but there is a certain probability that it could happen. And that's what people on this forums are debating - chances, outlooks, probabilities, successes and failures of past. present and future.



Aura7541 on 16 July 2014
kowenicki said:
I'm staggered (who am i kidding) at the way some of you are reading all of this. I am even more amazed some of you see is as some sort of doom announcement for MS.

Doom all you want... meanwhile MS spend $7bn on nokia devices and will post another huge profit for the year.... They have increased profits pretty much year on year for a while now with no sign of that letting up .

As for his references to Xbox... it is very clear he seen synergy, development opportunities that cross divisions and opportunities for it to add to the brand of MS. For what they spend on Xbox as a proportion of their income and other expenditure. its likely a bargain.

I actually see all of these statements as a nod to shareholders. He is reassuring them that he understands their core and that he is focussed on it but that Xbox can be a good and very useful addition to that core.

You can't blame us for dooming the Xbox when we weren't even dooming it in the first place. Rational skepticism =/= doom. Also, we're talking about the Xbox brand, no about MS's overall profits. Whether MS makes a $100 billion profit or a $100 trillion profit hardly matters to us when this is a discussion about the Xbox brand and it is still doing mediocre and is declining. If the Xbox brand's future is as bright as you claimed it to be, why is MS so inconsistent with what they're saying about the system? MS brags about the Xbox being one of the "most-revered brands" and will "continue to innovate", but what does that even mean? What have MS done for the Xbox lately that is worth talking about, especially when they have not been innovating on the Xbox enough to be worthly called innovation. MS's statements on the Xbox that you've posted is PR in context of what has been going on on the X1 lately



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bananaking21 on 16 July 2014

i thought this was well known. who ever thought xbox was part of microsofts core was kidding them selfs. Windows, Azure and office stand are examples of microsofts core. not xbox. those are the aspects that make them dozens of billions of dollars a year. not xbox, xbox barely helps, if it does help that is.



DonFerrari on 16 July 2014

It just baffles me that even with this statement and fans asserting they understand Xbox isn't core to Ms they still jizz themselves all over the place with MS profits report. And even funnier uses that as fuel in console wars. Does it even makes sense?



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Frogger on 16 July 2014
Garland said:

This. The Xbox brand is much less important to Microsoft than with the Playstation brand being more important to Sony. Or with Nintendo's consoles & handhelds being important to Nintendo.

 


...Sony is a computer hardware company. Playstation is in the same position as Xbox. It's not part or Sony's core business either.



beeje13 on 16 July 2014

So, Xbox has been firmly put in its place by Satya, he's happy to keep it for now, but it's not really important to them.

I suppose it makes sense, but it might go against Phil Spencer when he asks to be able to create a couple more 1st party studios, which I'm sure he has been doing.



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AZWification on 16 July 2014
D2K said:
It's been common knowledge that the higher-ups at Microsoft have never been too "keen" on the XBOX brand. If the XBOX One finishes last in this generation I would not at all be surprised to see this be the last console from Microsoft with the gaming division just focusing on PC rather than a console.

When you think about it, Microsoft could make a lot of money without losing money in hardware by just making software with their strong IPs on the PC and/or going 3rd party (which I don't think they would.) I'd personally rather play Microsoft IPs like Halo and Gears on the PC anyway. You know? If I had a choice I'd definitely chose the PC over console for Microsoft IPs.

There is no way in hell the Xbox One finishes last in this generation!



                
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